New RAM standard for future graphics cards published
New graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD will be available at the end of this year or early next year. The top models are likely to have GDDR7 memory. JEDEC, an organisation for the standardisation of semiconductors, has now published its specifications.
GDDR7 promises a big leap in terms of bandwidth and speed. According to the JEDEC specifications, the bandwidth reaches up to 192 gigabytes per second (GB/s) and the speed up to 48 gigabits per second (Gbps). By comparison, the GDDR6 memory installed in the RTX 4080 Super achieves 23 Gbps.
The biggest innovation is the PAM3 interface (newer pulse amplitude modulation). In contrast to GDDR6, GDDR7 transfers three bits over two cycles. With GDDR6 it is two bits over two cycles. This results in a 50 per cent increase in data transfer efficiency. The clock rate of the new standard therefore does not have to be twice as high as the old one. If you are interested in the standard in detail, you can find out more here.
Samsung already published the large part of the standard last summer. The specifications are therefore not new. However, the publication by JEDEC shows that the first graphics cards with the new memory will be released soon. The Blackwell graphics cards from Nvidia and RDNA4 from AMD are likely to use the new memory type.
According to rumours, their release is planned for the fourth quarter of 2024. Although there are also rumours that the release of the Nvidia cards will be delayed until 2025. It seems realistic that they could be delayed. After all, the company is growing primarily with its AI products: in 2024, Nvidia is expected to generate 87 billion US dollars in sales with data centre GPUs alone. It is clear that graphics cards for normal users will have to take a back seat with such amounts.
After six years with GDDR6 memory - the RTX 20 series cards were the first - the standard is likely to be gradually replaced. Both Nvidia and AMD will probably only use the new standard for the top models due to the higher costs of the memory. Although top-of-the-range models are relative: in the next generation AMD will focus on mid-range and entry-level graphics cards.
In return, the new AMD mid-range models should beat the RX 7900 XT and be significantly cheaper. There are rumours of less than 500 US dollars per card. Nvidia is going in a different direction: the upcoming top-of-the-range RTX 5090 model is said to be 70 per cent faster than the current RTX 4090, but that comes at a price: there is talk of between 2,000 and 2,500 US dollars. <p
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