How To Choose The Best Ram For Gaming PC In 2022

The most confusing part of building or upgrading a PC is the ram. RAM is complicated and people don’t take the time to get a basic understanding of it. There is nothing worse than spending all your money on a GPU and CPU than losing a massive amount of FPS by making basic RAM mistakes.

So, we are going to tell you what you need to know before buying the best RAM for gaming in 2022. We will also include some specific product recommendations for Ryzen and Intel systems.

What is DDR RAM?

Let’s start with the basics by showing you a lot of RAM mistakes people make. RAM is the memory used by the system to do everything at the time. It is different from storage like SSDs which store your data for the long term. The modern implementation of RAM is DDR (Double Data Rate) memory. It means we can transfer information two times during each clock cycle. Many people get it wrong. The speed of the RAM is not in megahertz but mega transfers. Thus, even if you buy 3200 speed RAM, it runs at a clock speed of 1600 megahertz. We then multiply it by 2 because it transfers data twice per clock cycle. So we get memory with the 3200 mega transfer speed.

How does RAM speed work?

It is important to know that there is nothing wrong if you see your 3200-speed memory kit running at 1600 megahertz. The fact is that it’s double the data rate. Hopefully, that calms your frustration trying to troubleshoot something that isn’t broken.

What is CAS Latency?

Now let’s talk about the other number after the speed, the CAS Latency. CAS Latency is abbreviated as CL or C. It is followed by a number which is the number of clock cycles it takes to get the requested data from the RAM. The smaller CAS Latency is desirable. Because it means that the data can be retrieved in fewer clock cycles. So, generally, when you’re looking at RAM kits, higher speed and lower CAS Latency are the better options. However, remember that the faster the speed of the memory often the looser the timings or higher the CAS Latency has to be to make the kit work.

Most Common DDR kits:

The most commercially available DDR4 kits are; 3200 CL 16, 3600 CL 16 or CL 18, and 4000-speed memory at either CL 16 or CL 18. Bear in mind that there are many other timings associated with RAM. We recommend you ignore them unless you’re planning to manually overclock your memory.

What is XMP, DOCP, or EOCP?

Every RAM kit is designed to be overclocked automatically using a manufacturer-specified profile called XMP. XMP stands for Extreme Memory Profile and it is a product of Intel. The AMD motherboard vendors didn’t want to pay Intel royalties to use XMP on AMD motherboards. That’s why they came up with their product called DOCP or EOCP. So if you see DOCP or EOCP in your motherboard bios, it’s essentially the same thing as XMP.

How to Activate XMP?

Here the question arises if the memory automatically overclocks then do you just need to plug it in and you are good to go? Well, the answer is No. You need to go into the Bios for your motherboard and activate the XMP profile. This can be done easily on the easy bios settings available on most motherboards. You should know that if you don’t activate it, your memory is going to run at its regular speed which is very slow.

XMP on Prebuilt PCs:

In case you’re looking to upgrade the memory on a pre-booked gaming PC, you should check your motherboard and bios manual before buying RAM. These gaming PCs use proprietary or non-standard parts from certain companies that do not support XMP or any form of automatic overclocking profiles.

Dual-Channel RAM:

Now we understand how RAM works and how to avoid major mistakes. Let’s talk about how to buy the best RAM for gaming in 2022. First of all, make sure that you need to buy your memory in a kit of either two or four sticks (DIMM). This will ensure that you’re using two sticks or DIMM per channel. Using a single stick of RAM can limit your FPS by up to 20 percent. It also greatly reduces 1 FPS lows due to higher system latency. Technically a stick of desktop PC RAM is called a DIMM but we will keep calling them sticks for simplicity.

Basic Understandings of DDR4 vs DDR5:

Let’s talk about DDR4 versus DDR5. DDR simply stands for Double Data Rate memory. The number after DDR refers to the generation. So DDR4 is the fourth generation of Double Data Rate memory and DDR5 is the fifth generation of Double Data Rate memory. The DDR5 is the latest one of all.

Right now only 12^th generation Intel CPUs with a motherboard specifically designed to run with DDR5 can use it. Everything else currently on the market such as Ryzen 5000, 4000, and 3000 as well as the 10^th and 11^th generation Intel CPUs uses DDR4 memory. 12^th generation Intel CPUs also use DDR4 unless you can make sure to purchase it with a board that works well with DDR5. Ryzen 7000 CPUs launching in the fall will be DDR5 only.

DDR4 vs DDR5 gaming performance:

DDR5 is super high priced because it is the latest memory. Intel’s 12^th generation CPUs can use DDR5 with new technology. However, it doesn’t perform well and matures in gaming compared to much cheaper DDR4 memory. Thus, you need to stick with DDR4 until Ryzen 7000 or Intel 13^th generation CPUs come out with a better memory controller.

How Fast RAM Do You Need for Gaming?

Now, you know that you want DDR4 at higher speeds and lower Latency. So you should just go out and buy the fastest memory kit you can get right? That’s wrong. Don’t get confused. There are two reasons why that is wrong.

The first is the price to performance. A faster memory costs you more money. But is it worth the price increase or should you spend that money upgrading something else? Many third-party gaming test reviews suggest only slight differences in FPS. For example, using the RTX 3080 or faster GPU and gaming at 1080p, you only see differences of about five to seven percent FPS.

Most gamers at 1080p using a mid-tier or below GPU or gamers playing at 1440p or higher resolution did not see a gaming performance increase after 3200 CL 16 memory. However, the next-generation GPUs in near future are reported to be 80 to 120 percent faster. So if you’re planning on buying one of the next-gen GPUs then the faster memory is a good option.

Secondly, there is an upper-speed limit to running memory in both AMD and Intel systems. If you run the memory controller at the same speed as the memory itself, that’s called running one-to-one or running synchronously. In theory, AMD’s controller can run up to 2000 megahertz. So, with DDR4 memory that’s 4000 mega transfer speed memory. Sometimes it struggles to hit that speed.

Similarly, Intel systems can also struggle to run memory in gear one using XMP profiles that are faster than 3600 speed. Remember that what Intel calls gear one is the one-to-one speed with the memory controller. So for less experienced users, we suggest the 3600 speed as the top end. Whereas, the 4000 speed is perfectly fine for advanced users who don’t mind troubleshooting compatibility issues.

How Much RAM Do You Need for Gaming?

How much memory do you need for gaming? Expert gamers believe that 16 gigabytes in a 2×8 gigabyte kit are all you need for gaming. If you want to have a lot of other things running while you’re gaming, then you can consider 32 gigabytes. Keep in mind that all the extra stuff running during gaming is taking CPU and graphics card resources away from your game, not just system memory.

That is why we recommend you play the game with non-essential applications closed. If you also do professional-level creator work like video editing, then 32 gigabytes is typically the minimum we recommend. You should always check the system recommendations for the programs you use because they vary widely.

What is Dual Rank Memory?

There is one more technical factor to consider which is whether the memory you get is Dual Rank or not. Do not confuse the Dual Rank with Dual Channel. Dual-Channel is just having an even number of sticks (DIMMS). Dual Rank deals with the memory chips on the stick itself. The Single Rank memory accesses all the chips on the stick simultaneously, hence it is named Single Rank. Dual Rank memory sticks essentially have two banks of memory that can be accessed separately. They slightly improve performance by about three to five percent depending on the application or gain.

How to Get a Dual Rank RAM?

How do you get a Dual Rank? Well, you can buy a two-stick kit that’s designed to be dual rank. You can also get four sticks of Single Rank memory which acts like dual rank kits. Since almost all eight-gigabyte sticks are Single Rank, that means you can only get Dual Rank sticks if getting sticks that are at least 16 gigabytes in size or larger. So then at a minimum, you have a total system ram of 32 gigabytes or more.

To ensure you get a Dual Rank, you should get four sticks of eight gigabytes for 32 gigabytes total. You can either order a 4 x 8-gigabyte kit or by buying two of the same 2 x 8-gigabyte kits at the same time. Remember that using four sticks of memory instead of two is a little harder on the memory controller.

Is Dual Rank Worth it?

We recommend it is not worth chasing dual rank just for gaming. The reason is that it requires you to buy 32 gigabytes of total memory instead of just the needed 16 gigabytes. It is better to spend that money on a faster GPU, CPU, better motherboard, quieter cooler, more SSD storage, or better-ventilated pc case.