Samsung Unveils Next-Gen 37 Gb/s GDDR7 for Future GPUs

In a significant development reported by TechRadar on January 30th, Samsung is set to take center stage at the upcoming 2024 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. The conference will showcase Samsung's cutting-edge GDDR7 memory solution, themed "A 16Gb 37 Gb/s GDDR7 DRAM with PAM3-Optimized TRX Equalization and ZQ Calibration," tailored for the next-generation GPU.

Revealing impressive specifications, Samsung's GDDR7 boasts a remarkable speed of 37 Gbps, surpassing the highest speed of existing GDDR6X DRAM by more than 50% (24 Gbps). While Samsung has outlined plans for GDDR6W with doubled capacity and 64-bit DRAM, the focus is now on advancing towards a genuine next-generation standard.

Despite prior accomplishments in GDDR6, capable of reaching speeds of 24 Gbps, Samsung's latest strides with GDDR7, achieving speeds of 36 Gbps internally, underscore their commitment to pushing the boundaries of bandwidth in the next generation of memory modules. However, attention is drawn to Samsung's production capacity for GDDR7 memory, crucial to meeting the demands of the evolving landscape in gaming and AI GPU technology.

The pin speeds of the 37 Gbps GDDR7 offer impressive bandwidth across various bus configurations:

· 512-bit: 2368 GB/s (2.3 TB/s)

· 384-bit: 1776 GB/s (1.7 TB/s)

· 320-bit: 1480 GB/s (1.5 TB/s)

· 256-bit: 1184 GB/s (1.2 TB/s)

· 192-bit: 888 GB/s

· 128-bit: 592 GB/s

Moreover, the efficiency of GDDR7 memory will see a notable 20% improvement, a critical factor given the power consumption considerations of high-end GPUs. Samsung's GDDR7 DRAM integrates technology optimized for high-speed workloads, with low operating voltage options designed for power-sensitive applications, including laptops.

In terms of cooling, the new memory standard incorporates epoxy molding compound (EMC) with high thermal conductivity, reducing thermal resistance by up to 70%. Reports from August 2023 indicated that Samsung has supplied GDDR7 DRAM samples to NVIDIA for early assessments of their next-generation gaming graphics cards.