DDR5 will dominate market by 2026, says report

Try to keep up.

What you need to know

• According to analysts, the DDR5 takeover is nigh.
• It's expected that by 2023, the market will be majority DDR5.

DDR5 DRAM is expected to control markets by 2023 and absolutely dominate them by 2026, according to a new report. Double data rate (DDR) baseline numbers are always improving, hence why we're on four right now. But soon, DDR5 will become the lion.

It's only a matter of time before DDR5 takes over, as that's how numeric installments work. Hence why Yole Développement's estimate that the paradigm shift is starting now is as good a guess as anyone's.

Yole Développement had this rationale with regards to the DDR5 takeover. "Micron announced sampling of DDR5 memory based on the 1znm technology, targeting RDIMMs for servers," its report said. "The DDR5 memory standard will be utilized by upcoming Intel and AMD platforms that are expected to be launched later this year. We expect a veritable takeoff of DDR5 will occur from 2022."

Yole Développement went on to point out that the incoming takeover of the latest and greatest DRAM iteration is inevitable. Data-intensive apps require better performance, the likes of which DDR4 is struggling to provide. "The new specification brings lower voltage and moves Power Management ICs (PMICs) onto the memory module," the report states. "It doubles the maximum data rate and increases the die density by a factor of 4 (up to 64Gb)."

In other words, if you thought you had the latest and greatest memory in your rig, think again; it's already outdated because DDR5 is about to go mainstream. However, that just means the best DDR4 RAM for your gaming PC is about to get cheaper. Hopefully.