To what extent does it impact that GDDR6 is more expensive than GDDR5?
GDDR6 memories are more expensive than GDDR5 memories, but this difference is compensated by other parameters and the gap will narrow in 2019.
We have recently learned that GDDR6 memory is 70% more expensive than GDDR5. The difference in cost per chip is quite important and ends up affecting the NVIDIA GeForce RTX. It not only impacts the price part, but also other factors such as performance, consumption and temperatures. Turing has not started on the best foot and is that the high price and the lack of games with RayTracing are taking their toll.
Is it worth adding GDDR6 memory to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX?
Price aside, GDDR6 memory operates at 12GHz while GDDR5 memory operates at 8GHz. This makes the new GDDR6 memories 75% faster than the previous generation. At the same time, the efficiency is improved because the memory controller can be smaller because the number of chips has been reduced.
It seems that the price increase of 70% must have a bullish impact on the price, but it is not. Reducing the number of chips, reducing consumption and reducing the memory controller can reduce costs. We must also bear in mind that we gain space on the PCB in order to improve cooling. Also having fewer memory chips simplifies the heatsinks a bit.
This could have led NVIDIA to develop GTX 2060 models with GDDR6 memories and models with GDDR5 memories. Models with GDDR5 memories would be considerably cheaper. According to Component Mart the cost of 6GB of GDDR6 versus 6GB of GDDR5 represents a cost increase of $ 29. This increase could be offset by what was highlighted above.
On the other hand, we are talking about new reports that are still in the improvement and optimization phase of the manufacturing process. It is expected that the price of these memories will be reduced throughout 2019. Also note that now there is only one seller, which is Micron and that it is expected that Samsung's will arrive throughout the year. These Samsung memories should offer a much better performance-consumption-temperature ratio.
Source: OC3D
