SK hynix announces 'industry’s best' GDDR7 DRAM, claiming 60% higher speeds than predecessor at 32Gbps

South Korean memory maker SK hynix Inc. has announced its latest graphics memory, GDDR7, which claims to be industry-leading. This news comes almost two weeks after Samsung announced the industry's first GDDR7 DRAM solution on July 19th with 1.5 TBps bandwidth. SK hynix's GDDR7 DRAM will be 60% faster and 50% more power efficient as compared to the previous generation, GDDR6. The company plans to begin mass production in the third quarter of 2024.

While GDDR6 memory can operate at speeds of 16Gbps, GDDR7 is expected to provide up to 32Gbps, with potential to reach 40Gbps (depending on configuration, cooling and more). SK hynix states that their GDDR7 memory has a bandwidth of 1.5 terabytes per second, equivalent to 300 movies at 1080p (at 5GB per movie).

The company attributes the higher power efficiency to their new packaging technology that improves heat dissipation. They increased the number of heat-dissipating substrate layers from four to six and used Epoxy Molding Compound (EMC) to reduce thermal resistance by 74%.

GDDR memory has now become an extremely popular choice for AI, which is a rapidly booming sector in itself. Sangkwon Lee, Head of DRAM Product Planning & Enablement at SK hynix, expects GDDR7 to be widely adopted in high-spec 3D graphics, AI, and autonomous driving. In June 2024, SK hynix announced the development of PCB01, the fifth generation of its 8-channel PCIe for artificial intelligence PCs. The company had a very lucrative second quarter in 2024 as well, achieving revenues of 16.4233 trillion won (~$11.9 billion) with a 5.4685 trillion won (~$3.9 billion) profit.