Samsung's Lightning-Fast 24Gbps GDDR6 For Next-Gen GPUs Leaves GDDR6X In The Dust
Samsung has begun sampling blazing-fast GDDR6 memory chips that are capable of operating at a breakneck 24 gigabits per second (Gbps) and for whatever reason, the company is not shouting about it from a mountaintop. It would certainly be justified—at that speed, Samsung's memory not only matches Micron's supercharged GDDR6X chips, but surpasses them.
There's no dedicated press release, blog post, or even a flex on social media (that we're aware of) from Samsung that brings attention to its speedy chips. However, the new part (K4ZAF325GC-SC24) has been added to Samsung's GDDR6 product specifications page, where Samsung quietly confirms its "Sample" product status.
Samsung's also sampling 20Gbps GDDR6 memory (K4ZAF325BC-SC20), as outlined on the same product catalog page with the same status. That essentially means the parts are not yet being mass produced, but Samsung is actively sending out actual chips to clients, which potentially includes AMD and/or NVIDIA for next-generation graphics products.
Click to Enlarge (Source: Samsung)
The speed bump is interesting because, at minimum, it gives NVIDIA another option to consider for its Ada Lovelace GPUs, which are expected to power its eventual GeForce RTX 40 series. As things currently stand, NVIDIA employs 19.5Gbps GDDR6X memory on its GeForce RTX 3090, and 19Gbps GDDR6X on its GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, GeForce RTX 3080, and GeForce RTX 3070 Ti. The GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and GeForce RTX 3060 both use GDDR6.
Samsung's 24Gbps and 20Gbps GDDR6 chips both leverage 180-pin FBGA packages like the rest of its GDDR6 lineup, so at least in that regard, it would be easy to implement on next-gen graphics products. It is more a matter of whether the Ada Lovelace and AMD's RDNA 3 (Radeon RX 7000 series) parts will support the faster data rates, and at what cost.
It also remains to be seen what upgrades Micron will make to its GDDR6X stack. Even though it just got surpassed by GDDR6, it's not far behind—GDDR6X currently ranges from 19-21Gbps per pin. And incidentally, rumor has it NVIDIA will launch a GeForce RTX 3090 Ti with 21Gbps GDDR6X next month.
Samsung's 24Gbps GDDR6 could also end up elsewhere, as it's not only consumer GPUs that attach them sells to this kind of memory. We probably won't know until (A) Samsung makes a formal announcement, or (B) next-gen graphics products actually arrive.
