Samsung Wins Race to 8 Gigabit GDDR5 Memory, Begins Mass Production

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

Denser memory solution could lead to larger frame buffers

Samsung today announced that its has started mass producing what it claims is the industry's first 8 gigabit (Gb) GDDR5 DRAM, which is being built on the company's 20nm manufacturing process. This is the same type of memory that's found on scores of graphics cards for PCs, along with onboard graphics solutions in game consoles and some laptops PCs, though it's a denser solution.
It takes combining just eight of the new 8Gb chips to achieve the same density at the 8GB needed in the newest game consoles, which could lead to higher capacity solutions compared to the company's own 4Gb GDDR5 DRAM. The newer chips also sport faster reads at 8Gb per second per pin, versus 7Gb per second for the old stuff. That's four times faster than the DDR3 DRAM found in most notebooks today, with each chip being able to process data at 32-bit I/O rate.
According to Samsung, 2GB of graphics memory can be created with just two of the new chips, which together can process up to 64GB of graphical images per second -- that's enough to process about 12 Full HD 1080p DVDs (5GB) in a single second.
"We expect that our 8Gb GDDR5 will provide original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with the best graphics memory solution available for game consoles as well as general use notebook PCs," said Joo Sun Choi, Executive Vice president of Memory Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics. "By expanding our production of 20nm-based DRAM products including the new GDDR5, we will meet increasing global customer demand and take the lead in accelerating the growth of the premium memory market."
Therein lies the real takeaway for consumers -- more efficient production should lead to somewhat lower pricing, giving graphics cards makers even more flexibility to wage price wars. We're not saying that video card pricing is set to plummet, but in theory, this should give vendors a bit more wiggle room. It should also allow for graphics cards with larger frame buffers, which could be of importance as the industry shifts to 4K resolutions and beyond.
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