Whether you’re shopping for a new PC or building one from scratch, graphical memory is an important detail you’ll need to consider. In January 2025, GDDR7 VRAM launched on Nvidia’s RTX 50 Series, but what is it?
There are plenty of acronyms you’ll want to familiarise yourself with when buying a PC, with CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD being some of the more prevalent. You can learn more about any of them by clicking through to our linked explainers on the topics.
GDDR7 is a more recent term that started gaining popularity in 2024 when Samsung became one of the first manufacturers to feature GDDR7 DRAM in its chips. Now, Nvidia has begun making use of GDDR7 VRAM?
Keep reading to discover everything you need to know about GDDR7 VRAM, including what it is, what it does and where you can find it.
What is VRAM?
Where DRAM – or Dynamic Random Access Memory – is a type of memory used by a CPU to store data and instructions, VRAM is type of memory designed specifically to be used by the GPU in graphics tasks.
Short for ‘Video Random Access Memory’, VRAM stores image data for a more smooth and even performance. This is especially important when the GPU is handling more graphically intensive tasks, such as video games or 3D design programmes.
What is GDDR7 VRAM?
GDDR7 stands for ‘Graphics Double Data Rate 7’ and is the latest generation of graphical memory. GDDR7 VRAM, more specifically, is the newest generation of graphics card memory, currently exclusive to high-end graphics cards from Nvidia.
GDDR7 VRAM made its first appearance on the brand’s RTX 50 Series GPUs in January 2025, which included the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080. The technology is also expected to come to Intel and AMD chips in the future, gradually replacing GDDR6 as the industry standard for GPU memory as time goes on.
GDDR7 vs GDDR6 VRAM
GDDR7 DRAM is 30-50% more efficient than GDDR6 and has higher bandwidth and memory capacity than the older standard. We’re anticipating seeing these improvements come to GDDR7 VRAM too going forward.
According to Corsair, GDDR7 transfer rates could potentially almost double the speed of GDDR6 which currently tops out at 20GB/s. GDDR6X, meanwhile, offers up to 23GB/s transfer rates. Comparatively, GDDR7 could offer speeds as high as 30GB/s on the RTX 5080 with the potential to push up to 48GB/s with subsequent releases in the next few years.
The memory is faster too, increasing from 22GB/s with GDDR6 to 30GB/s with GDDR7, boosting the memory bandwidth from 716.8GB/s to 960GB/s.
