Is the GeForce GTX 1070 getting a GDDR5X memory upgrade? Not so fast

Zotac recently added another GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card model to its product stack, and in doing so it seemingly revealed that Nvidia was adding a GDDR5X memory option to the 1070, like it did with the GeForce GTX 1060 in October. If you got your hopes up, brace yourself—the GDDR5X memory that initially appeared in the specifications was a "simple mistake" on Zotac's part.

This was not immediately evident. When the new SKU appeared online (model ZT-P10700Q-10P), it displayed "GDDR5X" in big, bold letters in the product title, and also the accompanying specifications chart. Zotac pulled the listing offline, though not before Google could cache a snapshot.

Naturally, this led to the assumption that Zotac inadvertently announced something that Nvidia was not yet ready to reveal. However, the listing has since reappeared, only this time it shows the usual GDDR5 memory, not GDDR5X. I asked Zotac what was up with that, and the company confirmed it was just a typo.

"It will only support the normal GDDR5 [memory]," Zotac said.

The potential advantage of using GDDR5X memory is ultimately more bandwidth, by running at faster speeds. It remains to be seen if that will actually be the case on GeForce GTX 1060 models that use the upgraded memory. I haven't spotted any that are available to purchase yet.

Whether Nvidia opts to upgrade the GeForce GTX 1070 with a GDDR5X memory option remains to be seen. At this point, I'd say it's unlikely. I've reached to Nvidia for comment and will update this article when/if I hear back.

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Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).