[SOLVED] Do memory ranks matter when looking at RAM specs?

[d239919]

Dear Community,

Recently, when looking to upgrade RAM, I came across memory ranks. After searching it up, it is not clear to me what the difference is and some websites claim that single rank memory is faster and others claim that dual rank modules are the ones that are supposed to be faster and it makes more sense in my opinion. So, I have decided to ask here and see whether anyone from the community has any experience or knows more about this topic. From what I can understand, memory ranks are kind of similar to CPU cores and threads. A CPU has a dedicated number of cores but it could also have virtual cores called threads which act as real cores and help the system run faster, especially when multitasking. Could this be applied similarily to memory ranks? Thank you in advance.

 

[vMax]

This can be a little complex but in reality they are very close and I would always default to dual rank in a matched pair as that is the better way to go.

https://www.oempcworld.com/support/singlevsdualram.html

Fingers crossed someone better than me can answer the question properly....

 

[damric]

It does.

Single rank dimms are easier to clock faster because they are easier on the processor's memory controller. Dual rank dimms perform a little better when clocked the same, but are harder on the memory controller so getting to that speed might take a bit more effort.

Generally get dual rank when getting huge capacity dimms for multitasking and get single rank when pushing for the most clock speed, but not as much needed capacity such as gaming.

 

[lynx1021]

Some older motherboards require dual ranked to work and wont work on single rank.