Samsung Details DDR6, LPDDR6, GDDR7: Up to 32,000Gbps and Less Power Consumption

Areej Syed

November 20, 2021

Samsung has detailed its next (to next) generation of memory kits. At its annual tech day, the specifications and plans for DDR6, LPDDR6, and GDDR7 memory were detailed. With DDR6, we’re looking at a doubling in bandwidth to 12,800 MT/s (from 6,400 MT/s on DDR5), and twice as many memory channels per DIMM. While DDR5 adopts a dual-channel architecture, DDR6 plans to increase it to a quad-channel design. The number of memory banks also increases to 64, four times as much as DDR4. DDR5 memory is still in the early phase of development, so don’t expect to buy a 12,800 MT/s kit anytime in the near future.

	JEDEC-Module	Overclocked
DDR4	up to 3,200 MT / s	up to 5,600 MT / s
DDR5	up to 6,400 MT / s	up to 8,400 MT / s
DDR6	up to 12,800 MT / s	up to 17,000 MT / s

In the mobile segment, we have LPDDR6 memory. As the low power equivalent of DDR6, it’ll cut down on power consumption while simultaneously increasing the throughput. While LPDDR5 tops out at 6,400 MT/s, and LPDDR5X extends it to 8,500 MT/s, LPDDR6 memory will push it to as much as 17,000 MT/s, the same as overclocked DDR6 modules. The mass production of LPDDR5 chips has already begun, while LPDDR5x will begin mass production in early 2022 using the 1anm process.

For gamers and graphics enthusiasts, we have the GDDR6 memory standard. At present, GDDR6 tops out at 18 Gbps, with Micron’s GDDR6X modules enabling speeds of up to 20Gbps (thanks to PAM4). Samsung is planning to increase the throughput of GDDR6 to 24 Gbps with its GDDR6+ chips based on the 1z mm process. AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 refresh may leverage these faster chips.

For GDDR7, we’re looking at a 33% increase in bandwidth to 32 Gbps. Not many details regarding GDDR7 have been shared at this point. The only major feature we know is known as “real-time error protection” which I reckon is similar to on-die ECC.

Finally, there’s the matter of next-gen HBM3 memory primarily used in data center CPUs and GPUs. Samsung promises per pin speeds of 800GB/s for HBM 3 and 450GB/s for HBM2e. SK Hynix already released the specs of its HBM3 memory a while back (819 GB/s) with plans to integrate it into GPUs/CPUs in 2022.