Don’t Expect DDR5 to Go Anywhere Anytime Soon, as DDR6 Isn’t Planned to Arrive for Commercial Applications Until 2028

[Peter_Brosdahl]

A new report has indicated that each of the three big memory chip manufacturers has begun ramping up its development of DDR6. According to The Elec (via TechPowerUp), Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are all working with JDEC on the next standard, which could see speeds as high as 17,600 MT/s or more. However, the […]

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[MadMummy76]

I haven't even seen DDR5 yet IRL.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

We will be in the 2030s before DIY gets access, and begins to adopt it in any real numbers.

 

[igor_kavinski]

I haven't even seen DDR5 yet IRL.

Head on over to Anandtech FS/FT forums. Some kits on sale there. May make sense for you.

 

[MadMummy76]

Head on over to Anandtech FS/FT forums. Some kits on sale there. May make sense for you.

Shipping overseas? Unlikely. I have no inclination to upgrade anything at the current prices. I'll probably use my current DDR4 board until it stops working, and even then I'd weigh my options whether is it worth to get new stuff with DDR5, or simply buy another DDR4 MB.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

I count myself lucky and bit the bullet in upgrading one of my setups to DDR5/AM5 last spring through some careful shopping which had enough discounts involved to basically be MSRP or lower for nearly all parts. I still ended up dropping a lot of dough for everything but it was before things went bonkers again. My remaining 5800X3D setup is looking like it'll be here to stay, but that's not really a bad thing since it still holds up well. More than likely I'll just end up replacing its AIO in the next year or so.

The biggest difference between the two that I've noticed is that the 9800X3D uses less TDP and is more easily cooled due to its flipped cache design and a better AIO on it, and is just a little faster in terms of FPS or load times but not enough for me to justify doing another AM5 build under current market conditions.

On the flipside my build constraints are more related to wanting to stick with the two Lian Li mATX cases I'm using for them but if push comes to shove I do have another mostly ready AM5 build, sans processor, and a preferred PSU with slightly slower memory than the current 9800X3D build, sitting and waiting in a full-sized case. This was the catalyst for my first AM5 updgrade as a prebuilt with a 5090 that was nearly MSRP for all parts involved, and now is waiting as a backup plan depending on when AMD releases its 12-core Zen6 CPUs and when I might be able to afford one. However, I'm feeling more confident with every day that this will be one of, if not very, last builds I do before I retire with the way all of the PC and gaming industry is going. A fixed income isn't going to support this hobby.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

A fixed income isn't going to support this hobby.

For sale and trade forums are the meta on a tight budget. You will always have fairly modern parts on the cheap to build and upgrade with. Selling your old parts defrays a little of the cost as well. Message boards like this are populated mostly by older financially established white collar professionals. Many are whales. They let quality kit go for cheap as they move on to the latest and greatest. Can usually haggle a better price than they list too.

My joking non serious response is you are doing it wrong. You just need to grow the site enough to get real ad money and corpo swag. Enough for you yourself to get a slice of that pie. How do you do that you may ask? Shill, shamelessly shill. Digital Founder's Edition, TechPowerUP, Tom's Hardware, all shameless shills. Business Daddy will take care of you. Sycophants will flock to your site to get the warm fuzzies as you reinforce their confirmation biases. Your reality distortion field will be large enough that they can snuggle up in yours and not have to worry about it penetrating theirs.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You forgot to add, "Thanks for attending my Shilling 101 Ted Talk"

 

[MadMummy76]

I count myself lucky and bit the bullet in upgrading one of my setups to DDR5/AM5 last spring through some careful shopping which had enough discounts involved to basically be MSRP or lower for nearly all parts. I still ended up dropping a lot of dough for everything but it was before things went bonkers again. My remaining 5800X3D setup is looking like it'll be here to stay, but that's not really a bad thing since it still holds up well. More than likely I'll just end up replacing its AIO in the next year or so.

Even before the current situation I found DDR5 overpriced, there was no way I'd pay $300 to sidegrade from 64GB DDR4 to DDR5. Now it costs $1000. And then we are not even counting the cost of a new MB and CPU. All for an incremental upgrade. Even when I went from the 3700X to the 5800X3D when the only thing I had to pay for the CPU. It was barely justifiable. Slightly more stable FPS in some games, that's it.

Upgrades used to be transformational, now even if I'd drop $6000 and get the best of the best it wouldn't be. I'd still have to rely on DLSS. The local AI would run in 8 minutes instead of 10? That's not transformational. In the early 90s upgrading meant going from no textures to fully textured objects, that was transformational. In the late 90s upgrading meant going from software rendering to HW accelerated rendering, that was transformational. In the early 2000s upgrading meant going from 640x480 to 1024x768. The last time doing a new build felt transformational was when finally 4K native became a possibility in 2014. Now we are seemingly going backwards, we don't have 4K now without upscaling even in games with no RT.

So why upgrade at all? I think this killed the hobby more than the price. Because I'm crazy enough to pay more for my computer than my car, if it would feel the same as going from software renderer to Glide.

On the flipside my build constraints are more related to wanting to stick with the two Lian Li mATX cases I'm using for them.

That's another thing, I like my current case, but it is maxed out in terms of video card length. I was just barely able to shoehorn in the smallest 4080 available on the market, and I doubt even a 5080 would fit which I'd never buy anyway as when we remove nVidia's bs numbers with framegen and dlss it is more sidegrade than upgrade.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Upgrades used to be transformational, now even if I'd drop $6000 and get the best of the best it wouldn't be. I'd still have to rely on DLSS. The local AI would run in 8 minutes instead of 10? That's not transformational. In the early 90s upgrading meant going from no textures to fully textured objects, that was transformational. In the late 90s upgrading meant going from software rendering to HW accelerated rendering, that was transformational. In the early 2000s upgrading meant going from 640x480 to 1024x768. The last time doing a new build felt transformational was when finally 4K native became a possibility in 2014.

I will play Devil's advocate here.

There was a giant downside; Obsolescence happen far too fast. We didn't call it the bleeding edge for nothing. In just a few years you needed a new vid card to run the latest blockbuster games on the newest DX version. Tech like Glide far too quickly went the way of the Dodo bird. It's a big reason why consoles became so popular. Buy a console, have access to exclusive games, not have to worry about being able to play new games for a long time. 360 launched in 2005, yet you got to play GTA5 at launch in 2013. Admittedly, you were actually on your 3rd 360 because of RROD LOL

Yeah, it was cool being there as gaming went from looking best in the arcade cabinet to being on your home console or PC. And the massive visual improvements constantly happening certainly had that AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE factor. But the law of diminishing returns/ innovation exhaustion were inevitable.

I am among those gamers that would have been perfectly happy if we never left what I call the sweet spot. Red Dead 2, AC Odyssey, Shadow of War, Days Gone, those games were peak raster and beautiful. Only thing I would add to them is better textures. I don't need the wonder years back. I just want fun games with great art direction. UE5 slop games mostly look the same. I burned out on the Borderlands games long ago. And the performance to visuals in the latest iteration is criminal. But I give them credit for that visual style. Photo realism should not be the art style in so many games IMO. Thank the spaghetti monster indie games are full of creativity.

Now we are seemingly going backwards, we don't have 4K now without upscaling even in games with no RT.

One of the biggest advantages of PC gaming over console, is access to so many visual settings. Adjust those settings, and the game looks the same or better, and runs much better. Maybe we can spot minor differences if we have a side by side, zoom 300%, and pixel peep. I let the pros do that hard work then just use their optimization guide for the game in question when needed. I don't think there is a game in any of my libraries I can't play at 4k60 on my RDNA 3 and 4 flagships. Never mind the power of a 4090 or 5090. And TAA is garbage. I am stoked we have FSR, DLSS, and XeSS AA at native. There are games that look better with DLSS TM quality upscaling than native 4k TAA. Upscaling has turned out to be the killer app for RTX, not RT, PT, RR, or MFG.

Which brings me to another preference. I rarely play games when they come out. I did it with game pass for a while. And if it came bundled with hardware I bought. But I don't pay new game prices. My strategy going back to the 2000s has been a version of will it play Crysis? By the time I buy the game at serious discount and get around to playing it, whatever hardware I am using at the time will be capable of running it really well if not maxed out. @GodisanAtheist does something similar AKA the patient gamer.

So why upgrade at all? I think this killed the hobby more than the price. Because I'm crazy enough to pay more for my computer than my car, if it would feel the same as going from software renderer to Glide.

Your willingness to spend big money on a transformative experience definitely puts you in a very small minority of gamers.

I think VR is the last time I had that AMAZE feeling from gaming. If you have not tried it, maybe something like the Steam Frame might be worth a go for you. Or you may have just aged out as many do.

 

[MadMummy76]

I will play Devil's advocate here.

There was a giant downside; Obsolescence happen far too fast. We didn't call it the bleeding edge for nothing. In just a few years you needed a new vid card to run the latest blockbuster games on the newest DX version. Tech like Glide far too quickly went the way of the Dodo bird. It's a big reason why consoles became so popular. Buy a console, have access to exclusive games, not have to worry about being able to play new games for a long time. 360 launched in 2005, yet you got to play GTA5 at launch in 2013. Admittedly, you were actually on your 3rd 360 because of RROD LOL

But I wasn't on the bleeding edge, never have been really. I finally got a voodoo 1 over a year after it launched. I never had a flagship video card at launch, most of the time I had mid tier hardware with a focus on Price/Performance. When I did have a flagship GPU, it was very deep into their lifecycle.

As for consoles? My eastern european experience was completely different. Consoles were unobtanium, I've known only one rich kid who had a console (two right away) all the way through my school years. The rest just couldn't afford it, and that included me. Everyone had a PC of some sort better or worse dependent on their parents' wealth as that was needed for school work. Another factor was software. Nobody bought legal software back then. It was prohibitively expensive, think having to work 2 weeks at an average job to buy a console game, or a month on minimum wage. Even pirated games were more costly on console as the pirates charged more for them due to it being a more niche market. A pirated console game still cost about 1/3 of the legal copy, not including the cost of modding the console. So, yeah consoles were for the 1% only, if not the .1%.

Yeah, it was cool being there as gaming went from looking best in the arcade cabinet to being on your home console or PC. And the massive visual improvements constantly happening certainly had that AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE factor. But the law of diminishing returns/ innovation exhaustion were inevitable.

Arcades didn't exist here either, I never knew that a lot of games I played in the late 80s early 90s were ports of arcade games. But even if someone had told me I'd have had no clue what's a game arcade. The first time I've seen one was in T2 when that eventually got released.

I am among those gamers that would have been perfectly happy if we never left what I call the sweet spot. Red Dead 2, AC Odyssey, Shadow of War, Days Gone, those games were peak raster and beautiful. Only thing I would add to them is better textures. I don't need the wonder years back. I just want fun games with great art direction. UE5 slop games mostly look the same. I burned out on the Borderlands games long ago. And the performance to visuals in the latest iteration is criminal. But I give them credit for that visual style. Photo realism should not be the art style in so many games IMO. Thank the spaghetti monster indie games are full of creativity.

I think AC Odyssey and games of that era actually look more realistic than the current slop. And I also think striving for realism should always be the goal of graphics, at least for FPS and TPS games that look for total immersion. I can't be immersed into stylized graphics. That's why i absolutely despise cell shaded games that go for the cartoon look on purpose.

There are games that look better with DLSS TM quality upscaling than native 4k TAA. Upscaling has turned out to be the killer app for RTX, not RT, PT, RR, or MFG.

I'd do anything to uninvent DLSS, I hate it, it ruined everything and it looks like absolute garbage to me even on high quality setting. The fact that it looks better than native+TAA is not DLSS's merit, it is the condemnation of the poor sloppy implementation of AA in modern engines.

Which brings me to another preference. I rarely play games when they come out.

I do too, the problem is not the HW, it's the quality of games coming out. If there is one game / year that I truly enjoy I consider that to be a good year. 2025 wasn't a good year, and it looks like 2026 won't be either.

Your willingness to spend big money on a transformative experience definitely puts you in a very small minority of gamers.

It's all relative, I have not replaced my car in 10 years, and I didn't buy it new either.

I think VR is the last time I had that AMAZE feeling from gaming. If you have not tried it, maybe something like the Steam Frame might be worth a go for you. Or you may have just aged out as many do.

I always considered VR to be a gimmick an offshoot of gaming and not the future of it, and I think time has proven me right, despite everyone dogpiling on me when Alyx came out. Did any other AAA VR game came out since then at all?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

But I wasn't on the bleeding edge, never have been really. I finally got a voodoo 1 over a year after it launched. I never had a flagship video card at launch, most of the time I had mid tier hardware with a focus on Price/Performance. When I did have a flagship GPU, it was very deep into their lifecycle.

As for consoles? My eastern european experience was completely different. Consoles were unobtanium, I've known only one rich kid who had a console (two right away) all the way through my school years. The rest just couldn't afford it, and that included me. Everyone had a PC of some sort better or worse dependent on their parents' wealth as that was needed for school work. Another factor was software. Nobody bought legal software back then. It was prohibitively expensive, think having to work 2 weeks at an average job to buy a console game, or a month on minimum wage. Even pirated games were more costly on console as the pirates charged more for them due to it being a more niche market. A pirated console game still cost about 1/3 of the legal copy, not including the cost of modding the console. So, yeah consoles were for the 1% only, if not the .1%.

Thank you for that perspective. Being in the U.S. I sometimes forget the struggle has been real for other regions where pop culture is concerned.

I think AC Odyssey and games of that era actually look more realistic than the current slop. And I also think striving for realism should always be the goal of graphics, at least for FPS and TPS games that look for total immersion. I can't be immersed into stylized graphics. That's why i absolutely despise cell shaded games that go for the cartoon look on purpose.

I enjoy all sorts of games and art styles. And photorealism has the potential to inflict or trigger real PTSD for some people. I don't think I need to see realistic decapitations to be immersed. That is not the kind I want anyway. To each his own.

I'd do anything to uninvent DLSS, I hate it, it ruined everything and it looks like absolute garbage to me even on high quality setting. The fact that it looks better than native+TAA is not DLSS's merit, it is the condemnation of the poor sloppy implementation of AA in modern engines.

We are diametrically opposed on this one. The 2070 super in my collection had new life breathed into it thanks to DLSS. Ewaste is bad, and I am stoked for any tech that helps put off stuff getting trashed as long as possible.

It's all relative, I have not replaced my car in 10 years, and I didn't buy it new either.

Same here. New cars are the worst value. Buy slightly used, like a lease turn in, then drive it into the ground. All that money saved on the purchase, is making me money.

I always considered VR to be a gimmick an offshoot of gaming and not the future of it, and I think time has proven me right, despite everyone dogpiling on me when Alyx came out. Did any other AAA VR game came out since then at all?

Observation not insult; You sound like an old dog that does no like new tricks.

For flight and racing sim enthusiasts VR is great. Lots of mods and interesting stuff. And the jury is out on how popular it can be. The Steam Frame is likely to do for VR gaming what the deck did for handhelds i.e. cause the market to explode in popularity and variety. Facebook/Meta taking over Oculus slowed the roll. Valve Index was too expensive and unwieldy. The Frame is likely going to inject serious enthusiasm. Stay tuned.

 

[Grimlakin]

Meanwhile I saw an article on pcie gen 8 with 1tb of bandwidth...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Meanwhile I saw an article on pcie gen 8 with 1tb of bandwidth...

That's the kind of stuff where I go

But I don't care about it for my use case. Gaming will take ages to leverage it.