# item.guide

GDDR5

Direct Answer

GDDR5 was the dominant graphics memory standard from its 2008 commercial debut through the mid-to-late 2010s, running a 32-bit bus per chip at data rates that grew from around 3.6 Gbit/s at launch to 8 Gbit/s in later products, before GDDR6 began succeeding it.

Source: JEDEC JESD212

Specs

Commercial Introduction 2008 (AMD Radeon HD 4870)
Bus Width 32-bit per chip
Data Rate Range ~3.6 - 8 Gbit/s per pin

A Decade as the Mainstream Standard

GDDR5 memory first reached the market in 2008 with the AMD Radeon HD 4870, running a 32-bit data bus per chip at data rates starting around 3.6 Gbit/s per pin and climbing to as much as 8 Gbit/s per pin in later products around 2015. It remained the dominant mainstream GPU memory standard through most of the 2010s -- notably including the PlayStation 4's 2013 adoption -- before GDDR6 began displacing it in new graphics card designs starting around 2018, though GDDR5 continued appearing in budget and mid-range cards for some time after that transition began.