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NVidia's next-gen GPUs to use GDDR6

VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,992
in Hardware
SK Hynix's representative has confirmed that most, if not all, NVidia's upcoming gaming architecture cards will use GDDR6 memory.

SK Hynix's version of GDDR6 will operate upwards of 16 Gb/s and ship in up to 16 Gb densities. For speed comparison GTX 1080 Ti has 11 Gb/s memory. Manufacturing costs for GDDR6 will be 20% higher than GDDR5.

SK Hynix is will start mass producing GDDR6 for NVidia in about 3 months. If we're lucky that could mark the start of next gen GeForce production, but if we're unlucky NVidia could also at first use it for one of their professional products.



Source for news: https://www.gamersnexus.net/industry/3271-gddr6-slated-for-next-gen-nvidia-gpus-3-month-mass-production
 

Comments

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414
    So... fall availability. Got to watch out about predictions sometimes. Was originally expected in Q1.
    time007
  • Jamar870Jamar870 Member UncommonPosts: 573
    Well I rather see work done by Nvidia and AMD towards making a "GPU" the more oriented towards digital currency and price cheaper then game gpus so the DAMN coin miners will buy them and let us gamers have our gaming cards back to reasonable prices. Better watch out for these new GPUs, if they are as good or better than AMD's Vega then don't count on getting one soon.

  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    Maybe. Not suggesting the report is wrong btw but:

    In January Samsung not only announced that GDDR6 was in full production but that they had achieved faster throughput speeds than previously announced. (18Gbs/74Gbs rather than 16Gbs/64Gbs).

    Assuming the first cards are NVidia badged (Founder's Edition etc.) then we will have to wait on SK Hynix producing the memory.

    Once the gpus are made available to the various 3rd parties however the supply of SK Hynix may not be an issue if they are allowed to use e.g. Samsung GDDR6. (And if its faster and available they probably will.) 
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    https://www.micron.com/products/dram/gddr/gddr6-part-catalog#/
    https://www.anandtech.com/show/12027/samsung-preannounces-16-gbps-gddr6-chips-for-nextgen-graphics-cards

    Hynix is not the only memory manufacturer.  Somewhere around the middle of last year, Micron said that in Q1 of this year, they'd launch GDDR6, which was going to be used in video cards with 768 GB/sec of memory bandwidth.  It was enough detail that at the time, people assumed that it had to mean Nvidia, as AMD had previously announced their intention to go with HBM2 for their high end.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    For reference, here's my thread on GDDR6 more than a year ago:

    https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/460749/micron-expects-to-introduce-gddr6-around-the-end-of-this-year-will-it-matter
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    https://www.skhynix.com/eng/pr/pressReleaseView.do?seq=2086&offset=1

    That's the announcement that I referred to above.  Note that it's dated April 2017, though apparently it's Hynix, not Micron.  That didn't quite explicitly state that Nvidia was going to use GDDR6 this year, but it came awfully close to it, in light of AMD's previously announced plans to move their high end to HBM2.
  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    edited March 2018
    Quizzical said:
    https://www.skhynix.com/eng/pr/pressReleaseView.do?seq=2086&offset=1

    That's the announcement that I referred to above.  Note that it's dated April 2017, though apparently it's Hynix, not Micron.  That didn't quite explicitly state that Nvidia was going to use GDDR6 this year, but it came awfully close to it, in light of AMD's previously announced plans to move their high end to HBM2.
    Yeah they just said undisclosed - but announced it at GTC last May so people put 1 and 1 together and - correctly! - came up with 2.

    And as you say Micron are also making CGGR6 for graphics (and whatever else) whilst Samsung have also included the graphics business as a market for their GDDR6. 

    Is it sad that the thread you started is over a year old and we are still - it would seem - some months out or just a case of c'est la vie? At least mass manufacture has now started and will accelerate as the other manufacturers come on board.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    gervaise1 said:
    Quizzical said:
    https://www.skhynix.com/eng/pr/pressReleaseView.do?seq=2086&offset=1

    That's the announcement that I referred to above.  Note that it's dated April 2017, though apparently it's Hynix, not Micron.  That didn't quite explicitly state that Nvidia was going to use GDDR6 this year, but it came awfully close to it, in light of AMD's previously announced plans to move their high end to HBM2.
    Yeah they just said undisclosed - but announced it at GTC last May so people put 1 and 1 together and - correctly! - came up with 2.

    And as you say Micron are also making CGGR6 for graphics (and whatever else) whilst Samsung have also included the graphics business as a market for their GDDR6. 

    Is it sad that the thread you started is over a year old and we are still - it would seem - some months out or just a case of c'est la vie? At least mass manufacture has now started and will accelerate as the other manufacturers come on board.
    As of a year ago, even if everything had gone perfectly on GDDR6, the earliest that video cards using it could have plausibly arrived at retail is early this year.  If they're widely available (not just paper launched!) by the middle of this year, that would be pretty good, even.

    Memory standards take years to develop, as a lot of different companies have to make everything from memory chips to memory controllers to PCB layouts all compatible with each other.  Work on GDDR6 surely started several years ago, even if it wasn't publicly announced at first.
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,992
    edited March 2018
    gervaise1 said:
    Maybe. Not suggesting the report is wrong btw but:

    In January Samsung not only announced that GDDR6 was in full production but that they had achieved faster throughput speeds than previously announced. (18Gbs/74Gbs rather than 16Gbs/64Gbs).

    Assuming the first cards are NVidia badged (Founder's Edition etc.) then we will have to wait on SK Hynix producing the memory.

    Once the gpus are made available to the various 3rd parties however the supply of SK Hynix may not be an issue if they are allowed to use e.g. Samsung GDDR6. (And if its faster and available they probably will.) 
    Yes, back then Anandtech even made good article about Samsung's announcement:
      https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory

    But it's been two months now, and I still haven't seen any info on where Samsung's DDR6 memory is going. I presume it's going to their secret crypto currency ASIC that they announced was in mass production less than 2 weeks after that GDDR6 announcement:
      https://www.extremetech.com/computing/263254-samsung-begins-manufacturing-asic-chips-mining-cryptocurrency

    I'd be surprised if we didn't see some of NVidia's next get GPUs using also Samsung's GDDR6 now that SK Hynix confirmed they'll be using GDDR6.
     
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    Vrika said:
    gervaise1 said:
    Maybe. Not suggesting the report is wrong btw but:

    In January Samsung not only announced that GDDR6 was in full production but that they had achieved faster throughput speeds than previously announced. (18Gbs/74Gbs rather than 16Gbs/64Gbs).

    Assuming the first cards are NVidia badged (Founder's Edition etc.) then we will have to wait on SK Hynix producing the memory.

    Once the gpus are made available to the various 3rd parties however the supply of SK Hynix may not be an issue if they are allowed to use e.g. Samsung GDDR6. (And if its faster and available they probably will.) 
    Yes, back then Anandtech even made good article about Samsung's announcement:
      https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory

    But it's been two months now, and I still haven't seen any info on where all Samsung's DDR6 memory is going. I presume it's going to their secret crypto ASIC that they announced was in mass production less than 2 weeks after that GDDR6 announcement:
      https://www.extremetech.com/computing/263254-samsung-begins-manufacturing-asic-chips-mining-cryptocurrency

    I'd be surprised if we didn't see some of NVidia's next get GPUs using also Samsung's GDDR6 now that SK Hynix more or less confirmed they'll be using GDDR6.
    It's possible that Nvidia will be the only customer for GDDR6 memory.  Whether AMD will ever use it depends on whether they ever have a product where they decide that HBM2 is too expensive but GDDR5 isn't fast enough, or how soon GDDR6 prices come down enough to be no more expensive than GDDR5.  AMD notably ignored GDDR5X, for example.

    I wouldn't expect other enterprise products that need a ton of bandwidth to go with GDDR6, either.  HBM2 is superior in every way except for price, and something like top end FPGAs that cost several thousand dollars can readily eat some tens of dollars in HBM2 costs.

    Samsung producing mining ASICs is probably just a case of Bitmain or one of their competitors deciding to use Samsung instead of or in addition to TSMC.  There still aren't any mining ASICs that are built for high memory bandwidth, and it makes no sense at all to use GDDR6 unless you need a ton of memory bandwidth.
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    Actually, if Hynix says that GDDR6 mass production will start in June or July, and Nvidia is waiting for Hynix memory, then that would put the earliest possible hard launch of the next generation as late this year.  Even after you start mass production, it takes some time for the first chips to come out of the fabs.  It then takes more time to ship them to the board partner, for the board partner to stick the chips on the PCB and otherwise assemble the video card, and then to ship the video cards around the world.

    It's possible that Micron or Samsung could start mass production of GDDR6 memory earlier, which could move up the date if Nvidia doesn't have to wait for Hynix.  Micron hasn't started mass production of GDDR6 yet.  I'm not sure about Samsung, though I haven't seen any announcement of them starting it.

    It's also possible that Nvidia will do a paper launch or soft launch like they did with the GeForce GTX 1080, but I would regard that as unlikely.  Just before the announcement of the GTX 1080, someone who wanted to buy a high end GPU could as easily buy AMD as Nvidia, so Nvidia wante people to wait for the next generation so that they could take all of the high end sales.  Today, someone who wants to buy a high end gaming video card is going to buy Nvidia, so Nvidia has no reason to tell people to hold off unless AMD unexpectedly launches something new.
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,992
    Quizzical said:

    It's possible that Micron or Samsung could start mass production of GDDR6 memory earlier, which could move up the date if Nvidia doesn't have to wait for Hynix.  Micron hasn't started mass production of GDDR6 yet.  I'm not sure about Samsung, though I haven't seen any announcement of them starting it.
    I think this should qualify as announcement of Samsung starting mass production:
      https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory
    Quizzical
     
  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,507
    Vrika said:
    Quizzical said:

    It's possible that Micron or Samsung could start mass production of GDDR6 memory earlier, which could move up the date if Nvidia doesn't have to wait for Hynix.  Micron hasn't started mass production of GDDR6 yet.  I'm not sure about Samsung, though I haven't seen any announcement of them starting it.
    I think this should qualify as announcement of Samsung starting mass production:
      https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory
    That will do it.  In that case, if Nvidia had everything ready to go and was just waiting on GDDR6 memory, I'd expect to see a launch in the first half of this year.  That's a huge "if", however, as it could easily be that they're waiting on something else, which could delay the next generation however long it does.
  • gervaise1gervaise1 Member EpicPosts: 6,919
    Quizzical said:
    Vrika said:
    Quizzical said:

    It's possible that Micron or Samsung could start mass production of GDDR6 memory earlier, which could move up the date if Nvidia doesn't have to wait for Hynix.  Micron hasn't started mass production of GDDR6 yet.  I'm not sure about Samsung, though I haven't seen any announcement of them starting it.
    I think this should qualify as announcement of Samsung starting mass production:
      https://www.anandtech.com/show/12338/samsung-starts-mass-production-of-gddr6-memory
    That will do it.  In that case, if Nvidia had everything ready to go and was just waiting on GDDR6 memory, I'd expect to see a launch in the first half of this year.  That's a huge "if", however, as it could easily be that they're waiting on something else, which could delay the next generation however long it does.
    Hopefully there is nothing to stop NVidia delivering gpus to other board manufacturers - once available of course - even if SK Hynix memory isn't ready.

    Certainly Samsung were not expecting any delay when they announced that they had started mass production:

    "Samsung’s immediate production of GDDR6 will play a critical role in early launches of next-generation graphics cards and systems. With all of its improvements in density, performance and energy efficiency, the 16Gb GDDR6 will be widely used in rapidly growing fields such as 8K Ultra HD video processing, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence."

    Full announcement source: http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/insights/news-events/samsung-electronics-starts-producing-industrys-first-16-gigabit-gddr6-for-advanced-graphics-systems/ 
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