Apparatus and method to receive new requests for write transactions; compare rank, bank and page of new requests to those already stored and assemble chains of write commands directed to the same rank, bank and page; select and transmit write commands from one chain at a time until each chain is done; and select a next chain of write commands to transmit, while creating and using a write page closing hint to determine when a change between pages of a given rank and bank should bring about the preemptive closing of a page to minimize incidents of incurring lengthy page miss delays.