The operation of the central processor requires storing some data in "fast access". Cache memory is used for this purpose. Its modules are located directly in the central processor and are part of its architecture. However, due to limited space, it is impossible to make the cache size several gigabytes. Even the most expensive processors rarely have a level 3 cache size exceeding 64 MB.
The only solution to this situation was to use separate equipment for storing data in fast access. This equipment is called "Random Access Memory" or RAM. It is commonly referred to as "operational memory" or simply "RAM". In this article, we will discuss how to choose RAM for your computer, as well as what gamers and regular PC users need to know about it.
How much RAM is needed in 2023
Volume is the most important characteristic of RAM. System performance directly depends on it. However, assuming that the more memory, the better, is a mistake. Modern games, programs, and utilities are optimized for a strictly defined amount of memory. If the amount of RAM exceeds this amount, the system performance will not change. For example, Battlefield 2042 game is optimized for 16 GB of RAM. Increasing the amount of memory to 32 GB will not increase the frame rate.
However, a lack of RAM will significantly affect system performance. In professional programs, rendering time will increase, some plugins will not run, and the number of freezes and random crashes will increase significantly. The situation with video games is similar. The frame rate will decrease, FPS drops will increase, and freezes and crashes will prevent you from enjoying virtual reality.
To avoid the above problems and understand how to choose the amount of RAM, ask yourself - what do you plan to do on your computer? Are you going to edit videos? Process photos? Play modern games? Stream? The volume should be determined only after answering the main question.
8 GB – minimum in 2023
This amount of RAM will be sufficient for office systems, as well as home computers for multimedia. Working in text editors, surfing the internet, watching videos, and listening to music - all of this will be enough for 8 GB of RAM. This volume will also be sufficient for old games and some modern ones.
Considering purchasing a smaller amount of RAM is only possible in one case: if a cheap office system is required, on which Windows 7 will be installed. For modern versions of operating systems, 4 GB of RAM and less is a disaster. Programs are forced to shut down, the system periodically freezes, and games from the last 5 years do not even run on minimum graphics settings.
16 GB – optimal solution
This volume is enough not only for text editors: designing, processing photos, and editing in FullHD resolution. 16 GB of RAM is enough for such activities. You also don't need to close one program to work with another. You can minimize unnecessary utilities and return to work without restarting. This will save not only your time but also your nerves. Starting programs every time and waiting for them to load is extremely annoying.
Also, computers with 16 GB of RAM are suitable for modern gaming. This capacity will be enough for the next 5-6 years. Where do these data come from? Just look at the specifications of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series game consoles - they have 16 GB of RAM installed. But what about game consoles, we are talking about computers? The fact is that developers optimize projects for the amount of RAM installed in the current generation of consoles. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One had 8 GB of RAM. For this reason, all games of the past generation, including on PC, were optimized for 8 GB of RAM. The situation with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series is similar. Since they have 16 GB of RAM installed, modern games are optimized for this amount of RAM.
32 GB and more - a solution for gamers and professionals
Earlier, we wrote that games are gradually being optimized for 16 GB of memory. So why is 32 GB a solution for gamers? In most cases, users launch a browser with several tabs along with the game. There is a video playing, a music player, or a social media page open. In addition to the browser, there will certainly be a messenger or Discord running on the computer. All of these programs individually require a small amount of RAM. But when they are open simultaneously, and a game is running in the background, 16 GB of RAM quickly run out. And at one moment, stable 60 FPS turn into choppy 30-40 FPS. With such a low frame rate, you are guaranteed to finish last in competitive games. And this is assuming that your comrades don't exclude you from the match for such "performance."
Also, modern games often have imperfect technical conditions on release. Developers rush to release and don't have time to polish their projects. "Lame" optimization, bugs, crashes, freezes - all of these plague games in the first few months after release. The most scandalous case happened with Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt Red developers released a new game full of bugs and technical errors. The situation was most difficult with stutters - short freezes that occurred when moving around the city. However, some gamers did not encounter this problem. As it turned out, they had computers with 32 GB of RAM. In patch 1.5, developers fixed the problem, and Cyberpunk 2077 began to work more stably with 16 GB of RAM. However, users with 32 GB of memory already received more positive impressions of the game on release.
In addition to gaming, a large amount of memory is necessary for professional activity. Graphic design, animation creation, 3D modeling, video editing in 4K resolution - all of this requires a minimum of 32 GB of RAM. Yes, you can use less RAM, but the quality of work will suffer. For example, render time in 3DS MAX will increase by 2-3 times, and the use of additional plugins in Adobe Premiere Pro will cause system crashes and freezes.
What is better - 1 module for 32 GB, 2 for 16 GB, or 4 for 8 GB?
To answer this question, it is necessary to understand RAM bandwidth. If we disregard complex technical details, RAM bandwidth affects the speed of data transfer. The higher it is, the more information the CPU processes. This significantly increases its performance.
The best way to increase RAM bandwidth is to change the bus width. For modern RAM, it is 64 bits. But the question arises: how can we increase the bus width? The answer: use multiple memory modules instead of one. If we install not one module but two, the bus width doubles. This is called "dual-channel mode of RAM operation". Now the bus width will be 128 bits, not 64. In practice, this gives a performance boost of almost 1.5 times. If the frame rate in the game, without relying on the video card, was 60 FPS, then when using two memory modules, it will increase to 90 FPS.
However, modern processors do not allow using more than 4 channels of RAM. Or more precisely, memory controllers that are part of their architecture do not allow it. Moreover, CPUs that support 4-channel mode of operation are designed for complex professional calculations. These are AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon product lines. Products for ordinary users, such as AMD Ryzen and Intel Core, support only dual-channel mode of memory operation. Therefore, modern computers are equipped with at least 2 RAM modules.
Using 4 modules of RAM
It is logical to assume that if the processor does not support 4-channel mode, then installing 4 memory sticks will not increase performance. But in reality, the situation is opposite. The power of the system increases from using 4 memory modules due to the increased number of memory chips. The CPU controller optimizes its work better when it has many memory banks at its disposal.
However, the performance increase is only 2-3%. The exception is only the AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors. Thanks to the Zen 3 architecture with a completely redesigned memory controller, the increase ranges from 5 to 10%. Therefore, using 4 memory modules is recommended only in two cases:
- if you have an AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor in your computer;
- if you are an extremely demanding gamer and need to squeeze out all the performance to achieve the maximum frame rate.
Also, 4 memory modules can be considered for purchase if you need to build a beautiful computer. Manufacturers equip their modules with RGB lighting for this purpose. A pair of glowing sticks looks disjointed, but 4 look stylish and complete. Such PCs are usually equipped with liquid cooling systems. Unlike tower coolers, their pump does not block the RGB lighting.
Activating dual-channel mode
Motherboards for processors with dual-channel mode support have 2 or 4 RAM slots. With the first option, everything is clear - you install 2 sticks and activate dual-channel mode. But what about 4 slots? First, you need to look at the numbering. RAM slots are numbered from 1 to 4. The numbering order starts from the processor side. That is, the 1st slot is the leftmost, and the 4th is the rightmost. To activate dual-channel mode, insert memory modules into the 2nd and 4th slots. Use the remaining ones if you need to increase capacity.
What to consider when choosing RAM
The key characteristics of RAM are:
- type;
- capacity;
- frequency;
- timings (latency).
It is these parameters that determine the efficiency of RAM and, therefore, the quality of the CPU's work.
RAM Type
The most important thing to know about memory type is that the more current the generation, the higher the performance. Modern RAM is "synchronous dynamic random-access memory with double data rate." Abbreviated as DDR. The digital index at the end indicates the DDR generation. Today, DDR4 and DDR5 types are current.
Capacity
We have already introduced memory capacity. It affects the amount of data the central processor can work with. The performance of the CPU directly depends on the capacity. Even the most expensive processors will show unsatisfactory performance if there is not enough RAM.
Frequency and Timing (Latency)
Frequency determines how many data loading and unloading operations occur per second. The higher the frequency, the faster the data is transferred between devices. This characteristic has a direct impact on system performance. For example, in Cyberpunk 2077, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X processor with memory at a frequency of 2400 MHz demonstrates 70 FPS. But if you increase the RAM frequency to 4000 MHz, the frame rate will increase to 90 FPS. The performance gain was almost 30%.
Information in RAM cannot be transmitted instantly. This is the feature of microelectronics. The delay time is called timing, and it is measured in nanoseconds. The smaller the timing, the faster the memory responds to CPU requests. This has a positive impact on system performance. Timings can be primary, secondary, and tertiary. Only primary timings are indicated in the specifications and are written with a hyphen. For example, 15-17-17 or 16-20-20.
In addition to the key characteristics of RAM, there are secondary ones. It is also necessary to familiarize yourself with them to understand how to choose RAM. Secondary characteristics include overclocking potential, the presence of radiators, and the number of ranks. We will talk more about this later.
Memory Chip Manufacturer
The overclocking potential of RAM depends on the manufacturer of the memory chips. Overclocking refers to increasing the frequency. As we mentioned earlier, increasing frequency has a positive effect on computer power. The increase can be tens of percent.
The overclocking potential directly depends on the memory chip manufacturer. RAM is produced by many companies, including Kingston, Crucial, G.Skill, ADATA, etc. But only three organizations produce memory chips: Samsung, Micron, and Hynix.
The first produces the highest quality chips. The best are those marked A-die and B-die. The second place is occupied by Micron's products. Its E-die chips are almost as good as Samsung B-die in terms of overclocking potential. And Hynix is in last place. Its products have average characteristics. Their chips are mainly installed in budget and mid-budget RAM.
Radiators
To achieve high frequencies, RAM manufacturers are forced to increase the voltage of their modules. For example, DDR4 memory at 2133 MHz has a voltage of 1.2 V. The same memory at 3200 MHz will have a voltage of 1.35 V. High voltage leads to increased heat generation. And high temperatures accelerate component degradation. Metal radiators are used to cool RAM. They attach to the chips through a thermal interface and cool them. This significantly increases the maximum service life of RAM. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to choose RAM with metal radiators.
Memory rank
Rank is written and pronounced with the letter "K" - that's the first thing you should know about this characteristic. Many mistakenly call it with the letter "G", but that's incorrect. If you come across the word "rank", keep in mind that it refers to the same thing.
Rank is the number of memory chip sets. But does it matter how many chips are installed in a module? Does it affect performance? It turns out that it does, and quite significantly.
Earlier, we mentioned that modern memory has a bus width of 64 bits. That's how much information modules can transmit at once. The value of 64 bits is not made up. This is how much memory chips can collectively transmit. Each chip individually transmits either 8 or 16 bits of information. Thus, to transmit 64 bits, we will need 4 or 8 memory chips.
Let's take DDR4 RAM as an example. One 8 GB module can have 4 chips of 1 GB each or 8 chips of 500 MB each in its construction. Therefore, we can install up to 32 GB of RAM in our computer. But what if we need more RAM? Let's say we work with 3D modeling, and we need 128 GB for efficient work with VRay. What do we do in such a situation?
The solution to the problem was to increase the number of memory chips in one module. Such upgraded chips were called "dual-rank". But what did the manufacturers do with the 64-bit bus? Nothing. They decided to access the chips alternately. That is, the computer starts working with some memory chips, while others rest. Then they switch, and so on.
It turned out that dual-rank memory not only does not lag behind single-rank modules in performance but also surpasses them. The frame rate is higher, and the rendering time in professional programs is lower. If we compare memory with the same characteristics but different ranks, the performance difference will be 10-15%. But this is relevant only for low and medium frequencies. For example, if we compare DDR4 memory at a frequency of 3200 MHz, then the performance difference will really be 10-15%. But if we raise the frequency to 4000 MHz, there will be no difference.
Frequencies and timings
These two characteristics are interdependent. That is, when we increase the frequency, we have to increase the timings as well. However, the quality of RAM is determined by the difference between these parameters. For example, the best DDR4 models have a frequency of 3200 MHz with timings of 16-18-18-38. And budget DDR4 models have 3200 MHz with timings of 22-22-22-52. Specific values may vary depending on the manufacturer.
How to choose DDR4 memory
First, determine the amount you need. Choose as much RAM as you need. Then pay attention to the frequency. The higher, the better. Intel processors work stably with any frequency. And AMD products are extremely demanding of the memory subsystem. For their processors to function properly, they need a frequency of at least 3200 MHz. And don't forget that the frequency indicated on the packaging is not the maximum. This is the frequency that the manufacturer guarantees. But you can overclock the RAM yourself and achieve better results.
Then look at the timings. The lower they are, the better. Finally, pay attention to the radiators. The main thing is to have them. Also, make sure that XMP profiles are supported. With their help, you won't have to manually overclock. It will be enough to enter the BIOS, set the desired frequency, and the system will automatically adjust the settings.
How to choose DDR5 memory
Choosing it is no different from DDR4. Determine the amount, and then find strips with the maximum frequency and minimum timings. The only difference is the operability of AMD processors. If DDR4 memory required them a frequency of at least 3200 MHz for stable operation, then any frequency will do for DDR5.
How to choose RAM for a laptop
Due to their size, laptops cannot use full-sized modules. A special memory form factor was developed for laptops, abbreviated as "SO-DIMM". This form factor is what you need to look for when choosing RAM for your laptop. The main difference of this type of RAM is its size. Laptop RAM has a shorter but more elongated shape. Therefore, if you need RAM for your laptop, look for products with the SO-DIMM form factor. As for type, capacity, frequency, and timing, choose them as you would for regular RAM.
HYPERPC computers with DDR4 and DDR5 RAM
By purchasing a system from HYPERPC, you get rid of the need to learn the complex structure of RAM. We have selected the most current RAM models that will provide the best performance for your new computer.
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