SK Hynix shows GDDR6 for Nvidia Volta during GPU Technology Conference 2017

The HBM memory technology that delivers sky-high bandwidth for low power consumption is still expensive and the supply is low, which means that traditional GDDR will be used in most graphics cards for the foreseeable future. Today, almost 9-year-old GDDR5 is relevant and the further development GDDR5X is used in Nvidia’s top models.

At the beginning of next year, it’s time for the next big generational change, which is usually named GDDR6. In connection with Nvidia’s annual GPU Technology Conference, SK Hynix is ​​showing a memory capsule based on the technology where up to doubled bandwidth compared to GDDR5 is promised.

The memory capsule is the same as SK Hynix hit the big drum for at the end of April. It is an 8 Gb (1 GB) capsule with a speed of 16 Gbps or an effective clock frequency of 16,000 MHz. This is double the GDDR5 that is not sold at speeds higher than 8 Gbps and as much as 33 percent faster than the GDDR5X at 12 Gbps manufacturers that Nvidia can buy today.

This memory capsule is only the first in the line from SK Hynix, which at the same time says that variants with a doubled capacity of 16 Gb (2 GB) will be released. It is also worth noting that this is the first generation GDDR6 and that even higher speeds than 16 Gbps are likely to be expected later in the year.

The memory technology makes it possible to produce relatively affordable graphics cards for consumers, where a 256-bit memory bus found in the Geforce GTX 1080 would be enough for 512 GB / s – the same bandwidth as the AMD Radeon R9 Fury X with the first generation HBM and the upcoming RX Vega with HBM2.

In addition to SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung also intend to have GDDR6 ready for the market by the beginning of 2018. Time is attributed to demand and given that SK Hynix is ​​exhibiting at GTC 2017, there is one more thing that suggests that Nvidia will be the first to technology together with the next architecture Volta.

Source: Hardwareluxx