Major RAM Brands Ranked Worst To Best (And Which Ones To Avoid) – SlashGear

Just like other PC components, there are terms you should probably be familiar with when shopping for RAM. Here’s a brief description of the most important terms to know — capacity, speed, and XMP.

Capacity refers to how much memory is contained in each stick of RAM. Most modern RAM sticks are 4GB, 8GB, or 16GB. If you buy a kit, it will quantify the total amount of RAM by multiplying the capacity of each stick by the total number (16GB = 2 x 8GB). For gaming PCs, 16GB is considered the sweet spot for capacity.

The speed of pretty much all modern RAM is Double Data Rate, which means it performs two actions per clock cycle. The generation is determined by the acronym DDR followed by a number. DDR5 is the most recent generation and the cutting edge. DDR4 is more affordable and more widely available. However, the generation isn’t as important as the data transfer rate. The higher the rate, the more processes it completes. An example data transfer rate is DDR4 3200.

XMP is short for Extreme Memory Profiles. Essentially, RAM that supports XMP can easily have the speed adjusted by switching to a different profile in the BIOS, which makes overclocking fast and simple.