What Is RAM and What Does It Do? [Guide]

[Music] ram is one of the integral pc components that you cannot do without it's also one of the components that have a direct impact on your pc's performance both in game and in general now we've already talked about ram on this channel a lot and we've pretty much covered all there is to say about it but unfortunately this information is spread across multiple videos that have their fair bit of overlap that's why we'll be compiling everything you need to know about ram into this one video regardless of whether you're interested in what exactly ram is how it came to be how many different types there are or how much it affects gaming performance we've got you covered so without any further ado let's begin we'll start with the basics asking a most existential question what is ram for starters ram is an acronym that stands for random access memory it's used to store relatively small amounts of data that the cpu and gpu need to be able to access quickly so that everything on your computer runs smoothly so in essence ram is a type of storage like htd or ssd only it's way faster than even ssd however unlike hdds or ssds ram is a type of volatile memory what this means is that it can only store data so long as it's powered the moment the power supply is cut off all the data stored in the ram is lost that's why it can't be used for long-term storage like hdds or ssds despite being by far the fastest type of storage on the market so in essence ram is a type of short-term memory that is extremely fast and is therefore used to store important data that other components need to be able to fetch very quickly however there are different types of ram used for different purposes so let's take a look at how ram first came to be and how it is developed since then like any other technology ram has gone through many changes over the years it was first conceived in the 1960s as sram or static random access memory then we got dram or dynamic random access memory these two types of ram have been used together all the way until the early 1990s when synchronous dynamic random access memory or sdram was released and finally in june of 1998 samsung released the very first double date rate sdram chip or ddr sdram for short since then we've gone through several iterations of ddr ddr4 which is the latest and still the dominant type of ram today was released back in 2011. we know that ddr5 is coming soon but even when it does hit the market it will take some time for it to completely supplant ddr4 now that was it for system ram but we have to rewind and see how graphics ram has developed we don't have to rewind all the way back to the 60s though synchronous graphic random access memory or sgram was released shortly after sdram and samsung developed the first gddr chips along ddr chips since then gddr has developed more quickly and gone through more iterations than ddr some of you watching this video already have graphics cards equipped with gddr6 memory but while gddr is the dominant type of graphics ram on the market it isn't the only one in 2013 sk hanks introduced a new type of graphics ram to the world hbm or high bandwidth memory then in 2016 they released hbm2 needless to say hpm and hpm2 offered levels of bandwidth that far exceeded the capabilities of gddr and they have found a home in some graphics cards however most users and this includes gamers as well simply aren't able to make use of the extra bandwidth it's only in workstations that run memory intensive software that the benefits of hbm can be truly seen in which case they are significant so due to the limited benefits and the prohibited cost of manufacturing hbm chips it never really posed a threat to gddr and the two have been able to coexist peacefully for the average consumer this leaves us with dddr4 and gddr6 as the only two relevant types of ram at the moment for the rest of the video when we say ram we'll be referring to dddr4 system ram this is because the following segment is about how much ram you need what speed it should be and how many channels it should use with gddr6 there's no point in asking these questions since you can't buy gddr6 ram separately it comes with your graphics card and there's no way to upgrade it short of buying a newer better graphics card the first and most important question when it comes to ram is the volume everything else is secondary and as far as volume is concerned how much you need is dependent on what you need it for the general consensus is that you should get 16 gigabytes of ram if you're building a gaming pc this is more than enough to run all the latest games so it offers a nice future proofing as well as good performance anything more than this is simply excessive for gaming however if you're pinching for pennies you can still scrape by on only 8 gigabytes of ram you need to make sure you aren't running any unnecessary software in the background while gaming but you can scrape by on the other hand if you aren't a gamer and you primarily use your pc for browsing and multimedia content then you can manage just fine even with four gigabytes of ram more ram is always better for multitasking but if all your wants and needs boil down to social media youtube and so on you can get by on just 4 gigabytes of ram without any issues when browsing for ram you'll constantly be faced with another key spec and that is the speed of the modules ram speed is measured in hertz just like the clock speeds of cpus and gpus the higher the clock speed the higher the data transfer rates and dddr4 memory supports speeds of anywhere between 2133 megahertz to 5100 megahertz that's a big range but it's good to know that most gddr4 sticks cap out at 3600 megahertz so you can think of that as the upper limit there's really no need to go beyond that as for how much ram speed affects in-game performance the answer is not much there's some difference when using faster ram sure but in most cases it's negligible and only amounts to a handful of frames the only time where the performance bump becomes noticeable is when you're running games on triple digit frame rates with a high refresh rate monitor but if you've got the cash to buy such a monitor and a graphics card that can pump out triple digit frame rates then it's highly likely you'll purchase a faster ram without worrying about cost efficiency but for those looking to save every penny and purchase only the most cost effective components ram speed doesn't matter all that much faster is better if you can afford it but volume trumps speed until you reach the magic number that is 16 gigabytes lastly we need to talk about ram channel configurations most motherboards have several memory slots meaning you can install that many ram modules so if your motherboard has four ram slots and you're looking to install 16 gigabytes of ram you can go about it in three different ways you can install a single 16 gigabyte stick two eight gigabyte sticks or four four gigabyte sticks does this have any bearing on performance it does actually as a rule multi-channel memory trumps single channel memory to understand why this is the way it is it's best to imagine ram configurations as a road if your road only has one lane it can only accommodate so many vehicles at any given time but if it has two lanes well then the traffic becomes much better in this case the memory channels are the leads and the data is the vehicles the higher the bandwidth the faster the data transfer in other words more channels means better performance now we should note that gaming often couldn't make use of this additional performance so don't expect crazy fps spikes just because you've installed two 8 gigabyte ram sticks instead of a single 16 gigabyte stick however there are other reasons why this is still better for starters the lower capacity sticks are often cheaper so you can save a buck or two by opting for the multi-channel route if you care about aesthetics having all four ram slots filled out definitely looks more impressive inside a transparent case and most importantly multi-channel configurations act as a great contingency against ram failure if one stick dies you can just take it out and still use your computer with just the other ram stick but if your one and only ram module dies then that's it no more computer time for you until you get it replaced so this has been a comprehensive overview of all things ram we've touched on everything in this video but we didn't go into too much detail on any individual spec so if you're curious to know more about ram we still suggest checking out the videos that cover each of these aspects individually for example the memory channel configuration video explains the difference between dual channel and quad channel memory which sounds super simple but has some extra caveats the hbm vs gddr video highlights all the differences between these two types of graphics ram and so on the links to all of these videos are in the description in any case we hope you found this video helpful you can let us know if you have by dropping a like sharing it with friends or leaving a comment and if you want to see more videos like this one make sure to subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon to enable notifications we upload a new video every week and this is the best way to make sure you don't miss it in the meantime may your games be fun and your losses view and as always we'll see you next time on gamingscan

Channel: GamingScan

Views: 175,531

Keywords: gaming, what is ram, what does ram do, ram computer, computer memory, ram memory, computer ram, what is a ram, what is ram?, what is ram used for, how does ram work, what is ram on a computer, what is ram for, what is ram memory, ram in computing, what does ram do in a computer, what is computer memory, ram in computer, what is computer ram, how much ram, ram computer definition, what does ram mean

Id: -aQOv3T7P8E

Length: 9min 42sec (582 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021