GDDR6 Memory Costs 70 Percent More than GDDR5

[btarunr]

The latest GDDR6 memory standard, currently implemented by NVIDIA in its GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards, pulls great premium. According to a 3DCenter.org report citing list-prices sourced from electronics components wholeseller DigiKey, 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips from Micron Technology cost over 70 percent more than common 8 Gbps GDDR5 chips of the same density, from the same manufacturer. Besides obsolescence, oversupply could be impacting GDDR5 chip prices.

Although GDDR6 is available in marginally cheaper 13 Gbps and 12 Gbps trims, NVIDIA has only been sourcing 14 Gbps chips. Even the company's upcoming RTX 2060 performance-segment graphics card is rumored to implement 14 Gbps chips in variants that feature GDDR6. The sheer disparity in pricing between GDDR6 and GDDR5 could explain why NVIDIA is developing cheaper GDDR5 variants of the RTX 2060. Graphics card manufacturers can save around $22 per card by using six GDDR5 chips instead of GDDR6.



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[Axaion]

Ouch, they cant afford that, better make the cards cost 150 bucks more to offset that price hike

 

[XiGMAKiD]

Ouch, they cant afford that, better make the cards cost 150 bucks more to offset that price hike

That is exactly how every business works, it's just in Nvidia's case the effects are too noticable

 

[RH92]

Ouch, they cant afford that, better make the cards cost 150 bucks more to offset that price hike

Welcome to this wonderfull system called capitalisme , if a supplier raises prices about 50% the end customer is going to see a x2 , x3 effect of this on the final price because why not after all , every opportunity to make more money is a good opportunity in capitalisme no need for reasons ....... but i digress

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

there's your problem. XDD

 

[lexluthermiester]

GDDR6 Memory Costs 70 Percent More than GDDR5

Not really all that surprising.

 

[ZeppMan217]

Not really all that surprising.

It kinds of is - the appeal is better performance and reduced production costs. Though of course, you can't get cheaper prices with price fixing by memory manufacturers, and you can't break em up because there's no one else to pick up the slack.

 

[ArbitraryAffection]

Capitalist dogs!

 

[Harakhti]

It kinds of is - the appeal is better performance and reduced production costs. Though of course, you can't get cheaper prices with price fixing by memory manufacturers, and you can't break em up because there's no one else to pick up the slack.

That's how it generally goes, when the market was strained by crypto and such, you basically paid about 0.12$/GFLOPS regardless of how excessively old a GPU was (it boosted the used cards market horribly) and RAM's been having that linear performance/cost curve for quite some time now, which isn't too ideal considering at some cases high-spec DDR3 costs more than factory standard DDR4 modules.

 

[bogami]

I think they pay more expensive just to disable other customers the product.
$ 22 for RAM and $ 150 for color diodes! Buy iNgridia!

 

[Space Lynx]

Capitalist dogs!

They just have no competition is the main problem.

 

[Fabio]

well, I guess that gddr6 is just an excuse to maintain a high price for the gpu. Actually, all this bandwidth is almost useless. Look at the 2070, roughly the same perf as the 1080 so what's the point to have 600 gbps throughput?? and on a 2060? what's the point?

 

[HTC]

Now that memory makers have oversupply and are being forced to cut prices, all they have to do is massively increase the newer memory type's price and presto: there's your high margins back ...

 

[londiste]

Actually, all this bandwidth is almost useless. Look at the 2070, roughly the same perf as the 1080 so what's the point to have 600 gbps throughput?? and on a 2060? what's the point?

448 vs 320 on 2070 and 1080 respectively. Tests do seem to suggest Turing is more memory-limited than Pascal so increaing the bandwidth may have merit.
GDDR5 does seem to be on its way out though, so that may have effect on that price difference. With other reports Nvidia/AIBs were reported to have large amounts of GDDR5 in stock.

 

[OGoc]

75% faster for 70% more money while GDDR6 is new. Seems appropriate to me.

Prices drop once development cost has been clawed back from charging early adopter prices.

 

[Metroid]

Ouch, they cant afford that, better make the cards cost 150 bucks more to offset that price hike

$150 more on msrp for $22 added for gddr6 on that seems reasonable to nvidia it seems. Now we have to understand where those $130 go to.

 

[dj-electric]

And i wonder where's GDDR5X in that story, a memory that can pull impressive enough numbers to still be a part of mid-range to high end GPUs

 

[M2B]

well, I guess that gddr6 is just an excuse to maintain a high price for the gpu. Actually, all this bandwidth is almost useless. Look at the 2070, roughly the same perf as the 1080 so what's the point to have 600 gbps throughput?? and on a 2060? what's the point?

Higher memory bandwidth is always welcome.
It helps a lot for a smoother and more fluid experience. There are some very Bandwidth-heavy scenes in most games that tank the performance harder if the memory bandwidth is not good enough. (especially at 4K which is significantly heavier on the memory bandwidth)
And not only that, even the average FPS increases by 5 percent on the RTX 2070 by overclocking the memory alone; it's not much but proves the point that GDDR6 memory is not useless on the card.

 

[Midland Dog]

navi is probably not going to happen until these prices come down, dont tell me its hbm, hbm aint shit in gaming and navi is a gaming uArch

Higher memory bandwidth is always welcome.
It helps a lot for a smoother and more fluid experience. There are some very Bandwidth-heavy scenes in most games that tank the performance harder if the memory bandwidth is not good enough. (especially at 4K which is significantly heavier on the memory bandwidth)
And not only that, even the average FPS increases by 5 percent on the RTX 2070 by overclocking the memory alone; it's not much but proves the point that GDDR6 memory is not useless on the card.

960 is a decent example, with a great mem oc it becomes rop bound rather than bandwidth starved

 

[jabbadap]

And i wonder where's GDDR5X in that story, a memory that can pull impressive enough numbers to still be a part of mid-range to high end GPUs

Afaik, AIBs/Nvidia probably have bought excessive stock of gddr5x on the ongoing mining craze. And now they have to found gpus to put them on and not only that but on the card that can still sell.

448 vs 320 on 2070 and 1080 respectively. Tests do seem to suggest Turing is more memory-limited than Pascal so increaing the bandwidth may have merit.
GDDR5 does seem to be on its way out though, so that may have effect on that price difference. With other reports Nvidia/AIBs were reported to have large amounts of GDDR5 in stock.

Not sure about that, performance gap between GTX 1080 and RTX 2070 increases when resolution rises.

 

[silentbogo]

The main thing in this article is a consistent flow of brown bullshit.
70% is ridiculous. Just by going to Digikey and verifying prices can shed some light:
1) Micron 8Gbit GDDR5 1.5GHz : $18.50
2) Micron 8Gbit GDDR6 1.5GHz : $22.25 (+20%)
3) Micron 8Gbit GDDR6 1.75GHz : $23.58 (+27%)

GDDR5 also became more expensive this year. To be more specific - 40+% more expensive than it was last year.
Not sure out of who's ass did they pull that 70%.

Regarding listed price sources: component-mart.com (or component-mart/shop/center. *[insert your local zone here]) is a scam. So far the only reviews I've managed to find(since I've never heard of them) are either bad or non-existent. Website(s) are ranked in either "scam" or "suspicious" or "non-trustworthy" categories, so this invalidates pretty much the whole article by 3Dcenter.
Shit, if that GDDR5 was really that cheap, they'd be out by now. Just to put this in perspective - $6 for 1.5GHz GDDR5 is comparable to the current retail of old 4Gb GDDR5(overstock most likely), or refurbished 8Gbit chips on Ali (read "used and reballed from dead mining cards").

EDIT: Some reviews
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.components-center.com
https://www.supplierblacklist.com/2018/11/26/components-mart/
https://www.supplierblacklist.com/2017/09/09/components-center-review/

Jesus fucking christ, when are you, guys, gonna start doing homework before putting shit on the frontpage?

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I don't know that DigiKey is the best source to make that assumption off of. I've done business with them, good store, but companies like EVGA and Sapphire aren't placing orders for memory from DigiKey, they're likely doing it direct with Samsung, Hynix, or Micron. DigiKey is mostly used by hobbyists or small businesses making specialized hardware.

 

[silentbogo]

I don't know that DigiKey is the best source to make that assumption off of. I've done business with them, good store, but companies like EVGA and Sapphire aren't placing orders for memory from DigiKey, they're likely doing it direct with Samsung, Hynix, or Micron. DigiKey is mostly used by hobbyists or small businesses making specialized hardware.

Digikey is a good source to make educated assumptions about the relative price difference. A scam network is not a good source for such assumptions.
I'm aware that OEMs buy chips directly from manufacturers and that the price is definitely lower, but I'm also sure that Digikey is not selling 2000ct bulk with 300% markup.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I wasn't replying to you directly, more to the OP.

GDDR6 should be materially cheaper to produce than GDDR5 all things being equal simply because it's a smaller node. Market forces (largely the fact that GDDR5 has been around forever where GDDR6 is new) and affecting price more than anything else right now.

 

[SIGSEGV]

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3032-vega-56-cost-of-hbm2-and-necessity-to-use-it

It is – about 3x more than GDDR5

yet AMD didn't jack up the price of their GPU irrationally

this article looks like damage control for NVIDIA