Nvidia RTX 5000 GPUs may come with huge 512-bit memory bus

The RTX 5000, which will include the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards, could come with upgraded memory specs. This includes more memory for the RTX 5090.

The RTX 5000 series is all set to come with better memory config. But in what way. Let’s find out.

In October 2022, Nvidia released the GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. It was the first entry in the RTX 40 series of graphics cards. It was the most expensive and most powerful consumer graphics card ever released.

An interesting thing about the RTX 4090 graphics card was that it came with a 384-bit memory bus. This means that it can hold 12 chips of VRAM.

This is counted such as one VRAM chip uses 32-bit memory. So if one divides 384 by 32, we get 12 chips. Now VRAM chips used in RTX 4090 are of 2GB capacity. So that’s how we get 24GB of VRAM in RTX 4090.

But now that we know all about them, we are looking the successor of the RTX 40 series, the RTX 50 series, or RTX 5000 graphics cards as some might call it. Looks like we are getting even more information about them.

32GB VRAM For RTX 5090

Well known Twitter (now X) based leaker @kopite7kimi has leaked some very important possible specs for the Nvidia GeForce 5090 graphics card.

The first thing he has revealed is that he has almost confirmed that the flagship GPU, in the RTX 5000 range, the GB202, which will most likely be used in the RTX 5090 graphics card, will come with a massive 512-bit memory.

If Nvidia continues this path, then we might see that the RTX 5090 may come with 32GB VRAM. Which is 8GB more than what RTX 4090 came with.

For the record, 512-bit memory is very rare. The only time Nvidia used it in the GeForce graphics cards was in GTX 280 and GTX 285 series, was released 15 years ago. AMD too rarely used it. It was found in Radeon HD 2900 (ATI), Radeon R9 290, R9 295 and R9 390 series of graphics cards. Most of them, in exception to ATI Radeon HD 2900, came around a decade ago.

But despite larger memory bus width, we might see the RTX 5090 come with just 32GB VRAM and not more at start. Like something like 48GB. The reason is, memory chipmakers are still working on larger memory chips, like 3GB chips. But they may not be available by the time the RTX 50 series releases. The RTX 50 refresh might probably come with them.

RTX 5080 GPU Might Be Half Size Of RTX 5090

@kopite7kimi also speculates that the GB203 GPU is half the size of GB202. But he doesn’t know if GB202 will come in a multi-chip package – think of chiplets by AMD in the Radeon RX 7000 series. He says that chiplets could be used in Nvidia’s server GPUs, but not desktop ones.

Going by recent record, it’s likely that Nvidia might use the GB202 chip for the RTX 5090 and GB203 for the RTX 5080. So if that GPU used in the RTX 5080 is just half in size, then we might see a massive difference in performance between the RTX 5090 and RTX 5080 graphics cards.

There’s one possibility. That is Nvidia using a full GB202 GPU chip for RTX 5090 and using the same cut-down version of the GPU for the RTX 5080. That will leave lesser performance difference between the two graphics card models. But that’s very unlikely.

There’s another possibility that Nvidia could use a two GB202 GPUs for the RTX 5090 series. One full size GPU for RTX 5090 Ti and one cut-down version for RTX 5090. But this is nothing but complete speculation from our side and it’s again very unlikely. Why, because Nvidia might want to keep the full sized chip for later if required. For the record, even RTX 4090 doesn’t use a full size AD102 GPU.

Faster VRAM With GDDR7

When asked about the speeds of the VRAM that will be found in the RTX 5000 graphics cards, @kopite7kimi revealed that they will come with an effective memory speed of 28Gbps.

We had revealed few days ago that the GDDR7 graphics card memory was officially announced. This GDDR7 is all likely to power the next-gen Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards. It’s this GDDR7 VRAM chips that will allow them to run at 28Gbps.

While the official specs say that GDDR7 can run at an effective rate of 32Gbps, that’s not always the case for new chips. For example, the official speed for the GDDR6 was 16Gbps. But the first graphics cards in using them came with a 14Gbps memory speeds. We had detailed them in our tweet a few days ago:

Either way. Graphics card running at 28Gbps is still massive. This makes it 28% faster than the GDDR6X memory chips found in the RTX 4090, which came with an effective memory speed of 21Gbps.

Conclusion

@kopite7kimi remains among the most trustable hardware leaker out there. Though some of the leaks are speculations from his side. Even his speculations have come out to be true before. So while leaks are expected to change, his leaks are very likely to be correct.

So if Nvidia RTX 5090 indeed comes with 512-bit bus and 28Gbps VRAM, then we might see a huge performance increase over RTX 4090, which itself is the fastest consumer graphics card ever released. However, the next GPU in the line in the same series being just half as powerful is going to be a big disappointment if true.

Either way, the RTX 5000 graphics cards are not expected to release this year. So we might get even more information about them before they are officially released.

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