SK Hynix has taken off the wraps off their next generation GDDR6 memory technology at NVIDIA?s GTC 2017. The new GDDR6 memory will be used to power NVIDIA?s most advanced GPUs to date, designed with the Volta chip architecture that is due for launch in 2018.
Coming to the talk, while NVIDIA uses the fastest GDDR5 solution on their cards, known as GDDR5X, they will soon be shifting to GDDR6. NVIDIA and Micron fine tuned the G5X memory architecture to hit really incredible speeds, topping out the first generation of HBM. With GDDR6, the chip giant plans to top out HBM2, bypassing any production issues associated with the specific memory type.
If we compare competitor solution, Fiji, the first graphics card to feature HBM had 512 GB/s bandwidth while the upcoming HBM2 based Vega is said to feature 512 GB/s bandwidth too along with a effective bandwidth and cache sub-system. For comparison, a Volta GPU with a 256-bit wide memory interface using GDDR6 clocked at 16 Gbps transfer speed would result in 512 GB/s bandwidth. A 384-bit Volta chip with similar rated memory chips will feature 768 GB/s bandwidth.
Not only would the 256-bit solution be faster, cheaper and more easy to produce than first generation HBM based solutions, but the 384-bit solution would be able to topple even HBM2 cards such as those based on current generation Pascal GP100 cores that have 720 GB/s bandwidth. For the folks wondering about efficiency, well the good thing about GDDR6 is that it brings 10% power saving over current gen GDDR5 memory chips.
The new chips feature low voltage of 1.35V compared to 1.55V and have twice the bandwidth. GDDR6 would allow for graphics card with increased capacities of 16 GB and 24 GB and it looks like gaming enthusiasts will have no problem hitting higher resolutions in their favorite titles.
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