Ram articles

Every single computer has RAM, whether it's embedded into a processor or sitting on a dedicated circuit board plugged into the system, computing devices simply can't work without it. RAM is an astonishing feat of precision engineering, and yet it is manufactured in epic quantities every year. Given how super important RAM is, a proper dissection is called for.

Today we're taking a look at the performance impact having four DDR4 memory modules can have on performance in a dual-channel system, opposed to just two modules. In this scenario all modules are operating at the same frequency, use the same timings and provide the same total memory capacity.

Today we're comparing the Ryzen 9 3950X and Core i9-9900KS in a massive number of games, using one of G.Skill's most premium 16GB memory kits, the Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 CL14. For those of you spending $600+ on a CPU, purchasing top end DDR4 memory doesn't seem like a stretch, so here's a head to head comparison between AMD and Intel processors using manually tuned timings.

When we reviewed Ryzen's latest iteration we briefly checked out different DDR4 memory speeds but now that things have settled we were put on a mission to benchmark memory performance on 3rd-gen Ryzen to see if spending more makes sense or not.

What a difference a year makes. It was about this time last year that we discussed why building a gaming PC was a bad idea, but thankfully a lot has changed since. You may recall, DDR4 memory and graphics card prices were through the roof a year ago. GPU availability was quite poor and on top of all that, we were at the end of a few product cycles. Fast forward a year, what's changed?

Today we're looking into how much RAM you need to play the latest and greatest gaming titles. About this time each year we set on a memory capacity quest and last year's expedition lead us to conclude that for gamers 4GB is out, 8GB was the minimum, 16GB is the sweet spot and 32GB is overkill. Read on for our 2018 test.