Samsung introduces GDDR7 memory in 3GB modules — one and a half times larger and twice as fast

Samsung has announced the industry’s «first» 24-gigabit (3 gigabytes) GDDR7 memory for graphics cards. It supports speeds of over 40 Gbps.

The new memory is faster and, most importantly, provides more capacity in a single module than GDDR6. Instead of 1 GB or 2 GB, a capacity of 3 GB is offered. That is, video cards with 4 memory modules and 8 GB of total capacity could have 12 GB with the same number of chips. Of course, if their manufacturer wants them to GDDR7 memory from Samsung uses 10 nm DRAM and offers a 50% increase in density compared to its predecessor. The physical size of the modules remains unchanged.

Initial developments are focused on 40Gbps with potential improvements up to 42.5Gbps. The fastest memory in NVIDIA’s RTX 40xx series of graphics cards supports «only» 22.4 Gbps, and the RTX 50xx series is rumored to be able to use up to 32 Gbps. So the speeds mentioned by Samsung, do not necessarily apply to the RTX 5090, but the next generation of graphics cards may get them.

Theoretically, a video card with 8 modules GDDR7 Samsung A 3GB 40Gb/s card with 256-bit memory would have a total capacity of 24GB and a maximum bandwidth of 1280GB/s. A video card with 12 modules and 384-bit memory would have 36 GB of storage and up to 1920 GB/s of bandwidth. Finally, a video card with 16 modules and a 512-bit bus would have 48 GB and 2560 GB/s.

Samsung said that the new GDDR7 is being tested by major customers this year, and production is scheduled to begin next year. However, the company does not say who the customer is or when production will officially begin.

Sources: Samsung, VideoCardz