NVIDIA has reportedly selected Samsung’s GDDR7 solution as the memory of choice for its upcoming GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” gaming lineup.
NVIDIA & Samsung Reportedly All-In For Next-Gen GDDR7 Memory Era, Powering GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” Gaming GPUs
It looks like Samsung as emerged as the winner when it comes to GDDR7 memory adoption as NVIDIA has selected them to power its upcoming GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” gaming lineup. The adoption of Samsung’s GDDR7 solutions can be seen as a huge win for the Korean semiconductor firm which hasn’t been doing well, especially in the adoption of its AI-aimed HBM solutions.
As reported by the Korean outlet, Greened.kr, Samsung’s GDDR7 memory will be used by NVIDIA’s latest products launching early next year. Samsung was among the top three manufacturers that have developed GDDR7 memory products, with the other two being SK Hynix and Micron. The latter’s memory solution was widely used by NVIDIA throughout its RTX 40 and RTX 30 GPUs with products such as GDDR5X and GDDR6X, but for GDDR7, NVIDIA has gone back to Samsung.
The Samsung GDDR7 memory is expected to be adopted by both GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” desktop and laptop GPUs. For laptops, NVIDIA can leverage GDDR7 solutions from all three vendors, but Samsung is being given priority. The reason behind Samsung winning the GDDR7 segment is due to its early verification and validation when connected with the said product.
So far, we know that NVIDIA is expected to utilize both 28 Gbps and 32 Gbps GDDR7 memory dies for its next-gen lineup. The RTX 5080 in particular will be the one to utilize the fastest memory dies, while the rest of the lineup will stick to a slightly more conservative 28 Gbps pin speed. For the RTX 5090, the 28 Gbps solution still provides a hefty bandwidth increase, up to 1792 GB/s (+78%) versus the 1008 GB/s bandwidth on the RTX 4090. NVIDIA could’ve gone with 32 Gbps but the 5090 uses a lot more memory chips than the 5080 due to its wider 512-bit interface and that could affect the power usage of the entire board.
With that said, Samsung has already announced 16Gb and 24Gb memory modules based on the GDDR7 standard with their roadmaps showcasing speeds of up to 42.5 Gbps in the future. A 24Gb solution can lead to higher capacities, but it is expected that those might be introduced at a later date or as a refresh.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 “Blackwell” Gaming GPUs are expected to debut at CES 2025 and the first products are expected to hit shelves in January, so stay tuned for more info.
News Source: @harukaze5719
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