You know, buying RAM for your computer isn't so easy. There's a lot to take into account,
how much to get, what speed you want, and whether it's worth paying a few bucks more
to make the inside of your computer look like it's been slathered in rainbow sherbet.
Ah, delicious. But one specification people don't talk too much about
is how many ranks your RAM modules have. And I'm not referring to how many steam achievements
you've unlocked with the same RAM kit, if only. A memory rank is actually a single group of memory blocks.
You see, each rank has a 64-bit bus that connects your RAM to your motherboard.
And one stick of RAM can have one, two, or even four ranks on that one stick.
Generally speaking, more ranks are better because your system's memory controller
can access each rank separately from the others. While the CPU can access every rank at once
due to the modules themselves sharing the 64-bit bus,
it can start an operation on one rank while another rank finishes up on another task,
a process called interleaving that can reduce memory response time
and slightly improve bandwidth despite not increasing the bus width.
But should you care about this? Are the performance benefits actually worth worrying
about such an esoteric topic? Oh, it turns out the answer is yes,
especially if you're running an AMD Ryzen CPU. Certain games that are more memory dependent
can see noticeable performance increases when running more ranks of memory
and even some productivity applications like file compression programs can also benefit.
And there's more good news. You don't necessarily have to go out and buy special dual rank modules
to take advantage of the speed boost. Many of you probably have four dim slots
on your motherboard that can operate in dual channel mode.
If you fill all four slots with single rank dims,
this is roughly equivalent to a dual rank setup in two slots.
If you're only rocking two sticks of RAM, this is a situation in which you'll want
to have those dual rank modules. But how exactly do you know how many ranks are on your RAM modules?
Ask them? Although a common explanation is that single rank memory
has chips on only one side, while a dual rank module has memory chips on both sides,
it can be hard to tell how many ranks a stick of RAM has just by glancing at it,
even if it doesn't have a heat spreader. Sometimes modules that appear to have memory chips
on both sides actually act as one big rank.
And then you have the fact that trying to figure this out in your BIOS or in a system utility
doesn't always give you an accurate answer either. Some RAM modules will have a one R or two R
to indicate whether they're single or dual rank respectively.
And quad rank memory is quite unusual on regular desktop,
so odds are you won't be seeing too much of it. If that isn't too helpful,
you might try looking at a spec sheet or checking out online resources
where users have compiled lists of single and dual rank memory kits.
Now it also turns out that because modern memory integrated circuits or ICs tend to be eight gigabit capacity
as opposed to the older standard of four, newer eight Gigabyte sticks tend to be single rank,
while newer 16 gig sticks tend to be dual rank.
And if you're confused about the math there, one rank is made up of eight ICs.
This means that even if you won't use all of it, 32 gigabytes of memory may be the sweet spot for speed today,
though this will keep changing as IC capacity increases.
But remember that whether you see real benefits really depends on your workload
and more ranks can paradoxically add more latency
depending on what you're doing. So do your research and see if that trade off
is worth it for whatever it is you get up to on your PC.
I don't know what it is. And frankly, I don't wanna know.
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