Physical memory (RAM) is the fast, limited hardware that stores active data. Virtual memory is a technique that OSs use to emulate extra RAM by using hard drive/SSD space when physical memory is full. RAM boosts performance with high-speed access, whereas virtual memory prevents crashes when RAM fills up by swapping inactive data. Read more https://windowspost.com/virtual-memory-vs-ram/
Location & Type: Physical memory is RAM chips. Virtual memory is space on a hard drive or SSD (often a pagefile.sys or swap partition).
Speed: Physical memory is significantly faster than virtual memory (HDD/SSD).
Capacity: Physical memory is limited by motherboard slots. Virtual memory is generally limited only by available disk space.
Function: Physical memory holds running applications. Virtual memory acts as a safety net when RAM is exhausted, moving inactive data from RAM to disk, known as "swapping" or "paging".
Visibility: Programs are generally unaware of where their data is stored, as the Operating System (OS) maps virtual addresses to physical RAM seamlessly.
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