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Nvidia's GDDR5x and GDDR6x vs. normal GDDR5 and GDDR6

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Dec 12, 2020
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Is Nvidia's GDDR5x and GDDR6x really that much more performant than GDDR5 and GDDR6? Are/were AMD's GPUs leaving much performance on the table by not using GDDR5x or GDDR6x? Or was GDDR5x and GDDR6x really just more a marketing ploy?
 
Is Nvidia's GDDR5x and GDDR6x really that much more performant than GDDR5 and GDDR6? Are/were AMD's GPUs leaving much performance on the table by not using GDDR5x or GDDR6x? Or was GDDR5x and GDDR6x really just more a marketing ploy?
GDDR5X outpaced GDDR5 by a significant margin. GDDR5X went up to 12 Gbps while GDDR5 topped out at 9 Gbps in shipped GPUs. For GDDR5, there were 10 Gbps parts announced, but I don't recall any GPUs using those speeds. GDDR6X, while faster than GDDR6, hasn't seen the same relative improvement so far.
 
There have been GPUs that responded much better to memory overclocking, e.g. the RX480.

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Is Nvidia's GDDR5x and GDDR6x really that much more performant than GDDR5 and GDDR6? Are/were AMD's GPUs leaving much performance on the table by not using GDDR5x or GDDR6x? Or was GDDR5x and GDDR6x really just more a marketing ploy?

GDDR6X is an exclusive deal between Nvidia and Micron, others don't get in on it.

AMD doesn't need it anyway, a larger Infinity Cache pool compensated for the relatively low bandwidth on 16Gbps GDDR6, and new wider bus on 20Gbps GDDR6 gave it the bandwidth it needed for the 7900XT and XTX.

GDDR6X fell in line with Nvidia strategy though of smaller bus widths and VRAM sizes without necessarily sacrificing bandwidth, whether you view that as a good or bad thing.
 
The main problem with GDDR6X is that the vram overclock sink as a stone the colder you run your graphics card. And I hope the new GDDR7 don't suffer from same cold bugs. I'm not happy with how GDDR6x functions and looking forwards to get rid of this awful tech.

Samsung's new GDDR7 graphics memory delivers 50% more Bandwith.

 
Is Nvidia's GDDR5x and GDDR6x really that much more performant than GDDR5 and GDDR6? Are/were AMD's GPUs leaving much performance on the table by not using GDDR5x or GDDR6x? Or was GDDR5x and GDDR6x really just more a marketing ploy?
faster VRAM is faster VRAM.


As an example you can use 4x 64 bit RAM modules on a card vs needing 6x slower ones for the same speed - so they can potentially cut costs.
It's not something with a universal yes/no answer, as its part of a complete picture with a GPU design


On the CPU side where we can change things around, Zen3 CPU's like the 5800x really benefit from low RAM latency like 3200CL14 - but the 5800x3D with it's greater cache doesn't care if its at CL18

The GPU designs used inherently have speeds that are better for them, use less parts, more cost efficient, etc.
(This is why a slower card might have 16GB while the faster card has 10GB - the 16GB could be half the speed and 1/3 the price, but offset the speed by needing to swap out data less often)
 
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