How To Check RAM Speed on Windows , Linux and Mac

As the world is getting increasingly digitalized, the demand for Gadget’s specs to be high is increasing daily. And your computer is one of the main characters of this whole digitalization world.

So, it is obvious that your computer should have great specifications, to meet modern requirements. It should have a great processor, a huge hard disk, and RAM. 

Today, we are going to talk about one such component, and that is RAM, as it is one of the most important ingredients in this dish which we call a computer.

What is RAM?

RAM, Random Access Memory, is one of the most vital components of your computer. Higher RAM specs are something that will gravitate the buyer’s attention.

If you are going to buy a laptop or a desktop, there is a very thick chance that the first thing you are going to ask the vendor will be about the RAM.

Let’s say your budget was tight, and you bought a computer with lower RAM. As your requirement increases, you might want to increase your RAM’s capacity to achieve maximum performance.

This might leave you wondering, “What is the maximum RAM capacity I can achieve?”. So, do not worry I’ve got you covered.

In this article, I will cover your doubts regarding the “How To Check RAM Speed” topic.

How To Check RAM Speed on Windows, Linux, and Mac

Before checking your RAM’s speed, you should first consider checking your memory as it will give a comparable knowledge of your current RAM speed.

In this article, we are going to discuss three main operating systems:-

1. Windows
2. Ubuntu Linux
3. Mac

How To Check RAM Speed on Windows 10

Windows operating systems are one of the most common operating systems. From Windows XP to Windows 10, the Microsoft gem has ruled the operating system market over the years.

Check the current RAM available:-

Since this Operating System is famous for its easy and user-friendly interface. So, checking the RAM is not difficult for this operating system.

So, follow these few uncomplicated steps and you can check your RAM.

There are Four methods in Windows 10 by which you can see your RAM capacity:-

1. Task manager:-

Task Manager is a place where you can see your system’s performance, and in this method, we will identify your RAM’s capacity and its type with Task Manager in just two steps.

Step 1: Launch Task-manager via Task-bar, right-click on the taskbar+scroll to the third last option “Task-manager”.

Or you can use this shortcut as an alternative cltrl+shift+Esc.

Step 2:- In the Task-manager window look for the “performance” tab and then in that tab, click on the memory. 

On the right side of the screen, you can see your RAM capacity and its type. As shown in the figure.

As you can see the RAM available in this example is 16GB, and the type is DDR3.

2. This PC

This PC in Windows 10 is a place where your PC is integrated, and in this method, we are going to use “This PC” to sneak into your computer and find your RAM out.

Note: we are just using Windows 10 as a reference these methods is applicable for all versions of Windows.

Step 1: Search “This PC” from your start menu. Click on “properties”.

Step 2: Seach for “Installed RAM”. There you can see your current RAM capacity.

3. Using System Information

Windows come with a utility named system information that you can access from the Start menu by search ‘system information“.

In the System Summary tab, You can view Installed physical memory, Total Physical Memory, Available Physical memory, Total Virtual Memory, and available virtual memory.

4. Using DirectX Utility

Windows 10 has a DirectX utility tool that will give you information about Directx components including BIOS version and installed RAM.

To access it, search for the “dxdiag” in the start menu. Under the System tab, you can view the Installed memory.

Check RAM’s performance:-

RAM speed is something, that we all strive for. If your computer is lacking speed you might want to check your RAM speed first.

So, for that, you have different third-party applications. And we are going to use CPU-Z

Step 1: After Installing CPU-Z from the above-provided link. Open the app.

Step 2:Launch the app and click on the memory option. You can see “DRAM frequency” the number written there is your RAM’s frequency.

And since we have DDR RAM i.e; Double Data Rate. We are going to multiply it by two.

In the above case, our DRAM frequency is 799.0 MHz. Therefore, your RAM’s speed is 1598.0 MHz.

Maximum RAM capacity:-

Now, since you know your RAM’s type and performance, you can think about adding more RAM to your system.

So, by obeying the following procedures, you can see how much RAM does your computer supports in the windows PC.

Step 1: Launch Command Prompt from the Start menu.

Step 2: Type command “wmic memphysical get MaxCapacity, MemoryDevices”

Note: the result here is in kilobytes if you want to change it to GB divide it by 1048576.

As you see from the result above, the maximum RAM capacity of that particular PC is 32GB.

How to check your RAM for errors in Windows

If you are facing random PC issues like PC freezes or crashes then it’s time for you to check your computer RAM for an issue, luckily windows come with an inbuilt tool for this job named “Windows Memory Diagnostics“.

To access this tool, search for the “Windows Memory Diagnostics” in the start menu.

it will open like below image, if you want to check for problems then click on the Restart now option otherwise click on the “Check for problems the next time I start my computer”.

it will run multiple tests to check any memory error. Have patience. 🙂

if this test is showing any error means it’s time for you to replace your RAM.

Free up memory on Windows 10

The best easiest way to free up RAM on your Windows PC is to use only the required applications that you want to use and close the remaining applications with windows task manager.

You can close the un-used application from the task manager, open the task manager by right-clicking on the taskbar, and select “Task Manager” option.

Under “Process” tab, select the applications that you don’t want to run and select the ‘End Task” option to end the task.

if you closely monitor your process tab, you will realize Google Chrome is one most memory-hog applications.

I tried many tricks available on the internet to fix the google chrome memory hog issue and finally cam up with a solution! 🤷‍♂️,

yes, I changed my Google Chrome browser to Brave Browser (Download Here), which is also based on the same Chromium engine that Chrome is using.

The best part about chrome is it is using less memory then chrome, and you can easily control it with third-party trackers.

Below is the screenshot of my laptop after using chrome.

Did you notice at one point in the “System Information” screenshot there is one “Page File Space” memory, and it’s also taking some RAM space? So the question is what exactly is the page file is why it used? 🤔

In simple words, the page file is a small space in the hard drive that Windows is using at the time of physical RAM is full.

By default, once you shut down the Windows PC, your system RAM gets cleared, but still page file is stored. Clearing the page files will help your PC to run effectively after the reboot.

Search for “regedit” in the Windows Start menu or search for the “Registry Editor” and navigate to the below-mentioned path

Double-click on the “ClearPageFileAtShutdown” option and change value of 0 to 1.

and click OK. After this change now Windows will clear your page file memory after shutdown. 🙂

There is a tool named Crucial Scanner (Download Here), it will perform a scan on your Windows PC and find a compatible upgrade.

How To Stop programs hogging your PC’s memory