How to tell what kind of RAM you have

For a really very long time, the commonest path to bettering your PC’s efficiency has been via upgrading the RAM. RAM stands for “random access memory” and it’s successfully the part of your PC that’s conserving observe of what your pc is at present engaged on. When RAM is restricted, your PC has to hold that present data saved some place else, which might dramatically decelerate your workflow and cargo occasions. This is especially notable in computationally heavy initiatives, equivalent to video encoding and high-quality artwork creation.

Whether you’re wanting to improve or you’re wanting to harvest the RAM from one PC to use in one other, it helps to know what kind of RAM your system is utilizing. That’s doubly true now that Intel’s Twelfth- and Thirteenth-gen motherboards can use both DDR4 or DDR5 RAM, and AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors made the swap to DDR5. There are a handful of methods to determine that essential data out!

Further studying: The greatest gaming motherboards

In Windows 10 and 11

You can discover primary details about your RAM via your system’s About web page and thru the Performance tab in your Task Manager.

Here are two easy strategies to entry the About web page:

• Press the important thing mixture Win + Pause/Break
• Type “About your PC” within the Windows Start menu search

To entry the Task Manager, listed below are three easy choices:

• Press the important thing mixture Ctrl + Shift + Escape
• Press the important thing mixture Ctrl + Alt + Delete and choose “Task Manager”
• Type “Task Manager” within the Windows Start menu search

These two strategies will present you with 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 wanting to do, then you might want to take a look at the Windows Management Instrumentation command-line utility, or wmic.

In order to use wmic, you want to open a Command Prompt window, which is shortly finished by typing “cmd” into the Windows Start menu search. Once there, you can use a “wmic MemoryChip get” command to usually pull up the data you’re in search of.

You can discover a complete set of properties to embrace 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, Capacity, Speed, Configuredclockspeed, DeviceLocator, FormFactor, Manufacturer, Serialnumber, Partnumber

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

• MemoryType will report again a quantity that aligns to a specific “type” of RAM module. 20 means it’s DDR reminiscence. DDR2 is 21. DDR3 is 24. DDR4 is 26. Sometimes, this will present a 0. If so, you’ll need to use “SMBIOSMemoryType” as an alternative.
• Capacity 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.
• Speed is the supported reminiscence velocity worth that your RAM module signifies it will probably help, which is often anyplace between 800 and 3200.
• Configuredclockspeed relates to the velocity at which your RAM is at present configured to be operating at.
• DeviceLocator will tell 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. This will usually be the quantity 8 for DIMM modules discovered on desktop PCs or the quantity 12 for laptops’ SODIMM types.
• Manufacturer signifies an recognized producer of the RAM module. This could present up as Unknown generally.
• Serialnumber will give you the {hardware} serial quantity for that particular stick of RAM, which is often solely related when coping with the producer for troubleshooting functions.
• Partnumber supplies the producer’s mannequin quantity for that specific RAM module, which might be very helpful with the assistance of a Google search to determine the RAM stick you have and whether or not or not you should buy it once more.

Additional software program choices

Much of the above data can be out there with the assistance of some third-party software program, equivalent to CPU-Z and Speccy.

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

In Speccy, you’ll need to go to the “RAM” view from the left menu. In there, you ought to discover nearly all of the RAM and reminiscence data you’d want. You might have to increase the “SPD” drop-down so as to get extra particular details about the RAM relying on what you’re making an attempt to discover. 

In Linux

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

• sudo dmidecode —kind reminiscence

This ought to present a sorted listing of details about your reminiscence gadgets, aka your RAM, together with measurement, sorts, and producer data.

Physical RAM module

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

These choices ought to assist you determine what RAM your PC is utilizing. If you’re wanting to improve, ensure that you’re getting the identical kind and type issue of RAM, as a result of you can’t straight 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 to set up new reminiscence in your PC.