Finally 12 GB VRAM on a 128-bit bus?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_RTX_50_series#Mobile
RTX 5050, 5060 and 5070 have a 128-bit bus width. It does make most sense to connect the 3 GB dense chips to the fastest 128-bit GPU chip (5070).
3dmark.com/search - Steel Nomad:
5070 Laptop (8 GB VRAM, 128-bit bus width): Average score: 2985
5070 desktop (12 GB VRAM, 192-bit bus width): Average score: 5304
While the current 12 GB VRAM gaming laptops use the bigger, faster and more expensive 192-bit GB205 GPU, many games at settings where 8 GB VRAM becomes the limit, would run much better, if 12 GB VRAM was available.
Laptops using the 192-bit GB205 GPU are most of the time big, heavy, and expensive. The ones with the smaller chassis are even more expensive and may still have a loud(er) fan (because the chassis is smaller) and/or higher temperatures (there's no free launch).
128-bit/32-bit per GDDR7 chip = 4 GDDR7 chips, each 2 GB = 8 GB VRAM (current).
192-bit/32-bit per GDDR7 chip = 6 GDDR7 chips, each 2 GB = 12 GB VRAM (current).
128-bit/32-bit per GDDR7 chip = 4 GDDR7 chips, each 3 GB = 12 GB VRAM (new).
5090 MaxQ (=300W TDP) 48 GB VRAM desktop GPU using 3 GB chips when, tho? Asking the real questions.
Here is an example where even 12 GB VRAM are not enough: youtu.be/qPGDVh_cQb0?t=283 ("Worst 70 Series Ever, GeForce RTX 5070 Review")
In the DLSS 5 presentation NVIDIA used 2 5090 (2*32GB VRAM). This may imply that the VRAM requirement for DLSS 5 is going to be quite high. No wonder this news may be true. As the saying goes: There is no free lunch.
YouTube/Just Josh made a dedicated video about this on his main channel: "RTX 5070 12GB Spotted... Why isn't Nvidia talking about this?" [youtube.com/watch?v=aYIzJWgsSLE].
For the desktop I'd like to see a 5070 SUPER 18 GB VRAM and a 5070 Ti SUPER 24 GB VRAM. It's still not too late for NGREEDIA to cash in on the old TSMC 4N / N4 (which really is TSMC' 5N node). Of course, then the RTX 60 series would still have the same VRAM amount as the SUPER using the 3 GB dense memory chips and there would be less incentive for people, who would've gotten the RTX 50 SUPER, up upgrade, aside from the approx. 30 % energy efficiency improvement and the usual artificially-limited-to-RTX-60-series DLSS software features.