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SK Hynix is almost ready to produce GDDR6 memory with higher than expected per-pin bandwidth:
In a surprising move, SK Hynix has announced its first memory chips based on the yet-unpublished GDDR6 standard. The new DRAM devices for video cards have capacity of 8 Gb and run at 16 Gbps per pin data rate, which is significantly higher than both standard GDDR5 and Micron's unique GDDR5X format. SK Hynix plans to produce its GDDR6 ICs in volume by early 2018.
GDDR5 memory has been used for top-of-the-range video cards for over seven years, since summer 2008 to present. Throughout its active lifespan, GDDR5 increased its data rate by over two times, from 3.6 Gbps to 9 Gbps, whereas its per chip capacities increased by 16 times from 512 Mb to 8 Gb. In fact, numerous high-end graphics cards, such as NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1060 and 1070, still rely on the GDDR5 technology, which is not going anywhere even after the launch of Micron's GDDR5X with up to 12 Gbps data rate per pin in 2016. As it appears, GDDR6 will be used for high-end graphics cards starting in 2018, just two years after the introduction of GDDR5X.
Previously: Samsung Announces Mass Production of HBM2 DRAM
DDR5 Standard to be Finalized by JEDEC in 2018
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday May 01 2017, @03:15PM
For the most part, it certainly is. Basic desktop useage really doesn't push memory bandwidth so much as memory usage (code bloat). We also have plenty of CPU. Even a modest dual core i3 can handle most desktop use including low end gaming.
It's not Microsoft's fault. They have a minimum as well as an optimal configuration spec. But the problem lies in the OEM's who make tons of money upselling you on a few GB of RAM.
Dell loves pulling this shit by offering dozens of different models which are nothing more than the same PC with multiple fixed configurations. "Oh, you want more than 8GB RAM *AND* a core i3 in your optiplex? Too bad. Buy the i5 model for another $150 AND pay another $100 for the 8GB model. Or buy that nearly $900 i3 that's about $400 over the base i3. What I wind up doing is buying the base i3 model with 4GB, look up the part number of the OEM RAM module, and buy a matching 4GB module for $30-50. Or buy a compatible 8GB kit from crucial and use the extra 4GB OEM stick in another desktop to double that one to 8GB as well. You can save around $200+ per workstation doing this. Of course that's fine for small shops like mine with less than 20 desktops. If you order by the tens or hundreds, it's less practical and you wind up going with the upsell to eliminate the labour.
Dell (along with many others) were notorious for selling low end home PC's with barely enough RAM to boot the damn OS as was the case with my friends P4 Dell in the mid 00's with 256MB RAM and XP home. Ran like shit. Opening a web browser was an 30+ second ordeal as the disk chruned and burned shuffling stuff out of RAM into the page file. I had him buy a 1GB kit that was compatible and it was like a whole new computer. And 1GB should have been the XP minimum, not 256 like MS said.