Nvidia’s latest board design can officially support GDDR7 memory modules produced by three memory vendors: Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron. However, so far, RTX 50 series GPUs have reportedly only been shipped with Samsung GDDR7 memory modules onboard.

Well, it appears that will be changing soon, as over on X, MEGAsizeGPU, a source typically well-informed around board partners, has reported that NVIDIA is now using GDDR7 memory from SK hynix, starting with the RTX 5070 graphics cards. Nvidia usually sells the GPU and memory as a bundle, meaning board partners are incentivized to go for the cheapest option.

Could performance take a hit?

Since there haven't been any RTX 50 series cards with SK Hynix memory released so far, we don't have any reviews to help us determine whether these cards behave differently in terms of temperatures or overclocking compared to those with Samsung memory modules. However, this isn't the first time we've seen SK Hynix memory on NVIDIA GPUs.

Back with the RTX 3060 Ti, we also saw a few cards equipped with SK Hynix memory. And those who ended up with the Hynix RTX 3060 Tis reported issues like overheating, random crashes, and an overall more frustrating experience compared to users with Samsung or Micron memory. There were also concerns about efficiency. For instance, the Hynix version reportedly delivered around ~0.165 MH/s per watt, while the Samsung variant achieved closer to ~0.2 MH/s per watt.

That said, it's still too early to judge the performance of RTX 50 series cards with Hynix memory, but hopefully, we won't run into the same problems this time around. Clarification from TechLevelUp on X notes that the problem wasn’t directly related to SK Hynix, instead placing the blame on a bad batch.

If you want to check which memory is used in your graphics card, you can use software like GPU-Z or, if you want to take it a step further, open up the card and check the memory modules directly; we wouldn’t recommend this unless you know what you’re doing.

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.