GDDR5 vs. HBM
Comparing 2 standards across 7 specifications. 7 key differences identified.
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.
HBM (High Bandwidth Memory), standardized by JEDEC in October 2013, takes a fundamentally different approach from GDDR -- stacking multiple DRAM dies vertically and connecting them via through-silicon vias next to the GPU on a silicon interposer, trading GDDR's narrower, faster-clocked bus for a much wider, slower one. Manufacturing cost has kept it mostly in high-end compute GPUs rather than mainstream cards.
Specification Comparison Table
7 Parameters| Parameter / Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Commercial Introduction
|
2008 (AMD Radeon HD 4870) | — |
|
Bus Width
|
32-bit per chip | — |
|
Data Rate Range
|
~3.6–8 Gbit/s per pin | — |
|
JEDEC Standard
|
— | October 2013 (JESD235) |
|
Architecture
|
— | Vertically stacked DRAM dies, through-silicon vias (TSVs), silicon interposer |
|
Bus Width (4-Hi Stack)
|
— | 1024-bit (8 x 128-bit channels) |
|
Typical Use
|
— | High-end compute/datacenter GPUs, not mainstream consumer cards |