A Chinese technology site reports that Micron GDDR6X VRAM is currently in short supply. Therefore, to meet demand for its most popular GPU, the GeForce RTX 4070, which uses that memory, Nvidia may release a variant with a slower, cheaper GDDR6 chip.

When it comes to VRAM and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 40 series, there is almost only one option: GDDR6X. each of the RTX 4070, 4080, and 4090 graphics cards and all Super variants use Micron's exclusive high-speed memory Micron's exclusive high-speed memory. Micron also manufactures GDDR6, but other vendors such as Samsung and SK Hynix also manufacture it, which is less fast but less expensive.

However, Nvidia dominates the discrete video card market, making the supply chain dependent on one company; according to BenchLife.info (via Harukaze5719 on X), Nvidia's most popular card using GDDR6X RTX 4070, is doing just that right now.

To meet the Chinese market's demand for this GPU, BenchLife suggests that Nvidia may be considering releasing a GDDR6-powered model of the RTX 4070.

The Founders Edition RTX 4070 and all third-party models come with 12 GB of Micron GDDR6X clocked at 21 GT/s. Samsung produces 20 MT/s GDDR6 in large quantities (but offers 24 MT/s for "sampling"), which is a speed close enough to be a suitable replacement. While the former offers 504 GB/s of total memory bandwidth, the RTX 4070 with such GDDR6 is 480 GB/s, only 5% less.

Assuming that Nvidia does produce a GDDR6 version of the RTX 4070, even if it is only for Chinese PC gamers, the next obvious question to ask is how much difference will it make in price?

So while it is generally considerably cheaper than GDDR6X, it is difficult to determine the exact price because spot price tracking services do not typically report prices for Micron's faster VRAM. However, the RTX 4070 uses six VRAM chips, so even if GDDR6 is only a few dollars cheaper per module, such a variation could have a price tag over $30 cheaper.

Of course, that is unlikely, as graphics card vendors do not pass on all savings to customers, but a price cut for the 4070 would be welcome; AMD's RTX 4070 replacement, the Radeon RX 7800 XT, is rated at 19.5 MT/s It uses GDDR6, and although the memory bus is much wider (256 bits versus 192 bits), there is no apparent disadvantage to using GDDR6.

With any luck, Nvidia will offer a slightly slower and cheaper RTX 4070. If that happens, let's hope it won't be at the same price.