News

Micron GDDR5X Enters Mass Production

Last year, we first got word of GDD5X, a cheaper alternative than the expensive jump to HBM/HBM2. Using a similar controller to GDDR5, Nvidia and AMD would be able to increase bandwidth while dropping power consumption. The memory standard moved along quickly, getting official standardization, and entering limited production in just 3 months. Now, Micron is announcing that they have already started mass production of GDDR5X.

The first production models will operate at 10 Gbps. This is why the GTX 1080, the first GDDR5X GPU, uses the same speed memory, hitting 320GB/s of bandwidth over a 256bit bus. At 10 Gbps, this is actually a bit slower than earlier samples that ran at 12 Gbps and the eventual 16 Gbps goal. Given that Micron and Nvidia don’t want any supply shortages, 10Gbps is probably where enough chips pass certification to ensure a steady supply.

For now, Micron remains the only GDDR5X supplier. This means if AMD wants to use GDDR5X, which they might with the Polaris 10, they would have to share supply with Nvidia. Given the conservative clock speeds both are likely to use, I don’t forsee any trouble. Polaris 10 is rumoured to use a 256bit bus so GDDR5X is a possibility for AMD as well.

Samuel Wan

Samuel joined eTeknix in 2015 after becoming engrossed in technology and PC hardware. With his passion for gaming and hardware, tech writing was the logical step to share the latest news with the world. When he’s not busy dreaming about the latest hardware, he enjoys gaming, music, camping and reading.

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Electronic Arts Titles Played for Over 11 Billion Hours in 2024

Electronic Arts (EA) announced today that its games were played for over 11 billion hours…

2 days ago

Just 15% of Steam Gaming Time in 2024 Was Spent on New Releases

Steam's annual end-of-year recap, Steam Replay, provides fascinating insights into gamer habits by comparing individual…

2 days ago

STALKER 2 Gets Massive 110GB Patch With 1800+ Fixes

GSC GameWorld released a major title update for STALKER 2 this seeking, bringing the game…

2 days ago

Intel Unveils Core 200H Processors Based on the Previous Raptor Lake Refresh

Without any formal announcement, Intel appears to have revealed its new Core 200H series processors…

3 days ago

Ubisoft Reportedly Developing a New Quadruple A Game

Ubisoft is not having the best of times, but despite recent flops, the company still…

3 days ago

STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl Update 1.1 Fixes 1,800 Issues and Revamps A-Life 2.0

If you haven’t started playing STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl yet, now might be the…

3 days ago