Is RGB Ram any good for Stata?

[James Park]

I use a huge dataset, so the speed is an issue. It looks like RGB Ram is a thing, but is it also helpful for Stata as well? I don't need great graphic quality. I just need speed of data manipulation and regressions.

[Leonardo Guizzetti]

It would seem that RGB RAM chips are nothing more than DDR4 RAM memory with RGB LEDs to allow for visual display when inside of transparent computer cases. Some quick searches in my local computer stores suggest this is the case, and there don't appear to be any meaningful differences. If that's the case, I wouldn't spend money on the lighting feature.

You may wish to discuss your performance issues with Stata Technical Services. There are many factors that can affect speed and performance of your Stata session. All datasets are stored in RAM memory, so large datasets take longer to load. This could be sped up with a fast solid-state drive. When manipulating and working with data, CPU speed, number of available cores (* with Stata MP) and RAM all affect speed. That said, regression models will store temporary results in memory, and some techniques are greedier than others, so having more memory isn't necessarily harmful. Then again, there's only so far that technology will get you. Large data often demand larger models, and their solution scales with data size. You may well still be waiting for results and this may not be reasonable to you.

My general advice is to upgrade what you can within your means. If you are frequently loading in datasets and the time lag is too slow, upgrade the disk. For everything else, RAM memory upgrades are often cheaper and easier than a CPU and motherboard. If you can monitor system resource usage while running your regression models, you may notice excessive caching to disk (which is slow) and additional RAM memory mitigates this need. After that, it may be a toss-up between the affordability of a CPU or upgrading to )a higher version of) Stata MP.