NVIDIA is possibly launching a more cost-effective variant of its GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card featuring GDDR6 memory, replacing the GDDR6X that it originally launched with. The new SKU would be better differentiated from the RTX 4070 SUPER. When NVIDIA refreshed its RTX 40-series "Ada" product stack in January, it discontinued the RTX 4070 Ti and RTX 4080, which had been replaced in the lineup by the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER and RTX 4080 SUPER, but at the time it didn't tinker with the RTX 4070, which continued to sell at a roughly $50 lower price than the RTX 4070 SUPER. This new SKU could be an attempt by NVIDIA to get further down below the $500-mark in pricing.

The RTX 4070 originally launched with 21 Gbps GDDR6X memory. This new variant sees the memory replaced with 20 Gbps conventional GDDR6. The JEDEC standard GDDR6 chips could be cheaper than GDDR6X, and could very well be the same GDDR6 chip models AMD uses in some of its higher Radeon RX 7000 series SKUs. This, however, comes with a 4.75% drop in memory bandwidth, which NVIDIA probably overcomes with increasing the GPU clocks a touch. The ASIC code for this SKU is AD104-251, compared to the AD104-250 of the original RTX 4070. The core configuration is otherwise unchanged—you get 5,888 CUDA cores across 46 streaming multiprocessors. Galax has a card based on this SKU ready.

A prototype discrete GPU based on the Intel Arc "Battlemage" graphics architecture was spotted in a public boot log by Intel GFX Continuous Integration group. The group is probably testing a prototype discrete GPU with a Linux driver. The OS loads its driver at boot, which puts out a few messages in the boot log, including explicit mention of "Battlemage" as BMG. It also mentions its memory size to be 12 GB, a memory speed of 19 Gbps, and a memory bus width of 192-bit.

It is hence likely that this is a mid-tier GPU from the series, with the top tier one probably featuring a 256-bit memory interface. This aligns with Intel's strategy of targeting the bulk of the gaming graphics market, instead of gunning for the enthusiast class. The new "Battlemage" architecture is expected to make Intel contemporary against rival architectures in the segment, such as NVIDIA "Ada" and AMD RDNA 3, although it remains to be seen if it can square off against the next-generation NVIDIA "Blackwell" and AMD RDNA 4.

SK hynix has returned to Santa Clara, California to present its full array of groundbreaking AI memory technologies at FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage (FMS) 2024 from August 6-8. Previously known as Flash Memory Summit, the conference changed its name to reflect its broader focus on all types of memory and storage products amid growing interest in AI. Bringing together industry leaders, customers, and IT professionals, FMS 2024 covers the latest trends and innovations shaping the memory industry.

Participating in the event under the slogan "Memory, The Power of AI," SK hynix is showcasing its outstanding memory capabilities through a keynote presentation, multiple technology sessions, and product exhibits.

Minisforum today announced the G7 Ti Powerhouse, a Versatile mini-PC that offers AI-enhance creativity and raw power. Featuring Intel Core i9-14900HX or i7-14650HX processors and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 graphics, Minisforum G7 Ti delivers unparalleled performance for AI-based workloads. The powerhouse mini-PC solution is optimized for AI features, powered by up to an Intel Core i9-14900HX CPU, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Graphics. Minisforum G7 Ti offers avid gamers an unmatched experience and endless possibilities for creators.

Utilized the 14th Gen Intel Core i9-14900HX and i7-14650HX Processor, the AI-enabled CPU delivers 24 cores and 32 threads with 36 MB L3 high-speed cache, that rates the single-core turbo frequency up to 5.8 GHz and max performance at 90 W. The beast CPU helps AI applications, achieving 20% higher performance in the Cinebench R23 test versus previous-generation processors, making Minisforum G7 Ti capable of handling AAA games, video rendering, 3D design, and AI projects.

HP Inc. today introduced two new innovations—the world's highest performance AI PC and the first integration of a trust framework into an AI model development platform. Both announcements expand HP's efforts to make AI real for companies and people with new and transformative AI experiences across the company's PCs, software, and partner ecosystem.

HP is empowering everyone, from corporate knowledge workers to freelancers and students, to unlock the power of AI. Users can connect with anyone in the world with real time translation to 40 languages, become master presenters with their personal communication coach, and quickly create videos like a pro.

The city of Las Vegas late last year added another attraction to its town: the Sphere. The Sphere is a 1.2 million pixel outdoor display venue famous for its massive size and inner 18,600-seat auditorium. The auditorium space is a feat of its own with features like a 16x16 resolution wraparound interior LED screen, speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis technologies, and 4D physical effects. However, we have recently found out that NVIDIA GPUs power the Sphere. And not only a handful of them, as 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 power the Sphere and its 1.2 million outside pixels spread on 54,000 m², as well as 16 of 16K inner displays with a total output of 2.1 billion pixels. Interestingly, the 150 NVIDIA RTX A6000 have a combined output cable number of 600 DisplayPort 1.4a ports.

With each card having 48 GB of memory, that equals to 7.2 TB of GDDR6 ECC memory in the total system. With the Sphere being a $2.3 billion project, it is expected to have an infotainment system capable of driving the massive venue. And it certainly delivers on that. Only a handful of cards powers most massive media projects, but this scale is something we see for the first time in non-AI processing systems. The only scale we are used to today is massive thousand-GPU clusters used for AI processing, so seeing a different and interesting application is refreshing.

Chinese GPU manufacturer Moore Threads has announced a significant upgrade to its KUAE data center server. The company now has the ability to connect up to 10,000 GPUs in a single cluster, marking a huge leap in its scale-out capabilities for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing applications. The enhanced KUAE server incorporates eight MTT S4000 GPUs, leveraging Moore Threads' proprietary MTLink interconnect technology. These GPUs, based on the MUSA architecture, each feature 128 tensor cores and 48 GB of GDDR6 memory, delivering a bandwidth of 768 GB/s. While the full performance metrics of a 10,000-GPU cluster remain undisclosed, the sheer scale of 1,280,000 tensor cores suggests decent computing potential. Moore Threads' GPUs currently lag behind NVIDIA's GPU offerings in terms of performance. However, the company claims its MTT S4000 remains competitive against certain NVIDIA models, particularly in large language model training and inference tasks.

The Chinese company is facing significant challenges due to its inclusion on the U.S. Department of Commerce's Entity List, restricting access to advanced manufacturing processes. Despite these obstacles, the firm has secured partnerships with major Chinese state-run telecom operators and technology companies, focusing on developing new computing cluster projects. A recent financing round raised approximately $343.7 million will help Moore Threads' ambitious expansion plans. However, limited access to cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication technologies may constrain the company's future growth. Nonetheless, creating a scale-out server infrastructure with up to 10,000 GPUs is vital for LLM training and inference, especially as Chinese AI labs catch up to Western labs in terms of the performance of their AI models.

TrendForce reports that a recovery in demand for general servers—coupled with an increased production share of HBM by DRAM suppliers—has led suppliers to maintain their stance on hiking prices. As a result, the ASP of DRAM in the third quarter is expected to continue rising, with an anticipated increase of 8-13%. The price of conventional DRAM is expected to rise by 5-10%, showing a slight contraction compared to the increase in the second quarter.

TrendForce notes that buyers were more conservative about restocking in the second, and inventory levels on both the supplier and buyer sides did not show significant changes. Looking ahead to the third quarter, there is still room for inventory replenishment for smartphones and CSPs, and the peak season for production is soon to commence. Consequently, it is expected that smartphones and servers will drive an increase in memory shipments in the third quarter.

ASUS introduced the Radeon RX 6500 XT DUAL OC V2 graphics card. This is the company's second DUAL branded RX 6500 XT product, the original has a similar appearance, and identical dimensions of 201 mm x 128 mm x 40 mm (length x height x thickness). ASUS has done away with the tiny addressable RGB lighting that the original had. While the new card has an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, its design is slightly different from that of the original. It still uses a single 6 mm-thick heatpipe that makes direct contact with the GPU at the base.

The factory overclock is unchanged between the two cards—2820 MHz boost and 2670 MHz Game clock, compared to AMD reference speeds of 2610 MHz boost and 2310 MHz Game clock. The memory speed is unchanged from the reference spec, at 18 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). Based on the 6 nm "Navi 24" silicon, the RX 6500 XT has all 1,024 stream processors present on the chip enabled. This card gets 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across the GPU's 64-bit memory interface. It draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort 1.4a and HDMI 2.1.

ASRock expanded its entry level graphics card lineup with a new low-profile Radeon RX 6400 graphics card. Such a card had been missing in ASRock's lineup, as its only RX 6400 product had been the full-height RX 6400 Challenger, a product design it shared with the RX 6500 XT Challenger OC. This new RX 6400 Low Profile card isn't just half-height (low-profile), but also single-slot, and relies entirely on the PCIe slot for power.

The card's design involves a simple extruded aluminium heatsink ventilated by a 40 mm fan, with the interesting inclusion of idle fan-stop (something other low-profile cards in this segment tend to lack). The card is 150 mm long, and 68.9 mm tall. Out of the box, it comes with the low-profile bracket installed, but a full height bracket is included in the package. Based on the 6 nm "Navi 24" silicon, the RX 6400 is configured 768 stream processors across 12 compute units, and 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 64-bit wide memory interface. The company didn't announce pricing.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launched the cutting-edge AMD Radeon PRO W7000 series workstation graphics cards, including the flagship GIGABYTE Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot AI TOP 48G as well as the GIGABYTE Radeon PRO W7800 AI TOP 32G. Powered by AMD RDNA 3 architecture, these graphics cards offer a massive 48 GB and 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, respectively, delivering cutting-edge performance and exceptional experiences for workstation professionals, creators and AI developers.⁠⁠

GIGABYTE stands as the AMD professional graphics partner in the market, with a proven ability to design and manufacture the entire Radeon PRO series. Our dedication to quality products, unwavering business commitment, and comprehensive customer service empower us to deliver professional-grade GPU solutions, expanding user's choices in workstation and AI computing.

ASRock this week introduced the Radeon RX 6500 XT 8 GB Phantom Gaming graphics card. The RX 6500 XT comes with a reference memory size of 4 GB over the tiny 64-bit GDDR6 memory bus of the "Navi 24" silicon it's based on, but ASRock decided to double this, probably using high-density 32 Gbit memory chips, or two sets of 16 Gbit chips piggybacking each other. The card is spruced up with Phantom Gaming styling, is 24 cm long, standard height, and 2 slots thick. The cooling solution features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of fans. Power is drawn from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. Display outputs include one each of DisplayPort 1.4, and HDMI 2.1 with VRR. This isn't the first RX 6500 XT with 8 GB, Sapphire has had an 8 GB Pulse graphics card in its lineup for a while now. ASRock didn't reveal the pricing of this card.

The race is on for memory manufacturers to bring the next generation GDDR7 graphics memory into mass production. While rivals Samsung and Micron are aiming to have GDDR7 chips available in Q4 of 2024, South Korean semiconductor giant SK Hynix revealed at Computex 2024 that it won't kick off mass production until the first quarter of 2025. GDDR7 is the upcoming JEDEC standard for high-performance graphics memory, succeeding the current GDDR6 and GDDR6X specifications. The new tech promises significantly increased bandwidth and capacities to feed the appetites of next-wave GPUs and AI accelerators. At its Computex booth, SK Hynix showed off engineering samples of its forthcoming GDDR7 chips, with plans for both 16 Gb and 24 Gb densities.

The company is targeting blazing-fast 40 Gbps data transfer rates with its GDDR7 offerings, outpacing the 32 Gbps rates its competitors are starting with on 16 Gb parts. If realized, higher speeds could give SK Hynix an edge, at least initially. While trailing a quarter or two behind Micron and Samsung isn't ideal, SK Hynix claims having working samples now validates its design and allows partners to begin testing and qualification. Mass production timing for standardized memories also doesn't necessarily indicate a company is "late" - it simply means another vendor secured an earlier production window with a specific customer. The GDDR7 transition is critical for SK Hynix and others, given the insatiable demand for high-bandwidth memory to power AI, graphics, and other data-intensive workloads. Hitting its stated Q1 2025 mass production target could ensure SK Hynix doesn't fall too far behind in the high-stakes GDDR7 race, with faster and higher-density chips to potentially follow shortly after volume ramp.

Micron is getting ready to set sail with the new GDDR7 memory, and being NVIDIA's long-term partner, both are gaining big with the GeForce RTX 4000 Series. A few days ago, Micron announced its imminent launch of GDDR7 memory, remember that in March JEDEC published the GDDR7 memory standard. The interesting part is that an even more important piece of information was provided in one of Micron's slide-deck, the one that shows GDDR7 gaming performance. Officially Micron says that GDDR7 can be 3.1x faster than GDDR6 and 1.5x faster than GDDR6X. However, the slide in question provides some normalized FPS performance for ray tracing, and rasterization under game testing conditions. Until now, everything is clear, what comes next is our speculation and assumptions, based on previous knowledge so please, take it with a grain of salt. Will it be a hard guess, looking over those graphs, to tell that NVIDIA's RTX 5090 offers up to a 42% improvement over the RTX 4090 in rasterization, and up to 48% in ray tracing?

NVIDIA is getting closer to releasing its next-gen GPU with the RTX 5090 graphics card. Micron is in a strong partnership with NVIDIA and it's expected that its next gen graphics cards will use Micron GDDR7 memory. Now, we know that, at least for Ray Tracing, one real-world benchmark is Cyberpunk 2077, and it could be also the case here, from the graphs it looks very much like Ray Tracing was tested with Path Tracing. For Rasterization performance another hard guess is that perhaps it's either Starfield or Assassin's Creed Mirage. Presumably, tests were made using also AMD RX 7900XTX, and NVIDIA RTX 4090 to get GDDR6 reference. Time will tell if we made the right prediction.

At Computex 2024, we went hands-on with the only custom-design AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card to implement the 16-pin 12V-2x6 power connector. We've written quite a bit about this card, but weren't expecting it to be this long. This isn't just the only RX 7900 XTX with a 12V-2x6, but also the only air-cooled RX 7900 XTX that's strictly 2 slots-thick. ASRock made this card for graphics rendering farms, or AI development/inferencing builds, in which a GPU server would have 4-6 of these packed like sardines. The lateral blower helps ensure proper ventilation. The backplate is recessed to ensure better ventilation to the neighboring card.

The card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 2270 MHz Game clock, and 20 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory speed. ASRock also gave us a technical deep-dive into the card's design. For one, it's confirmed that the power connector is 12V-2x6 (H++) and not 12VHPWR. The cooling solution consists of a large copper vapor-chamber plate that makes contact with the GPU, memory, and VRM; conveying heat to an aluminium channel heatsink, which is ventilated by a high-speed lateral blower. The cooler shroud and backplate are both made of aluminium.

At Computex 2024, Colorful has introduced a new PC series of premium componentry for games, called iGame Ultra Series. Carrying a premium white aesthetics, the Ultra Series serves as clean and elegant component for PC builds. At the heart of the Ultra Series is the GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card. The card has a triple-fan cooling solution with vapor chamber technology that keeps temperatures under control. Powering this GPU is the iGame Z790D5 Ultra motherboard. Supporting the latest Intel 14th Gen CPUs and up to 192 GB of DDR5-7800 RAM. An array of ultra-fast PCIe 5.0 and 4.0 M.2 slots allow multiple high-speed SSDs for ridiculous storage performance. Keeping all of these elite components running is the 850 W iGame P850G Ultra W 80 Plus Gold power supply. Its modular design with dedicated PCIe 5.0 connectors ensures clean cable management and stable power delivery. For cooling the CPU, there is the iGame LQ360 Ultra W all-in-one liquid cooler, which sports a massive 360 mm radiator and a trio of high-static pressure fans. All of these premium components are housed in the iGame C23A Ultra W full-tower chassis. With a spacious dual-compartment layout, front USB-C port, and preinstalled vertical GPU bracket, it offers both incredible expandability and sleek aesthetics.

XFX earlier this month debuted the Phoenix Nirvana line of premium custom-design Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards with the China-exclusive RX 7900 XTX Phoenix Nirvana. The company is expanding this lineup with two new models, both of which are draped in white. These are the company's first white-themed graphics cards. The lineup now includes the Radeon RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White, and the RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White. Both cards appear to share a common board design, because the compacted "Navi 31" ASIC powering the RX 7900 GRE is pin-compatible with the "Navi 32" ASIC that the RX 7800 XT is based on. Since both GPUs feature a 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface, and a nearly identical typical board power value of around 260 W, AMD's board partners get to use their RX 7800 XT custom board designs for RX 7900 GRE products.

The XFX RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White features a significantly different board design to the company's Merc 319 product that's available in the west. The heatsink is noticeably larger, the cooler shroud appears better ventilated, and XFX is using thicker 100 mm fans for higher static pressure than from the ones you find in the global Merc 319 card. The most striking design element of course is its color trim. White makes up the cooler shroud, the fan impellers, and the backplate. The heatsink protrudes out of the edges of the black PCB that's barely noticeable. The card is 33.7 cm long, and 5.9 cm-thick, with a 13.2 cm height. The RX 7900 GRE Phoenix Nirvana White comes with a hearty 6.7% factory overclock, with a 2394 MHz boost clock (vs. 2245 MHz reference); while the RX 7800 XT Phoenix Nirvana White ticks AMD reference 2430 MHz boost. Both these cards, unfortunately, are China-exclusive products, just like the RX 7900 XTX card XFX launched earlier this month.

Aetina, a leading Edge AI solution provider, announced the launch of the Aetina IA380E-QUFL at Embedded World 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany. This groundbreaking product is a small form factor PCIe graphics card powered by the high-performance Intel Arc A380E GPU.

Unmatched Power in a Compact Design
The Aetina IA380E-QUFL delivers workstation-level performance packed into a low-profile, single-slot form factor. This innovative solution consumes only 50 W, making it ideal for space and power-constrained edge computing environments. Embedded system manufacturers and integrators can leverage the power of 4.096 TFLOPs peak FP32 performance delivered by the Intel Arc A380E GPU.

Today, we have the latest round of leaks that suggest that AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 graphics cards, codenamed the "RX 8000-series," might continue to rely on GDDR6 memory modules. According to Kepler on X, the next-generation GPUs from AMD are expected to feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, marking the fourth consecutive RDNA architecture to employ this memory standard. While GDDR6 may not offer the same bandwidth capabilities as the newer GDDR7 standard, this decision does not necessarily imply that RDNA 4 GPUs will be slow performers. AMD's choice to stick with GDDR6 is likely driven by factors such as meeting specific memory bandwidth requirements and cost optimization for PCB designs. However, if the rumor of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory proves accurate, it would represent a slight step back from the 18-20 Gbps GDDR6 memory used in AMD's current RDNA 3 offerings, such as the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX GPUs.

AMD's first generation RDNA used GDDR6 with 12-14 Gbps speeds, RDNA 2 came with GDDR6 at 14-18 Gbps, and the current RDNA 3 used 18-20 Gbps GDDR6. Without an increment in memory generation, speeds should stay the same at 18 Gbps. However, it is crucial to remember that leaks should be treated with skepticism, as AMD's final memory choices for RDNA 4 could change before the official launch. The decision to use GDDR6 versus GDDR7 could have significant implications in the upcoming battle between AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel's next-generation GPU architectures. If AMD indeed opts for GDDR6 while NVIDIA pivots to GDDR7 for its "Blackwell" GPUs, it could create a disparity in memory bandwidth performance between the competing products. All three major GPU manufacturers—AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel with its "Battlemage" architecture—are expected to unveil their next-generation offerings in the fall of this year. As we approach these highly anticipated releases, more concrete details on specifications and performance capabilities will emerge, providing a clearer picture of the competitive landscape.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, is thrilled to introduce the brand-new Intel Arc A750 OC Graphics card. BIOSTAR proudly presents the Arc A750 OC graphics card, a true game-changer for content creators and professional gamers. It is meticulously designed to cater to a wide range of computing needs, seamlessly accommodating content creation and gaming at every level. The Arc A750 OC graphics card harnesses the cutting-edge Intel Arc graphics technology, offering a unique blend of unmatched performance and innovative features that sets it apart in the competitive market.

With its impressive 28 Xe-Cores and a graphics clock speed of 2200 MHz, the BIOSTAR Arc A750 OC is a powerhouse designed to deliver robust gaming and content creation performance. It comes packed with a substantial 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, operating at a lightning-fast speed of 16 Gbps, and utilizes a 256-bit memory interface for efficient data transfer and processing. With a total board power (TBP) of 225 W, this graphics card is engineered to balance power consumption with high-end performance, making it an exciting option for users looking for a powerful yet efficient GPU solution.

TrendForce's latest report reveals that despite DRAM suppliers' efforts to trim inventories, they have yet to reach healthy ranges. As they continue to improve their lose situations by boosting capacity utilization rates, the overall demand outlook for this year remains tepid. Additionally, significant price increases by suppliers since 4Q23 are expected to further diminish the momentum for inventory restocking. As a result, DRAM contract prices for the second quarter are projected to see a modest increase of 3-8%.

The shift toward DDR5-compatible CPUs is set to drive an increase in PC DRAM demand in the second quarter. As manufacturers move toward more advanced, cost-efficient production processes for DDR5, their profitability is expected to rise significantly. This anticipation of higher DRAM prices in 1H24 has led to suppliers to aim for price increases in Q2, targeting a 3-8% hike in PC DRAM contract prices. Notably, even though DDR5 prices have already seen a notable rise in Q1—exceeding the average increase for other products—the expected emergence of AI PC demand may lead to a slight moderation in DDR5 price increases in Q2.

Without making much noise, AMD lifted the memory overclocking limits of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics card with its latest Adrenalin 24.3.1 WHQL drivers, TechPowerUp found. The changelog is a bit vague and states "The maximum memory tuning limit may be incorrectly reported on AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics products."—we tested it. The RX 7900 GRE has been around since mid-2023, but gained prominence as the company gave it a global launch in February 2024, to help AMD better compete with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super. Before this, the RX 7900 GRE had started out its lifecycle as a special edition product confined to China, and its designers had ensured that it came with just the right performance positioning that didn't end up disrupting other products in the AMD stack. One of these limitations had to do with the memory overclocking potential, which was probably put in place to ensure that the RX 7900 GRE has a near-identical total board power as the RX 7800 XT.

Shortly after the global launch of the RX 7900 GRE, and responding to drama online, AMD declared the limited memory overclocking range a bug and promised a fix. The overclocking limits are defined in the graphics card VBIOS, so increasing those limits would mean shipping BIOS updates for over a dozen SKUs from all the major vendors, and requiring users to upgrade it by themselves. Such a solution isn't very practical, so AMD implemented a clock limit override in their new drivers, which reprograms the power limits on the GPU during boot-up. Nicely done, good job AMD!

Sony is preparing to launch its next-generation PlayStation 5 Pro console in the Fall of 2024, right around the holidays. We previously covered a few graphics details about the console. However, today, we get more details about the CPU and the overall system, thanks to the exclusive information from Insider Gaming. Starting off, the sources indicate that PS5 Pro system memory will get a 28% bump in bandwidth, where the standard PS5 console had 448 GB/s, and the upgraded PS5 Pro will get 576 GB/s. Apparently, the memory system is more efficient, likely coming from an upgrade in memory from the GDDR6 SDRAM of the regular PS5. The next upgrade is the CPU, which has special modes for the main processor. The CPU uArch is likely the same, with clocks pushed to 3.85 GHz, resulting in a 10% frequency increase.

However, this is only achieved in the "High CPU Frequency Mode," which steals the SoC's power from the GPU and downclocks it slightly to allocate more power to the CPU in highly CPU-intense settings. The GPU we discussed here is an RDNA 3 IP with up to 45% faster graphics rendering. The ray tracing performance can be up to four times higher than the regular PS5, while the entire GPU delivers 33.5 TeraFLOPS of FP32 single-precision computing. This comes from 30 WGP running BVH8 shaders vs the 18 WGPs running BVH4 shaders on the regular PS5. There are PSSR upscalers present, and the GPU can output 8K resolution, which will come with future software updates. Last but not least, the AI front also has a custom AI accelerator capable of 300 8-bit INT8 TOPS and 67 16-bit FP16 TeraFLOPS. Audio codecs are getting some love, as well, with ACV running up to 35% faster.

The mid-range AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is not supposed to have 16 GB of video memory, but the same hardware modders from Brazil behind the recent GeForce RTX 2080 16 GB mod, had other ideas for the card. They have not only increased the memory size to 16 GB through memory chip replacement, but also succeeded in widening its memory bus to 256-bit. The RX 5600 XT was launched in 2018 with 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit memory interface. The card is cut down from the 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon powering the RX 5700 series, by enabling 36 out of 40 compute units (the same count as the RX 5700), but with a truncated 192-bit memory bus wired to 6 GB of memory (and so 25% lower memory bandwidth).

Paulo Gomes and Ronaldo Buassali pulled off the daring Radeon RX 5600 XT memory mod, which involves not just increasing the memory size from 6 GB to 16 GB, but also widening the memory bus from 192-bit to 256-bit. Since the RX 5600 XT is based on the same "Navi 10" GPU as the RX 5700, custom-design graphics cards tend to reuse PCB designs from the RX 5700 series, and have two vacant memory pads that are sometimes exposed and even balled. The mod involves three key stages—to replace the six 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with eight 16 Gbit ones; to add the required electrical SMDs and VRM components for the two additional memory chips; and lastly, to give the card a modified BIOS that can let it play with the new memory configuration. The "Navi 10" silicon also powers certain Radeon Pro graphics cards with 16 GB of memory using 16 Gbit memory chips, so that could be the starting point for the BIOS mod.

The first round of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards that implement GDDR7 memory are rumored to come with a memory speed of 28 Gbps, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This is despite the fact that the first GDDR7 memory chips will be capable of 32 Gbps speeds. NVIDIA will also stick with 16 Gbit densities for the GDDR7 memory chips, which means memory sizes could remain largely unchanged for the next generation; with the 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory chips providing 55% higher bandwidth over 18 Gbps GDDR6 and 33% higher bandwidth than 21 Gbps GDDR6X. It remains to be seen what memory bus widths NVIDIA chooses for its individual SKUs.

NVIDIA's decision to use 28 Gbps as its memory speeds has some precedent in recent history. The company's first GPUs to implement GDDR6, the RTX 20-series "Turing," opted for 14 Gbps speeds despite 16 Gbps GDDR6 chips being available. 28 Gbps is exactly double that speed. Future generations of GeForce RTX GPUs, or even refreshes within the RTX 50-series could see NVIDIA opt for higher memory speeds such as 32 Gbps. When the standard debuts, companies like Samsung even plan to put up fast 36 Gbps chips. Besides a generational doubling in speeds, GDDR7 is more energy-efficient as it operates at lower voltages than GDDR6. It also uses a more advanced PAM3 physical layer signaling compared to NRZ for JEDEC-standard GDDR6.