DDR5 vs CXL: The Trade-off Between Latency and Bandwidth
In a mixed traffic (half read/half write) environment, CXL secures significantly higher bandwidth at the cost of increased latency
DDR5 CXL
Signal Latency (nanoseconds, lower is better)
DDR5
75~85ns
CXL
130~200ns
Mixed Traffic Effective Bandwidth (DDR5=100 baseline)
DDR5
Baseline
CXL
+55~61%
Up to -50% cost reduction for the same available memory capacity