SK hynix announces its GDDR7 memory touting 60% faster speeds, 50% improved power efficiency

SK hynix has just announced the introduction of its GDDR7 graphics memory, which it claims is the “industry’s best GDDR7.” Offering 32 Gbps operating speeds, it performs 60% faster than current-generation GDDR6 memory which is limited to around 24 Gbps. It also promises a 50% improvement in power efficiency, potentially reducing the power requirements and heat generated by next-generation graphics cards that will use this new memory.

The company was able to achieve this jump in power efficiency by using new packaging techniques. For example, it increased heat dissipating substrate layers by 50% (from four layers to six), allowing the chip to release its built-up thermal energy much faster without increasing the PCB area it uses.

Even though the SK hynix GDDR7 graphics memory is great news for the next generation of GPUs, Samsung was actually the first chipmaker to complete the development of GDDR7 memory, in July 2023. However, on paper, SK hynix offers advantages in terms of power efficiency, as the latter only claims a 20% power efficiency improvement over GDDR6 (versus SK hynix’s 50% claim). Micron also revealed its GDDR7 chips early in July, which the company says will deliver a 30% improvement in both ray tracing and rasterization performance.

SK hynix plans to start mass production of GDDR7 memory in the third quarter of this year, putting it in line with rival memory manufacturers like Micron. The Korean company hasn’t dropped any hints about GDDR7 sampling by its partners, unlike Samsung and Micron, but we can assume that the company has already done that after showcasing its chips in Taiwan at Computex 2024 in June this year. Furthermore, the official launch of GDDR7 by SK hynix, alongside the third quarter commencement of mass production, means that it likely already has or is going through the final steps of testing.  

Aside from gaming, SK hynix also expects GDDR7 memory to be adopted in other industries, like 3D graphics, AI acceleration tasks, high-performance computing, autonomous driving, and more. Sangkwon Lee, head of DRAM Product Planning & Enablement at SK hynix says, “We will continue to work towards enhancing our position as the most trusted AI memory solution provider by strengthening the premium lineup further.” And with next-gen GPUs that sport GDDR7 memory slated to arrive in 4Q24, we’re excited to see how much power and performance we can extract from these graphic cards, like Nvidia’s 50-series GPUs.