On Windows 10 or Windows 11, the ability to check the technical specifications of the memory installed on your computer will come in handy in many situations. Details such as the manufacturer's name, part number, and serial number can be useful when contacting technical support, for example, when you have to troubleshoot hardware and software-related issues.
If your computer's performance is slowing due to memory-intensive applications or games, upgrading the memory can improve performance. In addition, knowing memory specifications can help determine the right size, speed, and brand to purchase compatible upgrade kits.
When adjusting memory settings in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) or Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), pre-fetched memory information can also help you know if the configuration has been applied correctly.
While you can use Task Manager to view memory specification information, if you want to determine more specific details, such as manufacturer, part number, serial number, etc., you can use the following commands. Below, I will show you how to check memory specifications in Windows.
(1) Check the memory manufacturer
Open the start menu.
Type "command prompt", right-click the top result, and select the "Run as administrator" option.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Confirm the memory brand under the manufacturer column.
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,manufacturer
(2) Check the memory part number
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,partnumber
Confirm the product number under the "PartNumber" column.
(3) Check the memory serial number
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Tip: In the command, you can also replace "devicelocator" with "banklabel" to list the serial number showing the physical label that the memory is on the motherboard. For example, wmic memorychip get banklabel,serialnumber
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,serialnumber
Confirm the product identifier under the "SerialNumber" column.
(4) Check the memory capacity
Using the command prompt, the total capacity of each module and the entire system can be determined.
1. Determine the capacity of each memory module
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,capacity
Confirm the size of each memory module under the capacity column.
Tip: Capacity information is displayed in bytes, but you can convert the data to GB by dividing that number by 1,073,741,824 (1 GB bytes).
2. Determine the total system memory capacity
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Confirm the total amount of physical memory (in megabytes) installed on the device.
systeminfo|findstr/C:"Total Physical Memory"
3. Check the memory module speed
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Confirm the speed of the memory module (in MHz) under the speed column
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,speed
4. Check the memory type
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Under the "MemoryType" column, confirm the number that identifies the memory type.
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,memorytype
5. Check the memory dimensions
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Under the FormFactor column, confirm the form factor information.
wmic memorychip get devicelocator,formfactor
Explanation: If the output is 8, the device uses DIMM modules (usually available on desktops). Otherwise, if the command outputs the number 12, the computer uses a SODIMM module (usually available on laptops).
6. Check all memory details
The above command will help you determine the most useful information about the memory installed on your computer, however, use another command to query all available details at the same time.
"Run as administrator" to run Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:
Confirm the available information for each memory module installed on the device.
wmic memorychip list full
(Optional) Type the following command to view only specific details and press Enter:
1.wmic memorychip get
2.devicelocator,manufacturer,partnumber,serialnumber,capacity,speed,memorytype,formfactor
After completing these steps, you will have many details about the memory modules installed on your Windows 10 PC.
Note: While many details about the memory specifications on your computer can be queried using the command prompt, some information may not be available depending on your system's hardware.
To sum up, here are a few commonly used instructions on how to check memory specifications in Windows.