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Do I need more RAM or faster RAM?
if you’re going to upgrade, should you also get faster ram to really give your system a boost?
Let’s break it down, and today will be discussing the difference between ram capacity and rams speeds, and learning about what you need for your bill to get the maximum performance.
What is RAM? What does it do?
Think of RAM as short term memory for your CPU.
Anything that it needs to access quickly and frequently can be stored here to speed up a multitude of processes.
When you don’t have enough RAM, your computer will begin to pull things on and off your hard drive, which can make these tasks take a lot longer and make the computer feel sluggish.
As applications and games evolve, they may require more memory to run smoothly over time, and a ram upgrade might be exactly what you need when looking at buying new ram.
There are a few things to keep in mind.
first, the capacity of the ram, typically measured nowadays between 8 GB to 64 GB, shows you how much data the ram can hold at any given time.
Most people think upgrading rams simply means getting more capacity, and while this is certainly helpful, if you do not have enough at a certain point, a speed upgrade might be the better play.
You can check out how much of your Ram you’re currently using by opening your task Manager and selecting the performance tab.
If your memory utilization is high, you may think about upgrading ram capacity.
When we talk about rams speed, this gets a bit more complicated.
Today, s pcs use ram based on double data rate, synchronous dynamic ram technology, with a number after the acronym that shows its generation, e.g.
DDR for the 4th and current generation.
After that, there’s a number that designates the speed it can perform at, measured in megahertz, millions of cycles, or mega transfers per 2nd.
This is our ram speed, and it affects the maximum bandwidth, A-K-A, how much data can travel to and from the memory module at a time, or peru clock cycle.
Then there is also ram latency, which indicates how long it takes for the ran to respond to a request, measured in a series of four numbers here.
The lower the number, the faster the speed.Taking both speed and latency into account is important when trying to determine overall ramp performance.
This makes a difference when it comes to industry standard memory and over clocking.
Over clocking is using memory modules capable of operating at faster speeds, using lower timings, and sometimes at higher voltages, than industry standard.
But will dive more into over clocking in a future DIY episode.
So what does this mean for your computer in your specific situation when it comes to capacity?
If you plan on playing more hardware intensive games or multitasking, you’ll want ram capacity greater than 16 GB.
If you also want to play those games at higher resolution and frame rates, you should also overclock the ram to get these smoothest gaming experience, especially if you’re planning to stream the game off the same PC that you’re playing it on, or create other content around your game play, then should you upgrade or replace what you already have?
If you have more ramslots on your motherboard than you’re currently using, you may be wondering if you can simply add more ram to what you already have.
The short answer is yes, but not if you want to go faster.Mixing memory of different speeds and timings will always default them to the slower of the two.
Sometimes these inconsistencies can even cause stability issues.So you can but it may be more of a hassle than it’s worth if the newly added ram is a drastically different speed than the older ram you already had.
So again, you can do it, but most people just buy you to avoid the potential hassle.
Now, if you are buying new, be sure to check which type of ram your motherboard can support.
Memory vs Storage in Gaming
when we talk about PC memory, many people get confused about what type of memory that is and what it does in your system.So today we’ll break down the differences between PC memory versus storage.
Memory is where information is stored, in this case, data bites of code for a computer.But much like our own memory storage, your PC does this in two different ways.Think of it like short term and long term memory.
One is stored very quickly and a race as soon as you no longer need the information.
And the other, long term memory is meant to stay there for the long hall er to as just memory, ers to as storage.
When someone refers to how much memory device has, say a new gaming console or PC, they are likely referring to how much ram, aka short term memory the device has.
This directly affects the speed and multitasking capabilities of the device, keeping frequently used data quick at hand, things like keeping multiple tabs open in your Internet browser, to high resolution textures needed in video games.
The 2nd example is a special type of ram called v ram that’s part of a graphics card, but I digress This type of memory is volatile, meaning that it is only temporarily stored, and when the power to the systems shut off, any data that was stored there is wiped clean.
Ram is measured in gigabytes, and can typically be found in modules from 2 GB to 64 gb per module.
Storage on the other hand, is also measured in gigabytes, but in way higher capacities save from 64 or 128 gb in a phone all the way up to one or 2 TB in a high NPC.
Storage remembers are long term memories, so you’ll need more space to save more files that you want to keep for longer periods of time.
And while you can store more data in these larger capacities, it takes a little longer for your device to access or write that data, but that data is stored there until you erase it or move it to a new location.
Storage is a great way to save things that are larger in file size and don’t need to be ready at a moment’s notice, like pictures, videos, large game files, etc.
SSD storage, which stands for solid state drive, will read an access data faster than a traditional HDD hard drive, but not as quickly as ram.
SSD storage is a great way to store large files that you would still like to access relatively quickly, like a game save file,which will then reduce loading times.
When PC enthusiasts are talking about memory, you can assume they mean ram, or pc s short term memory.
And when they’re listing the storage, they’re talking about how much space is available on their hard drive, or SSD.
Need faster juggling of everyday tasks.You need more ram, need more room for your game save files, you need more storage.
While technically both are ways to store data, they operate in very different ways, at different speeds and at different price points.
I hope that helps to straighten things out of it, we will do our best to help you！