At Computex, the annual tech conference in Taiwan, Micron announced that the company started sampling its GDDR7 memory chips for the next generation of graphics cards and AI accelerators. Its chips boast "the industry"s highest bit density," notable performance uplifts, and energy efficiency improvements.
Micron"s GDDR7 memory chips use 1-beta DRAM technology to deliver up to 32Gbps speeds with over 1.5TB per second of system bandwidth in a 384-bit bus configuration. The company claims that is about 60% more bandwidth than the existing GDDR6 memory solutions. Those improvements should result in faster response times, "smoother gameplay," and quicker processing of high amounts of data.
Energy efficiency is another aspect where GDDR7 outperforms previous-gen memory. Technological advancements have allowed for the improvement of energy efficiency by 50% over GDDR6 while reducing thermals for better battery life in mobile devices. These chips also feature a new sleep mode, which consumes 70% less energy.
In the official announcement post, Micron said it expects GDDR7 memory chips to provide up to 30% improvements in FPS for ray tracking and rasterization over the current GDDR6 and GDDR6X-based graphics cards. As for AI, which is now everywhere, better-performing GDDR7 memory will increase throughput by up to 33% and lower response times by up to 20%.
Micron is once again at the forefront of memory innovation, developing the highest bandwidth solutions available, built with advanced process and interface technology to enable continued graphics performance leadership. The best-in-class capabilities of Micron GDDR7 memory help bring new levels of realism and performance to the most demanding applications.
Micron"s GDDR7 memory chips will be available to partners in the second half of 2024. AMD will utilize the next-generation VRAM from Micron for its products, and other partners, such as PNY, are already using GDDR7 samples to test and validate their upcoming graphics cards and other solutions.
You can check out our entire Computex 2024 coverage here.