The launch of Nvidia’s next-generation graphics playing cards is a great distance off, maybe as a lot as two years away. There’s lots of time for Nvidia to cut and alter no matter GPU finally ends up powering the hypothetically named RTX 50-series. The rumor mill by no means stops, although.
The newest nugget of information to floor comes from Kopite7kimi, a often dependable supply of Nvidia info. They speculate that the flagship Nvidia RTX 50 card, presumably named the RTX 5090, may have a 512-bit reminiscence bus. That is one thing we are able to all recognize given we had playing cards with 512-bit buses going again properly over a decade.
Mixed with a number of sources, I verify the gaming flagship of Ada-next may have a 512-bit reminiscence interface.July 27, 2023
Electrical complexities and manufacturing bills are sometimes cited as causes to undertake a narrower bus, but when a card just like the RTX 4090 at $1,599 does not justify a 512-bit bus, what’s going to? Following that line of pondering makes me shudder on the considered what an RTX 5090 will price.
Within the case of contemporary GPUs, ever rising GDDR6 and GDDR6X speeds have lessened the necessity for a large reminiscence bus. If we take the RTX 4090 for instance, it consists of 24GB of GDDR6X reminiscence at 21Gbps, giving it a most bandwidth of 1,008GB/s. The RTX 3090 Ti had the identical configuration, which means we did not see any gen-on-gen bandwidth enchancment, regardless of the massive uplift in general efficiency.
A 512-bit bus width paired with 21Gbps reminiscence would end in 1,344 GB/s of bandwidth. That is a pleasant 33% enhance over the RTX 4090 proper there. However 21Gbps reminiscence is so 2022. We have got GDDR7 to sit up for.
If Nvidia was to equip the RTX 5090 with 32Gbps GDDR7 with a 512-bit bus, we would be taking a look at over 2TB/s of bandwidth, double that of the RTX 4090. That opens up hypothesis about why Nvidia would really feel the necessity to enhance reminiscence bandwidth by that a lot. If 8K gaming ever takes off, that is the cardboard that may lead the cost. It is an thrilling prospect, although absolutely an costly one.
Ought to Nvidia select to incorporate a 512-bit bus in its subsequent gen flagship, it ought to bode properly for the cheaper playing cards within the vary too. One of many main criticisms of the RTX 4070 and RTX 4070 Ti, and significantly the RTX 4060 Ti is their slim bus widths. An improve to 192-bit and 256-bit buses for xx60 and xx70 playing cards respectively can be welcome.
The transfer to a 512-bit bus opens up the potential of some fascinating reminiscence configurations. The RTX 3090/TI and RTX 4090 all include 24GB of reminiscence, so with a 512-bit bus, playing cards with 32GB of reminiscence turn out to be a definite risk.
Begin saving people. A hypothetical RTX 5090 with 32GB of GDDR7 reminiscence and a 512-bit bus might make a $1,599 RTX 4090 seem like a Greatest Purchase cut price bin particular. At the very least you may have a very long time to replenish the piggy financial institution.