Random Access Memory or RAM is one of the most relevant parts of a computer system, gaming consoles, or even your smartphones. It is a very fast component that momentarily keeps all the data and information your computer needs at the moment or anticipates to use imminently.
How Does it Work?
RAM is primarily a very fast storage that your device and its application use to keep and access short-term data. It functions by keeping common information that programs are continually using, instead of storing the information on a slower medium like an SSD (Solid State Drive). However, RAM doesn’t have any information saved on each chip.
Instead, it has a volatile or changeable memory, which only means that your data will be erased when the power doesn’t flow through your systems anymore. There are many programs that utilize Random Access Memory, such as Adobe Photoshop, Google Chrome, and even Windows.
Random Access Memory Usage
The RAM on your computer enables you to access several programs simultaneously with efficiency and speed. It is essentially faster than a hard disk, around 20 to 100 times quicker to be exact, but it greatly depends on the particular type of hardware.
RAM is used to process data and information right away. When you want to complete a task immediately, your computer’s operating system loads the data from your hard drives into your RAM to be able to process it.
Essential Things to Know About Random Access Memory
Since your RAM is your computer’s short-term memory, it can remember everything that is being processed on your computer temporarily, such as games, web browser, Windows, and a lot more. Being your computer’s short-term memory, it doesn’t have the ability to remember everything forever, like your computer’s hard drives.
It is a volatile piece of hardware that it forgets everything when it loses power. RAM’s main function is to handle multiple high-speed tasks that your computer assigns it each day. Even though it could store memory, the information stored in it wouldn’t be able to last if you turn off your computer.
Capacity
One of the things to consider when you’re planning to buy your RAM is the capacity. A minimum amount is needed by your operating system to run. All the while, the games, and applications you have on your computer also requires a minimum amount of RAM to run. These requirements are recorded in gigabytes and are frequently between 8GB and 1GB, but it depends on the application’s hardware requirements.
Frequency
When we are considering the speed of your RAM, most people are talking about Frequency. The Frequency of your RAM means how much can process the commands each second. The Frequency is measured in megahertz and is followed by the DDR version indicated in your RAM specs.
Latency
When you’re planning to buy RAM, you will see time listings such as CL16-18-18-36, CL14-14-13-34, or CL16-18-17-38. The number beside the letters “CL” constitutes the CAS latency of your RAM kit, which is usually referred to as the CL.
What is CAS latency, and what are the implications does it have in terms of performance? The Cas latency tells us the total cycles it would take for your RAM to send information. However, you should also examine each cycle’s time to grasp the whole idea of the overall latency of your RAM.
Takeaway
Having RAM installed on your computers has a lot of advantages. One of the main advantages of having RAM on your computer is RAM’s sole purpose, which is to give you a fast read and write access to your storage devices. So, it is a good idea if you have more RAM as it is able to handle and process more data at a single given time.
