Samsung and SK Hynix continue to spend billions on DRAM production in order to satisfy the ever-growing demand for AI servers

Since its inception, the DRAM industry has gone through cycles of increasing production and then reducing it to boost profits. The two largest manufacturers will spend billions to increase RAM chip production, all in order to meet the never-ending demand for AI computer systems.

Samsung and SK Hynix produce all types of DRAM. They manufacture DDR4 and DDR5 for your PC's motherboard as well as GDDR6 or GDDR7 (and now GDDR7) graphics cards. When it comes to mega-processors like AMD's Instinct MI300 or Nvidia H100, High Bandwidth Memory is the memory of choice.

HBM is unique in that it consists of multiple DRAM chips stacked vertically on top of each other. Power and data are transmitted via wires running vertically through the die, called 'through-silicon throughs' (or TSVs). The read/write bandwidth is greatly increased when a large amount of memory is accessed simultaneously.

Samsung's HBM3 Icebolt Memory uses 12 layers of 10 nm dies for a total capacity of 16 or 24GB. AMD Instinct Mi300 has eight HBM3 Modules (128 GB GPU memory), which means that there are 96 DRAM Dies in one accelerator. According to a report from The Korean Economic Daily, this is why Samsung and SK Hynix spend a lot of money on increasing production.

You might be thinking, "Well, this is all very interesting, but it's only for AI, and not PC gaming." Here's the thing, the DRAM dies that are used for HBM could theoretically be used in other applications such as system RAM and graphics card VRAM.

HBM was used in the latter before. AMD was the first to use HBM in a GPU with its Radeon RX Fury Series, and again with the RX Vega 64. HBM was first used on the Radeon VII, and hasn't been seen since. GDDR6X/GDDR7 offer enough bandwidth.

If the market is flooded with spare HBM dies, we could see it return in the high-end segment, but only for Nvidia cards. AMD has backed out of this sector for now.

If the AI bubble bursts, it's possible that Samsung and SK Hynix will end up with a mountain of DRAM dies which are no longer needed and could be repurposed to other products. I don't think memory designed for HBM modules would work well as standard system RAM, but you never can tell. We could be back to low memory prices.

As the tech industry is still hell-bent on AIizing everything, it is unlikely that PC gaming can benefit from increased DRAM manufacturing just yet.