How to tell what kind of RAM you have

For a really very long time, the most typical path to enhancing your PC’s efficiency has been by way of upgrading the RAM. RAM stands for “random entry reminiscence” and it’s successfully the part of your PC that’s preserving monitor of what your pc is at present engaged on. When RAM is restricted, your PC has to maintain that present data saved elsewhere, which may dramatically decelerate your workflow and cargo instances. That is significantly notable in computationally heavy initiatives, similar to video encoding and high-quality artwork creation.

Whether or not you’re trying to improve otherwise you’re trying to harvest the RAM from one PC to make use of in one other, it helps to know what sort of RAM your system is utilizing. That’s doubly true now that Intel’s Twelfth-gen motherboards can use both DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, and AMD’s impending Ryzen 7000 CPUs will make the change to DDR5. There are a handful of how to determine that essential data out!

In Home windows 10 and 11

Yow will discover fundamental details about your RAM by way of your system’s About web page and thru the Efficiency tab in your Activity Supervisor.

Listed below are two easy strategies to entry the About web page:

• Press the important thing mixture Win + Pause/Break
• Kind “About your PC” within the Home windows Begin menu search

To entry the Activity Supervisor, listed here are three easy choices:

• Press the important thing mixture Ctrl + Shift + Escape
• Press the important thing mixture Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose “Activity Supervisor”
• Kind “Activity Supervisor” within the Home windows Begin menu search

These two strategies will give you essentially the most simplistic view of your PC’s RAM data, primarily exhibiting how a lot RAM you at present have, together with some RAM velocity data. If this isn’t sufficient data for what you’re trying to do, then you might wish to take a look at the Home windows Administration Instrumentation command-line utility, or wmic.

To be able to use wmic, it’s good to open a Command Immediate window, which is rapidly executed by typing “cmd” into the Home windows Begin menu search. As soon as there, you need to use a “wmic MemoryChip get” command to sometimes pull up the data you’re searching for.

Yow will discover a complete set of properties to incorporate in your “wmic MemoryChip get” command right here, however the next ought to cowl the sensible bases for many RAM identification wants:

wmic MemoryChip get MemoryType, Capability, Pace, Configuredclockspeed, DeviceLocator, FormFactor, Producer, Serialnumber, Partnumber

It will present a desk with the next data, if it’s out there:

• MemoryType will report again a quantity that aligns to a selected “kind” of RAM module. 20 means it’s DDR reminiscence. DDR2 is 21. DDR3 is 24. DDR4 is 26. Generally, this will present a 0. If that’s the case, you’ll wish to use “SMBIOSMemoryType” as an alternative.
• Capability will present the uncooked byte worth of the RAM’s reminiscence capability, so one thing like 8,589,934,592 will probably be for an 8GB RAM module.
• Pace is the supported reminiscence velocity worth that your RAM module signifies it might assist, which is usually anyplace between 800 and 3200.
• Configuredclockspeed pertains to the velocity at which your RAM is at present configured to be working at.
• DeviceLocator will inform you which bodily slot the RAM module is plugged into in your system’s motherboard.
• FormFactor is the bodily form kind of the RAM module. It will sometimes be the quantity 8 for DIMM modules discovered on desktop PCs or the quantity 12 for laptops’ SODIMM kinds.
• Producer signifies an recognized producer of the RAM module. This will likely present up as Unknown generally.
• Serialnumber offers you the {hardware} serial quantity for that particular stick of RAM, which is usually solely related when coping with the producer for troubleshooting functions.
• Partnumber offers the producer’s mannequin quantity for that exact RAM module, which may be very helpful with the assistance of a Google search to establish the RAM stick you’ve gotten and whether or not or not you should purchase it once more.

Further software program choices

A lot of the above data can also be out there with the assistance of some third-party software program, similar to CPU-Z and Speccy.

In CPU-Z, you’ll wish to use the “Reminiscence” and “SPD” tabs to see details about your RAM. Reminiscence will present you reminiscence kind and present frequency data. The SPD tab, which stands for “serial presence detect,” offers data associated to the RAM modules themselves together with the producer and half quantity data.

In Speccy, you’ll wish to go to the “RAM” view from the left menu. In there, it’s best to discover nearly all the RAM and reminiscence data you’d want. Chances are you’ll must develop the “SPD” drop-down in an effort to get extra particular details about the RAM relying on what you’re looking for. 

In Linux

Yow will discover nearly all the data proven above through your Linux terminal through the use of the next command:

• sudo dmidecode —kind reminiscence

This could present a sorted checklist of details about your reminiscence gadgets, aka your RAM, together with measurement, varieties, and producer data.

Bodily RAM module

Most shopper RAM modules will include a label to establish the kind of RAM it’s. Usually, these labels will both be a sticker utilized on to the stick of RAM, engraved onto the flamboyant warmth spreader on higher-performance modules, or could also be printed immediately onto the circuit board. In these circumstances, you’ll sometimes discover the half quantity, which you’ll be able to then search for along with your favourite search engine to determine the remainder of the specs. Should you can’t find a label or identifier anyplace, then it could be prudent to make use of one of many strategies described above as an alternative.

These choices ought to assist you determine what RAM your PC is utilizing. Should you’re trying to improve, make certain that you’re getting the identical kind and type issue of RAM, as a result of you’ll be able to’t immediately swap out DDR3 for DDR4 RAM with out having to additionally substitute your motherboard. For extra data on upgrading RAM, see our information on how you can set up new reminiscence in your PC.