- Micron has introduced a new faster GDDR7 video memory
- It runs at 36 Gbps compared to 32 Gbps in the initial incarnation of GDDR7.
- This memory also comes in 3GB modules instead of 2GB, which is a significant step forward for the VRAM capacity of graphics cards.
Micron has launched a new type of GDDR7 memory for graphics cards, which is the company’s fastest RAM yet.
Tom’s Hardware reports that Micron issued a press release detailing the new GGDR7 memory, which offers a speed of 36Gbps. For perspective, the first GDDR7 modules to hit the market (and hit consumer GPUs with Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series) were 32Gbps modules. (Though they ran slower than that, at 28 Gbps in most cases, to improve temperature and stability.)
Another key advance with Micron’s new GDDR7 is that it uses 3 GB modules instead of 2 GB (and a density of 24 Gb). You can only fit so many memory chips on a given graphics card (depending on the width of the board’s bus, the lanes that connect the memory to the GPU chip), so moving from 2GB to 3GB modules allows you to load more video RAM and greater overall capacity.
As Micron notes: “Modern gaming is driving GPU architectures harder than ever.”
The firm expands on this: “As gaming environments expand and visual resources grow, memory capacity becomes critical to maintaining smooth, artifact-free experiences. Micron’s new 24Gb density allows for up to 96GB of graphics memory, giving GPUs much more room for high-resolution textures, expansive worlds, and advanced visuals.”
Basically, the maximum video RAM load with these chips on a consumer graphics card with a 512-bit bus (as seen in the RTX 5090) is now 96 GB, instead of 64 GB with 2 GB modules. (Note that this maximum involves using chips on the front and back of the board in a “clamshell” configuration, a more complex and expensive task, which is why Nvidia ran with a 32GB spec with only modules on the front.)
Analysis: looking to the future
Here and now, this doesn’t mean much to players, of course. These days we are all more concerned about the shortage of existing forms of video RAM which is slowly but surely driving up graphics card prices.
And while it may seem strange that 96 GB of VRAM is mentioned in relation to gaming (and, to be fair, is It’s strange: Micron is really just promoting the benefits of 3GB modules more broadly. It boasts ‘up to’ 96GB, and the effects will be felt across entire stacks of GPU products, including affordable 128-bit GPUs that now have 8GB, but can be configured with 12GB using 3GB modules. This is a major upgrade that avoids the aforementioned complications of a clamshell design to increase video RAM capacity.
Micron should have targeted its press release better in this regard, but I guess instead it wanted to go with a splashy 96GB figure; Marketing is often a “numbers game” in that sense.
In any case, for the reasons mentioned, it is good news to see an improved form of GDDR7 from another memory chip manufacturer. And I say another, because there are two other big forces in this field, Samsung and SK Hynix, and both already have faster versions of GDDR7 running at up to 42.5 Gbps and 40 Gbps respectively.
However, 36Gbps is still a more than respectable speed increase, and as I already mentioned, Nvidia hasn’t even made an effort to get the top speed of the initial GDDR7 incarnation, which offered 32Gbps. As noted, all of the initial Blackwell GPUs using GDDR7 ran at 28Gbps, with only the RTX 5080 differing, and even that graphics card only hit 30Gbps. (A move that was implemented to compensate for its much smaller memory bus compared to the RTX 5090.)
It’s also worth noting that Micron spends some time considering gaming angles in its press release, and this new GDDR7 could well be what we see in Nvidia’s next-gen graphics cards. This could be true not only for the RTX 6000 GPUs, but also for AMD’s next-generation graphics cards. (The Red Team stuck with GDDR6 in RDNA 4 this time.)
However, there is another possibility, and that is the rumored updates to the RTX 5000 Super that employ this Micron VRAM. I wouldn’t rule it out as these GPUs are supposedly increasing the memory load. On the subject of these cards, the latest speculation insists that Nvidia’s Blackwell Super refreshes will not arrive this year (as previously expected). So whatever the case, we’re probably pretty far away from seeing this faster GDDR7 memory in consumer graphics cards.
Of course, in the current climate, with the RAM crisis making things difficult for graphics card manufacturers, talking about possibilities for expanding VRAM loads seems pointless at best. Hopefully this is not a situation that persists for long, but the overall indicators right now are not good, certainly not for this year.
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