Personal, courtesy of CORSAIR
When building or upgrading a gaming PC, RAM is usually not the highest priority. A powerful CPU, GPU, PSU, and cooling solution tend to take precedence, as these components can be the difference between a powerful PC and a large, tech-laden clipboard. But more and more, we’re seeing great new PC titles come with hefty minimum system requirements. A key aspect of these requirements is sufficient and efficient RAM. Fortunately, unlike the best graphics cards, the best gaming RAM is widely available and doesn’t cost hundreds of dollars to buy.
1
2
Best Broadband
Trident Z Neo
G.Skill
Read more
3
For lower latency
Ballistix
Crucial
Read more
4
Entry level RGB
Revenge RGB PRO
Corsair
Read more
5
Extravagant RGB
Trident Z Royal
G.Skill
Read more
What to consider
Buying computer parts of all kinds can be scary. The sheer volume of tech specs can overwhelm even tech-savvy buyers. This is even more true when buying gaming PCs. While there are too many considerations to list here, keep an eye out for these key specs when shopping for RAM.
Motherboard compatibility
Not every stick of RAM is compatible with every type of motherboard. Double check your motherboard’s chipset and make sure it’s compatible with the RAM you’re buying. We recommend using a site like PCPartPicker to help you out. Also, always buy only one memory kit for your PC; never mix and match RAM from different kits.
Type of RAM
Almost all current RAM uses the DDR4 architecture. While DDR5 is on the horizon, only the newer, higher-end systems are actually compatible with DDR5 RAM.
RAM capacity
Most RAM comes in 16GB or 32GB kits. For most people, 16GB is enough. However, if you plan to do video or photo editing tasks regularly, you can consider 32 GB.
Frequency/Speed
Each RAM kit, regardless of its capacity in gigabytes (GB), has an internal speed, measured in megahertz (MHz). Most gamers will be happy with a RAM speed of 3200 MHz. RAM faster than 3200 MHz tends to incur higher costs with diminishing performance returns. Generally speaking, having more RAM capacity, rather than higher Mhz values, will lead to faster speeds.
Latency
Also called RAM timing, this is a simplified metric of how long RAM takes to access specific data. The lower these numbers, the better.
How we selected
Many of these recommendations come from hundreds of hours of internal use. For products that we have not been able to test ourselves, we carry out intensive research, reviewing content from expert sources such as PC Gamer, PCMag, CNET, Tom’s Guide, DigitalTrends, and others, plus thousands of consumer reviews from online storefronts like Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, and Walmart. As for the products themselves, we evaluated them based on performance, design, build quality, and price.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and uploaded to this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content on piano.io