RAM, or random access memory, is the temporary storage component of your computer. It has lightning-fast data access, which makes it a perfect place for the apps and programs you’re working with.
Having the right amount of RAM is key to optimizing your PC’s performance. Ideally, your setup should have 32GB of fast RAM for demanding applications and high-performance gaming.
Random Access Memory
RAM is super-fast storage that your computer uses to hold the data it’s currently using – everything from the webpage you’re looking at to the mouse movement you just made. RAM prevents the CPU from having to constantly access slower secondary storage (such as a hard disk drive or solid state drive), which takes a lot longer to read data from.
Data is encoded in a series of 0’s and 1’s, or bits, which can be stored in several different ways to balance performance against density. The more bits, the more information you can store – but this also leads to a larger physical memory footprint.
RAM can come in the form of chips soldered directly onto a motherboard or removable modules called DIMMs that slot into a motherboard. RAM modules will show a “Memory Type” value, often 20, along with a configured clockspeed and capacity (measured in gigabytes). Capacity is important because it determines how many applications you can run simultaneously and how much storage space is available for games.
Cache
Cache is a temporary memory space that improves CPU performance by storing frequently-accessed data closer to the processor. It also minimizes the need for data to be retrieved from slower primary memory.
There are several different types of cache. L1 cache is integrated into the CPU and is the most important. It assesses the data that is most recently used and determines whether it will be accessed again soon. If it isn’t, it goes into the L2 cache.
A disk cache stores often-read storage blocks and, in some cases, adjacent blocks that are likely to be read together. It may use fully associative mapping or predict where a read will occur and then store the data in advance, significantly reducing read latency. A web browser, for example, uses a cache to save images and other parts of webpages locally. This allows pages to be viewed much more quickly the next time they are visited.
Registers
Registers are tiny, super-fast storage spots built into the CPU. They hold things like numbers used in calculations, memory addresses and even instructions to be executed by the CPU. They can be altered quickly by the CPU to handle immediate processing tasks.
There are many different types of registers in a processor. Accumulator registers store data for a short time, memory address registers hold the location of data in RAM and index registers (IX and Y) help find specific locations by adding to the base address. Other registers include the program counter and stack pointer.
The flow of data through the CPU depends on the availability of these registers. The first step is retrieving an instruction from memory, then analyzing it to translate the complex command into actionable steps, finally executing those steps by using the registers to quickly perform math or other operations. This streamlined process minimizes latency and maximizes processing speed. This is what makes a computer so fast.
Power
RAM is a form of temporary storage that gets wiped when you shut down your computer. It offers lightning-fast data access, making it ideal for apps that are currently running and files you’re working with.
Games are especially RAM hungry, as they need to retrieve art assets and other elements at a rate orders of magnitude faster than the non-volatile system storage that lives in HDDs and SSDs. This is why many gamers choose to go with at least 32GB of RAM.
Unlike ROM, which is read-only memory, RAM can be written to. This means you can expand your computer with modules that snap into a motherboard, although most compact systems (laptops and mini PCs) use soldered-on RAM for space savings. You’ll want to ensure that the RAM you buy is compatible with your system, as incompatible modules will underperform or fail. Often, you’ll find that your PC’s memory pressure graph is in the green, but if it starts to reach red, you may need to upgrade.