36.2 Hardware: Memory
Memory
RAM (Random Access Memory) is a form of data storage which stores data and machine code which is being used. It allows data to be read and written which means it saves data. The purpose of the RAM within game systems is that it stores variables and content. This means that if a game is loaded, the RAM is where the all the data and information will be taken from as it is faster than the hard drive to transfer data, but its main intent is store temporary items. If the user has RAM which is fast and has a lot of RAM, this will improve gaming on their game system as it will lead to faster load times such as loading games faster. Also, by having more RAM, you can store much more temporary memory and information which can be also be read and written quickly. For gaming, when buying RAM there are three things which should be considered, capacity, frequency and latency. Capacity should be considered as games are getting much better and require much more RAM to load information so having RAM which is 8GB or above is more than enough as this is the recommended amount and sometimes the minimum requirement. Frequency of the RAM should be considered as this means how much data can be transmitted to the RAM stick at one time. This is because RAM can run on many frequencies however you need to consider what your system can handle as there is no point having a higher amount if its not supported. However, having higher frequency will better the performance as more data will be transmitted per stick. Latency should be considered as this informs you of the memory clocks for each operation which is executed so the lowest latency is the best and these latencies are formatted in four numbers.
RDRAM (Rambus Dynamic Random-Access Memory) is like the normal RAM however the differentiation is that it uses a unique high-speed data bus which is the Rambus channel. RDRAM memory chips operate in parallel which can achieve data rates of 800 MHz or 1600 Mbps. Due to the high speeds which the chips operate at, they emit a lot of heat than other types of chips which means it can overheat, to prevent this heat spreaders are integrated with the chip. This helps in gaming as if the RDRAM overheats that means it will take longer loading games and the load time will be longer, this could potentially cause freezes or crashes.
SRAM (Static Random-Access Memory) is a type of RAM which holds data in a static form if the memory has power and it doesn’t have to be refreshed. The way it holds data is by using multiple transistors (4-6) for each memory cell and this is used for the cache. This allows the SRAM to be fast however since more components are required it is expensive.
DRAM (Dynamic Random-Access Memory) is a type of RAM which is used in PCs etc. to store data or program code that a computer processor needs to function. The way it does this is by storing the data within a memory cell which consists of a capacitor and transistor which is arranged in a rectangular configuration of storage cells and this requires constant refreshing. The reason it needs refreshing is because the storage cell is dynamic, so it needs an electronic charge every couple of milliseconds to adhere for the charge leaks from the capacitor. This means that the dynamic RAM would be a little slower however it would be less expensive. For gaming, DRAM creates the larger system RAM space which is used for the gaming systems.
Comments
Post a Comment