Nvidia fixes the 8GB RAM problem with one of its GPUs—if you can pay for it

Source: Ars Technica

Background

Whether you’re a gamer trying to play recent AAA titles at high resolutions and maxed‑out settings or an AI enthusiast trying to run models locally, a GPU with 8 GB of video memory has become a limiting bottleneck. Ongoing memory shortages and price spikes have made it a particularly bad time for GPU makers to address this issue. Rumors suggested that a RAM‑boosting mid‑generation “Super” refresh for Nvidia’s RTX 50‑series GPUs was quietly delayed or canceled earlier this year, at least in part because of memory costs【https://www.pcmag.com/news/nvidia-reportedly-hits-pause-delays-rtx-50-super-gpus-heres-why】.

Nvidia’s RAM Upgrade

One of Nvidia’s GPUs is getting a RAM upgrade, according to an announcement the company buried at the bottom of a blog post about a routine Game Ready driver update【https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/conan-exiles-enhanced-geforce-game-ready-driver/】. The laptop version of the GeForce RTX 5070 is receiving a bump from 8 GB to 12 GB of GDDR7—a 50 percent increase that should reduce some performance bottlenecks and generally future‑proof the GPU.

Technical Details

• The 12 GB mobile RTX 5070 uses the same 128‑bit memory interface as the 8 GB version.
• Both variants retain 4,608 CUDA cores.
• The mobile RTX 5070 is built on the GB206 silicon die, the same die used in the desktop RTX 5060.
• The desktop RTX 5070, by contrast, uses the larger GB205 die, making it a considerably more powerful GPU despite the RAM increase in the mobile version.