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You know, buying RAM for your computer isn't so easy. There's a lot to take into account,

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how much to get, what speed you want, and whether it's worth paying a few bucks more

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to make the inside of your computer look like it's been slathered in rainbow sherbet.

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Ah, delicious. But one specification people don't talk too much about

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is how many ranks your RAM modules have. And I'm not referring to how many steam achievements

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you've unlocked with the same RAM kit, if only. A memory rank is actually a single group of memory blocks.

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You see, each rank has a 64-bit bus that connects your RAM to your motherboard.

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And one stick of RAM can have one, two, or even four ranks on that one stick.

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Generally speaking, more ranks are better because your system's memory controller

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can access each rank separately from the others. While the CPU can access every rank at once

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due to the modules themselves sharing the 64-bit bus,

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it can start an operation on one rank while another rank finishes up on another task,

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a process called interleaving that can reduce memory response time

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and slightly improve bandwidth despite not increasing the bus width.

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But should you care about this? Are the performance benefits actually worth worrying

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about such an esoteric topic? Oh, it turns out the answer is yes,

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especially if you're running an AMD Ryzen CPU. Certain games that are more memory dependent

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can see noticeable performance increases when running more ranks of memory

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and even some productivity applications like file compression programs can also benefit.

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And there's more good news. You don't necessarily have to go out and buy special dual rank modules

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to take advantage of the speed boost. Many of you probably have four dim slots

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on your motherboard that can operate in dual channel mode.

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If you fill all four slots with single rank dims,

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this is roughly equivalent to a dual rank setup in two slots.

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If you're only rocking two sticks of RAM, this is a situation in which you'll want

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to have those dual rank modules. But how exactly do you know how many ranks are on your RAM modules?

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Ask them? Although a common explanation is that single rank memory

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has chips on only one side, while a dual rank module has memory chips on both sides,

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it can be hard to tell how many ranks a stick of RAM has just by glancing at it,

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even if it doesn't have a heat spreader. Sometimes modules that appear to have memory chips

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on both sides actually act as one big rank.

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And then you have the fact that trying to figure this out in your BIOS or in a system utility

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doesn't always give you an accurate answer either. Some RAM modules will have a one R or two R

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to indicate whether they're single or dual rank respectively.

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And quad rank memory is quite unusual on regular desktop,

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so odds are you won't be seeing too much of it. If that isn't too helpful,

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you might try looking at a spec sheet or checking out online resources

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where users have compiled lists of single and dual rank memory kits.

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Now it also turns out that because modern memory integrated circuits or ICs tend to be eight gigabit capacity

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as opposed to the older standard of four, newer eight Gigabyte sticks tend to be single rank,

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while newer 16 gig sticks tend to be dual rank.

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And if you're confused about the math there, one rank is made up of eight ICs.

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This means that even if you won't use all of it, 32 gigabytes of memory may be the sweet spot for speed today,

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though this will keep changing as IC capacity increases.

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But remember that whether you see real benefits really depends on your workload

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and more ranks can paradoxically add more latency

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depending on what you're doing. So do your research and see if that trade off

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is worth it for whatever it is you get up to on your PC.

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I don't know what it is. And frankly, I don't wanna know.

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Well, what do you know, that was a video. Thanks for watching guys. Like the video if you liked it.

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I don't wanna talk to you about this again.