Earlier this month, reports suggested that Nvidia has added SK hynix as a GDDR7 supplier for its RTX 50 series GPUs, after previously only sourcing from Samsung. On Chiphell, a user recently got their hands on a Gigabyte Gaming OC RTX 5070 Ti with SK hynix memory and found its overclocking potential similar to what we've seen from Samsung, via UNIKO's Hardware. While thermal and efficiency data are missing, this is nonetheless a positive indication.
Each generation, Nvidia casts a wide net to broaden its memory supplier base, ensuring multiple options. This is a common approach with many products, especially SSDs, many of which often ship with revised controllers or NAND flash modules later in their lifecycle. This shouldn't impact the average consumer as Nvidia likely validates all memory chips to run at a minimum of 28 Gbps (or 30 Gbps for the RTX 5080), at defined power, voltage, and temperature settings.
A user at Chiphell secured an RTX 5070 Ti from Gigabyte (SK hynix memory) earlier this week. Several days later, they attempted to increase the power limits by flashing a BIOS that was designated for the Aorus Master RTX 5070 Ti (Samsung memory), resultantly bricking the card. Fortunately, the damage wasn't permanent as their GPU was equipped with a dual BIOS, allowing them to switch to the secondary firmware.
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Either way, to test the limits of their GPU's memory, the user achieved a memory clock of 2,125 MHz (34 Gbps) with overclocking, aligning with the majority of Samsung overclocks we've witnessed. This tells us that GDDR7 modules from SK hynix are just as capable as ones from Samsung when it comes to overclocking - with this sample.
A common theory being put forward is that RTX 50 BIOS versions are memory vendor-dependent, so firmware for Samsung will not work on SK hynix-based cards, and conversely. However, it's difficult to draw a reasonable conclusion as our test data is limited to just one example.
Even though memory offerings from SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung are mostly comparable and rigorously validated by Nvidia, there have been slight inconsistencies in the past. Likewise, the overclocking headroom, voltage requirements for specific speeds, and thermals can differ between memory technologies, making it a bit of a lottery for enthusiasts and overclockers.
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