Samsung ushers in new era of graphics with industry's first GDDR7 DRAM

In an move that is sure to excite PC gamers, Samsung today revealed the industry’s first Graphics Double Data Rate 7 (GDDR7) DRAM. The company is planning to incorporate this groundbreaking memory tech into the next-gen systems of their key customers for verification later this year. This innovative step is predicted to spur growth in the graphics market, while further solidifying Samsung's standing as the technological leader in this domain.

This announcement comes on the heels of Samsung's development of the industry’s first 24Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022. Their latest 16-gigabit (Gb) GDDR7 offering promises to outperform this, offering the industry’s highest speed to date. Samsung has achieved this leap through innovations in integrated circuit (IC) design and packaging, ensuring stability even at top speeds.

"Samsung’s GDDR7 DRAM will redefine user experiences across various sectors that demand high graphic performance, including workstations, PCs, game consoles, and in the foreseeable future, AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and automotive vehicles,” said Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President of the Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung. "We plan on releasing the next-generation graphics DRAM in line with industry demand and are committed to maintaining our leadership position."

The new GDDR7 from Samsung impresses with an astounding bandwidth of 1.5 terabytes-per-second (TBps), 1.4 times more than GDDR6’s 1.1TBps, and an enhanced speed per pin of up to 32Gbps. These improvements are possible thanks to the Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM3) signaling method, a departure from the Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) of previous generations. The introduction of PAM3 enables 50-percent more data transmission than NRZ within the same signaling cycle.

In a significant upgrade from its predecessor, GDDR6, the latest GDDR7 is 20-percent more energy efficient, courtesy of power-saving design technology that's optimized for high-speed operations. For devices where power usage is a primary concern, such as laptops, Samsung provides a low-operating voltage option.

Additionally, Samsung has taken proactive measures to curtail heat generation by using an epoxy molding compound (EMC) with high thermal conductivity for packaging material, along with IC architecture optimization. This move significantly cuts thermal resistance by a staggering 70 percent compared to GDDR6, ensuring steady product performance, even during high-speed operations.

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