Samsung Electronics has started mass production of its 16GB GDDR6 RAM for graphics cards. The news doesn’t come as a surprise as Samsung already discussed its plans at Hot Chips conference last year. The upcoming memory will help address demanding VR, AR, and AI need apart from finding application in Automotive and Network systems, and 8K video processing.
GDDR6 RAM vs GDDR5 RAM: Features and Improvements
The new Samsung GDDR6 RAM will be manufactured on company’s 10nm process. This will ensure that it consumes less power while being more efficient. Samsung says that its new chips will consume 35 percent less power compared to 20nm process based GDDR5 chips.
Also, the GDDR6 memory will deliver throughput of 14Gbps which is a significant improvement compared to 10Gbps in GDDR5. Samsung claims pin speed of 18Gbps and data transfer speed of 72Gbps (doubled compared to GDDR5 memory).
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The new chips also compared lower power. Using Samsung low-power circuit design GDDR6 RAM can operate at 1.35V. Samsung also claims 30 percent productivity gains over GDDR5 chips.
The GDDR6 is better suited for new technology GPUs, for instance, those based on Nvidia Pascal and AMD’s Polaris architectures, and systems with quicker memory interconnects like PCL-Express 4.0. The GDDR5, on the other hand, was designed for GPUs formed on older technology and will phase out eventually.
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When will we see 16GB GDDR6 RAM Graphics cards?
Since GPUs will have to be designed for GDDR6 RAM, there’s still some more time before we see it in actual products. The new memory is expected to be adopted by major GPU Manufacturers in 2018. Some of them will, however, continue supporting GDDR5X and HBM (High bandwidth memory) in the near future.
“Beginning with this early production of the industry’s first 16Gb GDDR6, we will offer a comprehensive graphics DRAM line-up, with the highest performance and densities, in a very timely manner. By introducing next-generation GDDR6 products, we will strengthen our presence in the gaming and graphics card markets and accommodate the growing need for advanced graphics memory in automotive and network systems.” said Jinman Han, Senior Vice President, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics.
