Newbie RAM question.

What I learned from my resources is that when your processor need information you RAM kicks in takes info from the hard drive and then feeds your processor with the needed info. However, when your RAM is like 2GB then your RAM needs to go to the hard drive more often than a 12GB RAM. So do RAM's with bigger memory produce less heat? For example would a 2GB RAM be hotter than a 12GB Ram?

 

I would describe it as computer software (running on the CPU) request memory from the OS, the OS instructs the hardware to allocate / reserve memory for data - sometimes the data comes from disk, sometimes from user input.

Now, if you are running with virtual memory, when memory in your application is a bit stale (no activity for some period of time) or requests more memory than is physically in your system, the OS can "swap" preserving that memory on a disk until it is needed again.

Getting back to your question, the answer is yes, but I doubt you would even notice it. 12GB of RAM is mostly likely made up of 3x4GB sticks. Where 2GB is 1x2GB stick. So you have 2GB more capacitors w/ two more additional sticks.

The physical nature of current through resistance will be heat, but since the memory is enclosed in a case, and the amount of generated heat is miniscule, I doubt you would even notice it with one computer.

 

So 12GB of RAM does produce less heat.

 

No, when used, more RAM will produce more heat. Honestly, the amount of heat produced by RAM is laughable at best. You don't need to worry about RAM being a source of heat.

 

The heat emission difference between a 2G RAM stick in a system and 12GB RAM stick(s) in another system is neglectable, assuming they are both running a same program, RAM almost never overheats, unless you block your laptop vents on purpose, after which your CPU and GPU will overheat WAY faster than RAM. So in short, you don't need to worry about heat output of RAM.

 

GOoti ti! Thank you.

 

RAM modules can heat up a lot. That's why they sell modules with heat sinks on top of them.

Try to run Orthos (a cpu stress program) in the mode of stressing the RAM as well and watch the temperature of the RAM modules. I have built in sensor near the RAM modules and can see it on my screen The above scenario can happen if you use your computer to calculate complex mathematical problems.

so the heat that your RAM will produce depends on how you use it and not in particular of how much you have installed, even though that also plays a role.

the reason that the CPU for example heats up much more than the ram is that when the CPU works is usually uses most of itself and at much higher frequency.

 

Sorry, I answered this a bit ambiguously. 12GB WILL produce more heat than 2GB. However, your laptop case/cooling systems should be designed to handle it, so I doubt you would notice it.



@Miro, we are talking about laptop memory here correct? While the same principles apply, I haven't seen to many heatsinks on laptop DIMMs, or a laptop motherboard w/ sensors to monitor memory temps. If you have that capability, please share what components you are using.

 

The heatsinks you see on RAM are more for show than anything, unless you plan on some serious overclocking (2000mhz+). There's even water cooled memory, but that is honestly pointless, it's just a marketing point.

 

Thank you everyone! I think I understand RAM's more now! Thank oyu.

 

there's a sensor that sits next to my RAM modules on my thinkpad T61, thus I can see the temp change on a dedicated thinkpad program that I have to control the speed of my fan (tpfancontrol) - it shows various temps from different sensors around the laptop (which are quite a lot, like 10 or so).

the fact that most of the time heat sink is not required for RAM modules for laptops doesnt mean that such heat sink is useless. Under intense work my RAM modules will heat up the touchpad that sits on top, and I can feel it with my finger.

 

You make some very good points miro_gt

Modules can run overclocked from their SDRAM specification and therefore run hotter than they would under normal settings. A lot of RAM modules sold with heatsinks are using lower rated SDRAM to keep costs down while providing higher performance. Hotter chips require faster refresh.

DIMM thermal management has been available for quite a while now and where DIMM's support temperature monitoring it can be used to throttle when too hot or simply as a feedback to reduce refresh and save power.

SDRAM is typically rated to run at a max case (not core) temp of 85C. My own laptop DDR2 RAM runs hot with heavy load, too hot to keep a finger on (no heatsink).

 

Interesting! I wish more and more laptop SMBs had this feature, or if they are there, a custom app to read them. Thx.

 

Heat produced by RAM is pretty much nothing... Its the power usage that the issue. It seriously doesn't help when I'm on battery that I have 8GB of Power sucking Hyper X RAM

 

TomJG90,

Your RAM is probably saving you power overall by making the O/S less reliant on the storage sub-system.