The explosion of interest in life-like games and virtual reality technology has made one thing clear: PCs and mobile devices will need better graphics.

Companies like Nvidia, AMD and Intel are making radical changes to chip designs to facilitate better graphics. At the core of improvements are faster ways for GPUs to draw up and dispatch images to users.

Chip makers are developing faster GPU architectures to achieve that goal. Another important element is faster memory, with new standards paving the way for better graphics in next-generation PCs.

The GDDR5X and HBM 2.0 (also called HBM2) memory standards were approved last month, just days apart, by JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, which defines specifications for memory in PCs.

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