Samsung: GDDR6 with a rate of 20Gbps/24Gbps has been sampled
Samsung announced that it will start to provide partners with samples of 16Gb GDDR6 memory modules with a rate of 20 Gbps (K4ZAF325BC-SC20) and 24 Gbps (K4ZAF325BC-SC24), which have also appeared in Samsung’s product catalog. However, it is not yet certain when this new module will be used in retail products, such as next-generation graphics cards.
Previously, the most powerful video memory should be GDDR6X, which is also faster than GDDR6 in speed. NVIDIA also configures it on a series of high-end consumer graphics cards based on Ampere architecture GPUs. However, GDDR6X also has some problems, such as a large amount of heat. The high-speed GDDR6 released by Samsung this time seems to have a big impact on GDDR6X.
Image: Samsung
At present, the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series mainly use Samsung’s GDDR6 as the video memory, with a rate of 16 Gbps and a video memory width of 256-bit. Even the top Radeon RX 6900 XT LC, its memory rate is only 18.5 Gbps. If it is not for the RDNA 2 architecture GPU with Infinity Cache, it may be difficult to keep up with the memory bandwidth of the GeForce RTX 30 series. On the flagship model, NVIDIA uses a 384-bit/19.5 Gbps configuration. It is rumored that Nvidia will also equip the upcoming GeForce RTX 3090 Ti with Micron’s new 2GB module with a rate of 21 Gbps.
The new module launched by Samsung this time can be applied to next-generation graphics cards, and it can be expected that AMD’s RDNA 3 architecture-based GPUs will use this module. According to Samsung’s data, the GDDR6 module with a rate of 20Gbps/24Gbps is a “180FGBA” package, which is the same as the video memory used by some AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards, such as Radeon RX 6900 XT. Due to good compatibility, the AMD Radeon RX 6000S series, which is rumored to be in preparation, will also be adopted.
Graphics cards are not the only devices that require high-speed GDDR6. Some places that require high memory bandwidth may also be used, such as some network devices. Therefore, the first product to adopt the new GDDR6 module is not necessarily a graphics card.
