Advantages of GDDR memory | disadvantages of GDDR memory
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of GDDR memory and its basics. It mentions benefits or advantages of GDDR memory and drawbacks or disadvantages of GDDR memory.
What is GDDR memory?
Introduction:
GDDR stands for Graphics Double Data rate memory. It is SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM)
designed specially for video cards. There are different versions of GDDR viz. GDDR1 to GDDR5,
GDDR5X and GDDR6. It offers more benefits compare to DDR memory which uses two data transfers per cycle.
The GDDR5 is the latest high performance memory used widely in existing graphics cards. It is used in various budget range graphics cards which include GTX 1060/1070, Radeon RX 480, GT 730/740, RX 460 etc.
GDDR memories are manufactured by Samsung, Hynix, ELPIDA or Micron. GDDR5 chips are available in various sizes such as 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB and 8 GB. Moreover GDDR5 supports 32 bit wide bus width.
Figure depicts structure of GDDR5 memory type. It has square/rectangular appearance. Following table compares different GDDR memory types with respect to memory clock and transfer rate.
| Chip Type | Module Type | Memory Clock | Transfer/s | Transfer Rate | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDDR2 | 500 MHz | 128 Gbit/s | 16 GB/s | ||
| 64 lanes | GDDR3 | 625 MHz | 2.5 GT/s | 159 Gbit/s | 19.9 GB/s |
| 64 lanes | GDDR4 | 275 MHz | 2.2 GT/s | 140.8 Gbit/s | 17.6 GB/s |
| 64 lanes | GDDR5 | 625 to 1000 MHz | 5 to 8 GT/s | 320 to 512 Gbit/s | 40 to 64 GB/s |
| 64 lanes | GDDR5X | 625 to 875 MHz | 10 to 12 GT/s | 640 to 896 Gbit/s | 80 to 112 GB/s |
| 64 lanes | GDDR6 | 875 to 1000 MHz | 14 to 16 GT/s | 896 to 1024 Gbit/s | 112 to 128 GB/s |
Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/
Benefits or advantages of GDDR memory
Following are the benefits or advantages of GDDR memory:
➨It offers much higher bandwidth due to wider memory bus.
➨It has low power and heat dispersal requirements compare to DDR memory.
➨It provides high performance modules with simple cooling systems than DDR memory.
➨It offers higher maximum capacity than DDR memory.
➨It offers higher speed and fast operations than DDR memory.
➨It is widely used on various graphics cards from several manufacturers.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of GDDR memory
Following are the drawbacks or disadvantages of GDDR memory:
➨GDDR is more expensive than DDR memory types.
➨Certain GDDR version such as GDDR5X dissipates more heat and hence it requires thermal pads.
➨It requires more space on PCB and hence card size will be larger.
➨Its density is low and hence requires several such modules around GPU.
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