RAM Basics
Speed Hierarchy (fastest to slowest):
| Fastest | Faster | Slower | Slowest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cache | RAM | SSD | HDD |
RAM (Random Access Memory or System Memory) - temporary storage area or non-persistent storage; used to load applications and files into non-persistent, fast storage area so processor can rapidly access data; is considered a solid state device
- 16GB for office
- 32GB/64GB for gaming
VRAM (Video RAM) - refers to any type of RAM specifically used to store image data for display
Virtual memory can slow down system since HDDs and SSDs are much slower than physical RAM modules; area on hard disk allocated to contain pages of memory
- when OS doesn’t have sufficient RAM, pages of memory are swapped to paging file, freeing RAM to enable the task to be completed. When paged RAM is needed, it is re-read into memory