Roughly a year after Samsung introduced GDDR6, which could transmit 24Gbps per pin, the company finished designing the succeeding generation of graphics RAM, known as GDDR7, which should allow for much faster and power-saving GPUs.
The new design allows for a data rate of 32 Gbps per pin, equating to a total bandwidth of 1.5 Terabytes per second. This is a 40% increase from the GDDR6’s maximum bandwidth of 1.1 Terabytes per second.
This surge in speed is attributed to the integration of 3-level Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM3), a technology also utilized in USB4 and Thunderbolt 5. Meanwhile, the related PAM4 standard is used in GDDR6X, found in graphics cards like the Nvidia RTX 3090, and the latest and greatest RTX 4090.
Apart from boasting superior speed, GDDR7 is also 20% more energy-efficient than its predecessor. Samsung has further designed a low-voltage version of GDDR7, specifically for devices with tighter power restrictions, like laptops.
To manage heat more effectively, the company has also innovated with the epoxy molding compound (EMC) that encompasses the RAM chips. The EMC used in the GDDR7 is designed to have 70% lower thermal resistance than the EMC in GDDR6 packages, allowing for faster heat dissipation. Yet another feature that should be useful for laptop applications.
Later this year, Samsung plans to distribute samples to its major clients so they can initiate the development of GDDR7-based devices. This means we can expect to see the first few GDDR7-based devices by the end of this year or at the beginning of 2024.
