Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that its 16-gigabit (Gb) Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) memory is being used in NVIDIA's new Turing architecture-based Quadro RTX GPUs.

Thanks to Samsung's industry-leading 16Gb GDDR6 memory, end users can expect improved performance and energy efficiency in the widest array of graphics-intensive applications, including computer-aided design (CAD), digital content creation (DCC) and scientific visualization applications. Samsung's 16Gb GDDR6 can also be used in rapidly growing fields such as 8K Ultra HD video processing, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI).

TechPowerUp today released a major update to GPU-Z, our graphics sub-system information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility that no PC enthusiast can leave home without. Version 2.10.0 introduces a slew of changes. To begin with, we have added CPU temperature monitoring, supported on all Intel processors 2nd generation Core and newer; and AMD Ryzen. The graph drawing code for the "Sensors" tab has been improved for faster rendering and reduced CPU usage. The "Reset" button in this tab can be used to clear all graphs with a click. Various under the hood improvements work to avoid error messages with Query External. GPU-Z now reports Override limits on the ATI/AMD BIOS Advanced view page.

Support has been added for the GDDR6 memory type. Among the new GPUs supported are AMD Vega M GH, Vega M GL, WX 4130, WX 4150, WX 8100, Radeon Pro Vega 56, Pro SSG; AMD Vega Graphics in Ryzen 3 2200U, Ryzen 3 2300U, Ryzen 3 Pro 2200GE, Ryzen 5 2400GE, Ryzen 7 2400U; Intel UHD 605, UHD 610, UHD 630, P580; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB, GTX 1050 3 GB, GTX 1050 2 GB (GP106), GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q, MX110, MX130, GTX 750 Ti (GM107B); Quadro GV100, P600 Mobile, P620, P2000, P3200, P4200, Grid M3-3020; and Tesla V100, V100-PCIE-32GB, M4, P106-090, P5200, P6, P40, P100 SXM2, P100 PCIe 12 GB.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.10.0

The change-log follows.

A Vietnamese online store put up the first listing of a GeForce GTX 1180 based ASUS ROG Strix graphics card. The store even put out some specifications of the card, beginning with it being based on the "GT104" silicon, based on the "Turing" series. With "Turing" NVIDIA appears to be forking its GPU architectures on the basis of chips that feature DPFP (double-precision floating point) cores and Tensor cores, and those that lack both (and only feature SPFP cores). "Turing" is probably a fork of "Volta" that lacks both DPFP CUDA cores and Tensor cores; and sticks to the cheaper GDDR6 memory architecture, while "Volta" based GPUs, such as the TITAN V, implement pricier HBM2 memory.

Among the specifications of the GeForce GTX 1180 are 3,584 CUDA cores, and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. The memory is clocked at 14 GHz (GDDR6-effective), which works out to 409.6 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Pre-launch prices, just like most specifications, tend to be bovine excrement, which in this case converts to a little over USD $1,500, and isn't really relevant. What is, however, interesting is the availability date of September 28.

Reddit user 'dustinbrooks' has posted a photo of a prototype graphics card design that is clearly made by NVIDIA and "tested by a buddy of his that works for a company that tests NVIDIA boards". Dustin asked the community what he was looking at, which of course got tech enthusiasts interested.

The card is clearly made by NVIDIA as indicated by the markings near the PCI-Express x16 slot connector. What's also visible is three PCI-Express 8-pin power inputs and a huge VRM setup with four fans. Unfortunately the GPU in the center of the board is missing, but it should be GV102, the successor to GP102, since GDDR6 support is needed. The twelve GDDR6 memory chips located around the GPU's solder balls are marked as D9WCW, which decodes to MT61K256M32JE-14:A. These chips are Micron-made 8 Gbit GDDR6, specified for 14 Gb/s data rate, operating at 1.35 V. With twelve chips, this board has a 384-bit memory bus and 12 GB VRAM. The memory bandwidth at 14 Gbps data rate is a staggering 672 GB/s, which conclusively beats the 484 GB/s that Vega 64 and GTX 1080 Ti offer.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced volume production on its 8 GB GDDR6 memory. Built on experience and execution for several generations of GDDR memory, GDDR6 - Micron's fastest and most powerful graphics memory designed in Micron's Munich Development Center - is optimized for a variety of applications that require high performance memory, including artificial intelligence (AI), networking, automotive and graphics processing units (GPUs). Additionally, Micron has worked with core ecosystem partners to ramp GDDR6 documentation and interoperability, enabling faster time to market for designs.

"Micron is a pioneer in developing advanced high bandwidth memory solutions and continues that leadership with GDDR6. Micron demonstrated this leadership by recently achieving throughput up to 20 GB/s on our GDDR6 solutions," said Andreas Schlapka, director, Compute Networking Business Unit, Micron. "In addition to performance increases, Micron has developed a deep partner ecosystem to enable rapid creation of GDDR6 designs, enabling faster time to market for customers looking to leverage this powerful new memory technology."

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX graphics cards based on the "Volta" architecture, could feature GDDR6 memory, according to a supply deal SK Hynix struck with NVIDIA, resulting in the Korean memory manufacturer's stock price surging by 6 percent. It's not known if GDDR6 will be deployed on all SKUs, or if like GDDR5X, it will be exclusive to a handful high-end SKUs. The latest version of SK Hynix memory catalogue points to an 8 Gb (1 GB) GDDR6 memory chip supporting speeds of up to 14 Gbps at 1.35V, and up to 12 Gbps at 1.25V.

Considering NVIDIA already got GDDR5X to run at 11 Gbps, it could choose the faster option. Memory remains a cause for concern. If 8 Gb is the densest chip from SK Hynix, then the fabled "GV104" (GP104-successor), which could likely feature a 256-bit wide memory interface, will only feature up to 8 GB of memory, precluding the unlikely (and costly) option of piggy-backing chips to achieve 16 GB.

Rambus Inc. today announced the GDDR6 (Graphics Double Data Rate) Memory PHY IP Core targeted for high-performance applications including cryptocurrency mining, artificial intelligence (AI), ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) and networking. Leveraging almost 30 years of high-speed interface design expertise and using advanced leading-edge FinFET process nodes, the Rambus GDDR6 PHY architecture will provide the industry's highest speed of up to 16 Gbps, while utilizing established packaging and testing techniques.

"The high bandwidth delivered by GDDR6 makes it uniquely qualified to perform data-intensive applications such as HPC (high performance computing), AI, autonomous vehicles, and high-speed networking," said Luc Seraphin, SVP and general manager of the Rambus Memory and Interfaces Division. "We are excited to be the first IP provider to offer a GDDR6 PHY solution with industry-leading performance designed with power efficiency and high signal margins for these applications."

Micron Technology, Inc., a leading memory and storage provider, today announced with Rambus Inc., Northwest Logic and Avery Design, their efforts to deliver a comprehensive solution for GDDR6, the world's fastest discrete memory. This first-of-its-kind solution would enable GDDR6 use in advanced applications such as high-performance networking, autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence and 5G infrastructure. Prior generations of GDDR memories, enabled by GPU vendors, were focused exclusively on the graphics market. While this allowed graphics and game console designs to take advantage of the significant performance advantage offered by GDDR, other applications could not because the necessary building blocks were not available.

SK Hynix, the other Korean DRAM and NAND flash giant than Samsung, updated its DRAM product catalog to reflect immediate availability of its 8-gigabit (1 GB) GDDR6 memory chips. The company is selling four SKUs, part "H56C8H24MJR-S2C" in 14 Gbps and 12 Gbps variants; and part "H56C8H24MJR-S0C" in 12 Gbps and 10 Gbps variants. The -S2C chips are more energy efficient, in achieving 14 Gbps at 1.35V and 12 Gbps at 1.25V; while the -S0C achieves 12 Gbps at 1.35V, and 10 Gbps at 1.25V. Unless NVIDIA decides that the GTX 1080-successor should feature 16 GB of memory, the company could be in the market for 8 Gb GDDR6 chips.

Meanwhile, rival Samsung announced that it began mass-production of 16 Gb (2 GB) GDDR6 memory chips, which should enable 16 GB of memory across a 256-bit memory interface, or 8 GB over a 128-bit interface. Samsung's latest chips not only have double the density as SK Hynix's, but also tick faster, at 18 Gbps, with a voltage of 1.35V. It is widely expected that GDDR6 will be the dominant memory standard for entry, mainstream, and even high-end graphics cards, which launch through 2018-19. NVIDIA is expected this year to launch its new "Volta" graphics architecture across various consumer-graphics market-segments.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, today announced that it has started mass production of the industry's first 16-gigabit (Gb) Graphics Double Data Rate 6 (GDDR6) memory for use in advanced graphics processing for gaming devices and graphics cards as well as automotive, network and artificial intelligence systems.

"Beginning with this early production of the industry's first 16 Gb GDDR6, we will offer a comprehensive graphics DRAM line-up, with the highest performance and densities, in a very timely manner," said Jinman Han, senior vice president, Memory Product Planning & Application Engineering at Samsung Electronics. "By introducing next-generation GDDR6 products, we will strengthen our presence in the gaming and graphics card markets and accommodate the growing need for advanced graphics memory in automotive and network systems."

It was a banner year for graphics, both in terms of market strength and technology advancements. Gaming, virtual reality, crypto mining, and artificial intelligence fueled demand for GPUs in 2017. The market responded with a wide array of products: high-performance discrete PC graphics cards that let gamers run multiple 4K displays; game consoles and VR headsets; and workstation-class GPUs that can build the stunning effects we have all come to expect. And since these products are full of our GDDR5 or G5X memory, it was an exciting year for Micron's graphics team too. We had a record-breaking year in GDDR5 shipments and further solidified Micron's industry leadership in graphics memory with the launch of our 12 Gb/s G5X, the highest-performance mass production GDDR memory.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced today that it has begun mass producing the industry's first 2nd-generation of 10-nanometer class (1y-nm), 8-gigabit (Gb) DDR4 DRAM. For use in a wide range of next-generation computing systems, the new 8 Gb DDR4 features the highest performance and energy efficiency for an 8 Gb DRAM chip, as well as the smallest dimensions.

"By developing innovative technologies in DRAM circuit design and process, we have broken through what has been a major barrier for DRAM scalability," said Gyoyoung Jin, president of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "Through a rapid ramp-up of the 2nd-generation 10 nm-class DRAM, we will expand our overall 10 nm-class DRAM production more aggressively, in order to accommodate strong market demand and continue to strengthen our business competitiveness."

We know AMD has been doing a great job keeping the lid on their Navi architecture with information being scarce at the moment. Aside from knowing that Navi is being fabricated on the 7 nm process, it is possible that the microarchitecture will quite possibly support next-generation memory like GDDR6 or HBM3. In a Navi discussion on the Beyond3D forums, a user found an entry in a Linux driver dated back to July that apparently mentions AMD's upcoming architecture - not by its real name, of course. The code is to add support for importing new asic definitions from a text file as opposed to adding support in code. Tom St Denis, a software engineer at AMD, listed the output that would be generated by using this functionality. However, the entry that caught our attention reads: new_chip.gfx10.mmSUPER_SECRET.enable [0: 0]. If our memory serves us right, the codename for Vega was GFX9. So by logic, Navi should carry the GFX10 codename. Obviously, the SUPER_SECRET part further backs up our theory or maybe AMD's just trolling us. The red team has been hiring personnel for their GFX10 projects, so we can assume they're working diligently to release Navi some time next year.

This news may really not come as such; it's more of a statement in logical, albeit unconfirmed facts rather than something unexpected. AMD is working (naturally) on a GDDR6 memory controller, which it's looking to leverage in its next generations of graphics cards. This is an expected move: AMD is expected to continue using more exotic HBM memory implementations on its top tier products, but that leaves a lot of GPU space in their product stack that needs to be fed by high-speed memory solutions. With GDDR6 nearing widespread production and availability, it's only natural that AMD is looking to upgrade its controllers for the less expensive, easier to implement memory solution on its future products.

The confirmation is still worth mention, though, as it comes straight from a principal engineer on AMD's technical team, Daehyun Jun. A Linked In entry (since removed) stated that he was/is working on a DRAM controller for GDDR6 memory since September 2016. GDDR6 memory brings advantages of higher operating frequencies and lower power consumption against GDDR5 memory, and should deliver higher potential top frequencies than GDDR5X, which is already employed in top tier NVIDIA cards. GDDR6, when released, will start by delivering today's GDDR5X top speeds of roughly 14 Gbps, with a current maximum of 16 Gbps being achievable on the technology. This means more bandwidth (up-to double over current 8 Gbps GDDR5) and higher clock frequency memory. GDDR6 will be rated at 1.35 v, the same as GDDR5X.

Samsung managed to snag 36 CES 2018 Design and Innovation awards, and the company took to a press release to acknowledge the honors, and shed some light on some of its upcoming products and technologies. Of particular interest to us enthusiasts is the presence of GDDR6 memory, which Samsung says is "(...) The fastest and lowest-power DRAM for next generation, graphics-intensive applications." this new memory is expected to process images and video at 16 Gbps with 64GB/s data I/O bandwidth, which is capable of up to 5 GB/s speeds. Additionally, Samsung said the new DRAM can operate at 1.35 V, offering increased power efficiency over today's graphics memory (which typically requires 1.5 V).

Samsung also announced a NGSFF (Next-Generation Form-Factor) SSD solution, which "dramatically improves the storage capacity and performance of 1U rack servers," which allows for I/O speeds at 0.5 petabytes per second. Measuring only 30.5mm x 110mm x 4.38mm, the drive also improves space utilization and scaling options in hyper-scale datacenter servers.

Micron, who has been at the forefront in graphics memory production, has recently announced in a blog post their commitment to achieving ever increasing speeds and performance gains with their products (which isn't all that uncommon.) What this announcement has that better carves it as different and newsworthy, though, is that the company has seemingly achieved 16 Gbps speeds on GDDR5X memory - which up to now, ticked at up to 12Gbps. Some NVIDIA cards you probably know about actually had their GDDR5X memory clocked up to 12.4 Gbps.

The new achievements under GDDR5X will aid the company in better executing their vision for GDDR6 and its speed goals. Micron expects to have functional silicon of their G6 program very soon, being confident they can push products to market on early 2018. GDDR6 will bring some specific differences in regards to GDDR5X, such as dual-channel memory (GDDR5X is single-channel) and the introduction of a FBGA180 ball package with increased pitch, to accommodate these fundamental differences.

South Korean DRAM and NAND flash giant SK Hynix updated its product catalog to feature its latest GDDR6 memory, besides HBM2. The company had April announced its first GDDR6 memory products. The first GDDR6 memory chips by SK Hynix come in 8 Gb (1 gigabyte) densities, and data-rates of 14 Gbps and 12 Gbps, with DRAM voltages of 1.35V. The company is giving away small quantities of these chips for product development, mass production will commence soon, and bulk availability is slated for Q4-2017. This would mean actual products implementing these chips could be available only by very-late Q4 2017, or Q1-2018.

A graphics card with 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit memory bus (8 chips) features 448 GB/s of memory bandwidth. A card with 384-bit (12 chips), should have 672 GB/s at its disposal. Likewise, the 12 Gbps memory chips offer 384 GB/s in 256-bit (8-chip) setups, and 576 GB/s in 384-bit (12-chip) setups. Meanwhile, SK Hynix also updated its HBM2 catalog to feature a 32 Gb (4 gigabyte) HBM2 stack, with a clock speed of 1.60 Gbps. The 2.00 Gbps stack which featured in the Q4-2016 version of this catalog is no longer available. At 1.60 Gbps, a GPU with four stacks has 819.2 GB/s of memory bandwidth. A chip with two stacks, such as the purported "Vega 10" prototype that has made several media appearances, hence has 409.6 GB/s.

SK Hynix Inc. today introduced the world's fastest 2Znm 8Gb (Gigabit) GDDR6 (Graphics DDR6) DRAM. The product operates with an I/O data rate of 16 Gbps (Gigabits per second) per pin, which is the industry's fastest. With a forthcoming high-end graphics card of 384-bit I/Os, this DRAM processes up to 768 GB/s (Gigabytes of graphics data per second). SK Hynix has been planning to mass produce the product for a client to release high-end graphics card by early 2018 equipped with high performance GDDR6 DRAMs.

GDDR is specialized DRAM for processing an extensive amount of graphics data quickly according to what graphics cards command in PCs, workstations, video players and high performance gaming machines. Especially, GDDR6 is a next generation graphics solution under development of standards at JEDEC, which runs twice as fast as GDDR5 having 10% lower operation voltage. As a result, it is expected to speedily substitute for GDDR5 and GDDR5X. SK Hynix has been collaborating with a core graphics chipset client to timely mass produce the GDDR6 for the upcoming market demands.

After finally reaching mature yields (comparable to those of planar NAND processes), Micron's 32-layer first generation 3D NAND has grown increasingly prominent in the company's NAND output. Now, the company is looking to ramp-up production of their (currently sampling) 64-layer 3D NAND, promising "meaningful output" by the end of December 2017, looking for an 80% increase in total GB per wafer and a 30% decrease in production costs.

When it comes to the graphics subsystem memory, Micron is looking to transition their 20nm production to a "1x nm" (most likely 16nm) node, in a bid to improve cost per GB by around $20, with introduction of 16nm GDDR5 memory to be introduced later this year. However, GDDR5X volume is expected to grow significantly, in a bid to satisfy bandwidth-hungry uses through GPUs (like NVIDIA's GTX 1080 and potentially the upcoming 1080 Ti) and networking, with GDDR6 memory being introduced by the end of 2017 or early 2018. The company is still mum on actual consumer products based on their interpretation of the 3D XPoint products through their QuantX brand, though work is already under way on the second and third generation specifications of this memory, with Micron planning an hitherto unknown (in significance and product type) presence in the consumer market by the end of this year.

Even as its fellow-Korean DRAM maker SK Hynix is pushing for HBM3 to bring 2 TB/s memory bandwidths to graphics cards, Samsung is betting on relatively inexpensive standards that succeed existing ones. The company hopes to have GDDR6, the memory standard that succeeds GDDR5X, to arrive by 2018.

GDDR6 will serve up bandwidths of up to 16 Gbps, up from the 10 Gbps currently offered by GDDR5X. This should enable memory bandwidths of 512 GB/s over a 256-bit wide memory interface, and 768 GB/s over 384-bit. The biggest innovation with GDDR6 that sets it apart from GDDR5X is LP4X, a method with which the memory controller can more responsively keep voltages proportionate to clocks, and reduce power-draw by up to 20% over the previous standard.