GDDR7: The Next Frontier in Memory Technology for AI & Graphics

In March of this year, JEDEC released the JES239 Graphics Double Data Rate 7 (GDDR7) standard, which offers double the bandwidth of GDDR6 to meet the burgeoning demand for high memory bandwidth in future graphics, gaming, computing, networking, and artificial intelligence applications.

According to Business Korea, the competition among the three major memory manufacturers—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—is extending from high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to the realm of graphics DRAM. Unlike HBM products, GDDR products used in graphics cards focus on widening data transmission pathways to enhance processing speed and efficiency. These products are not only suitable for AI chips but also for cryptocurrency mining.

Market research data indicates that with the advent of the AI PC boom and the proliferation of related terminal devices, the GDDR market is expected to experience rapid growth, reaching 15% of the entire DRAM market by the end of 2024, more than double the 7% share in 2022. The expansion of the market size implies increased profitability, and Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron all plan to commence mass production of GDDR7 between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

This development is also in preparation for the next generation of graphics cards, with rumors suggesting that NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs will support GDDR7. Industry experts believe that graphics memory will be the new battleground following HBM, with Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron vying for orders related to NVIDIA’s next-generation GPUs. Based on previous announcements and samples exhibited by manufacturers, Samsung and Micron’s initial GDDR7 chips will be 16Gb (2GB) modules with a corresponding speed of 32Gbps, while SK Hynix plans to offer 16Gb (2GB) and 24Gb (3GB) modules, with speeds reaching up to 40Gbps and a corresponding bandwidth of 160GB/s.

Unlike the NRZ/PAM2 encoding used in GDDR6 or the PAM4 signal encoding developed jointly by NVIDIA and Micron for GDDR6X, GDDR7 employs PAM3 signal encoding. NRZ/PAM2 provides 1 bit of data transmission per cycle, PAM4 offers 2 bits per cycle, whereas PAM3 delivers 3 bits of data transmission every two cycles.