RAM is one of the simplest upgrades to improve computer performance. But the problem is should you prioritize increasing RAM capacity or choosing RAM with a high bus?
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What is RAM and when do you need more RAM?
RAM is short-term memory that the processor uses to store files that need to be accessed quickly and frequently. RAM gives the computer the ability to respond immediately instead of having to wait a few seconds. Saying that may not sound like much, but until you experience it, you will see how old and weak your PC is.
If your computer has difficulty opening programs, you likely need more RAM. The delay comes from the computer having to offload tasks from RAM to the hard drive, a component with higher capacity but much slower than RAM.
Difference between capacity and speed of RAM (bus)
You can measure RAM capacity in megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB), or even terabytes (TB). Increasing RAM capacity will reduce reliance on the hard drive for temporary files. But, once you have what it takes, increasing RAM is no longer the best way to increase speed. You can benefit more from buying RAM that is faster than the RAM you are using even if they are the same capacity.
There are a few metrics that can determine the speed of RAM. Clocking affects the maximum bandwidth, which is the amount of data that can go in and out at a time. Latency affects how quickly RAM responds to requests. The clock frequency is usually measured in megahertz (MHz), the larger the better. The delay is a sequence of numbers (like 5-5-5-12), the smaller the better. Simply put, the same 8Gb DDR4 RAM stick, but the stick with the 2133Mhz bus will be a bit slower than the stick with the 2666Mhz bus.
Choose capacity or speed
You’ll need lots of RAM when editing video or audio professionally. But even so, 8-16GB is enough for you to run several tasks simultaneously. You won’t have to worry about upgrading in a few years.
If you are a gamer, you will benefit a bit if you use 16GB of RAM, but in reality, 8GB of RAM is enough to handle most current games. 32GB is not necessary and then you will need faster RAM.
No matter what you use your PC for, speed won’t matter if the motherboard can’t support the speed of RAM. A motherboard that only supports 1333MHz will limit the 2000MHz RAM clock speed to 1333MHz.
There are a few cases where more RAM is necessary, mainly in server management. The need to run simple applications, games, and websites is not so high that you need to cram in too much RAM.