RAM question

[Hokiefyd]

This probably a basic question...if a computer has more RAM, will it use more RAM?

Background: my personal desktop computer has Windows 10 and 4 GB of RAM. RAM usage is typically somewhere between 1.5 and 3 GB, depending on what I'm doing. My work laptop has Windows 10 and 16 GB of RAM, and I notice that it typically uses about 3-5 GB of RAM, running many of the same types of programs I use on my personal desktop.

My personal desktop computer has never indicated that it's run out of RAM. On the surface, I would think that adding more RAM wouldn't necessarily speed things up. But if I added another 4 GB stick (and I can, it has one 4 GB stick, and there are two DDR3 slots), would it speed things up, despite not ever using more than 4 GB now?

 

[bullwinkle]

Believe that the more you have, the less rearranging the system does to get everything in, so it will be faster.

 

[Rand]

Depends on what you call "using ram" different operating systems use it differently.. and possibly use different terms.

Available, cached, used,standby, in use,etc

 

[NateDN10]

Yes. The OS uses the hard drive as a (much slower) backup for RAM - this is called a paging file. Otherwise the computer or at least a specific application would crash as soon as applications requested more RAM than was available.

OSes also preemptively fetch data from hard drive to RAM, and may not remove data from RAM after an application exits, if free space is available. This is to improve performance.

So, long story short, if you're just doing basic web browsing and that sort of thing you probably won't notice the difference. But if you have many applications open or are doing more intensive things like video/photo editing, CAD, video games, you'll definitely notice an improvement with additional RAM.

 

[Rolla07]

I went from 4 to 8 on my computer.. and it did make a difference.

 

[AirgunSavant]

I have had MB's that did not like more than two sticks of RAM
So that is a consideration as well. Not the amount of RAM but the modules.

 

[Killer223]

you'll want to add ram in pairs. one stick isn't correct. it'll change the ram to single channel mode not dual channel mode. it's cheep enough just go get 8GB, 2x4gb sticks.
you'll be better off getting all the ram from same brand. timing and what not can make ram not like other ram...

 

[Pop_Rivit]

It depends upon what you're doing.

When I build a database and work with a few hundred thousand records or so, more RAM will make a difference, especially if it's a workstation acting as the backend for the databases. I also have a couple of virtual machines that I use for testing connectivity and performance for the application that I write, and I can easily use 32GB.

For just an average user browsing the web, I doubt that you'll see a big difference if you have much more than 4GB, especially if you have a solid state hard drive.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Thanks all. If I added a stick, I'd use the same Samsung P/N as the existing stick, to ensure that it works smoothly. I do have an SSD in it, though, so it's already plenty fast doing nearly everything we do on it. It was more of a notional question than anything else -- it has never reported using "all" of the RAM, so I wondered if Windows tends to keep a "buffer" and never will fully use all of it. It reports using no more than about 3 GB at peak, but I don't know if it really wants to use 5 GB, and would use that much if it had more to work with.

Sounds like probably not. Especially not on my personal desktop. My work laptop has much more RAM, but all of my database work is against a server through VPN, so the processing isn't on the local machine anyway.

 

[JMJNet]

You can use the same P/N but it is not necessary.

You need to check what kind of RAM, there are 3 types on the latest: DDR2, DDR3, DDR3L.
There is DDR4 now but I am sure that is not your computer.

There are also a few different speed, usually say 4GB DDR3-12800, etc.

Check with the System information in your laptop to see the type and the speed.
You just have to find a similar type and speed than the one in there currently.

 

[i_hate_autofraud]

Hi,

It's always better to have the max RAM you can. Otherwise the CPU has to create temp files on the HD which is slower and go back and forth as you work.

To get faster still, consider a SSD - solid state hard drive. I boot to windows 50% faster then before and it seems 10/15% faster overall!

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Go to crucial.com and use the tool that scans your computer for what you have, and what you need. More RAM is always better. It's horsepower.

 

[barryh]

An ordinary user running Win 10 on 4GB of Ram should be happy enough.

SSD's produce a bigger improvement in user convenience through vastly quicker boot up times than more Ram does for overall performance. We run 500+ PC's in a school and give older machines a fresh lease of life by fitting an SSD. If you don't need much local storage space, small SSD's are now very cheap.

 

[Leo99]

Originally Posted By: barryh
An ordinary user running Win 10 on 4GB of Ram should be happy enough.

SSD's produce a bigger improvement in user convenience through vastly quicker boot up times than more Ram does for overall performance. We run 500+ PC's in a school and give older machines a fresh lease of life by fitting an SSD. If you don't need much local storage space, small SSD's are now very cheap.


+1

 

[itguy08]

Another benefit of an SSD is if/when you page it's a whole lot quicker. I've got a MacBook Air with 4G and a 256G SSD. While it will page out during photo editing if I have a bunch of other stuff open it is bearable. On my iMac who I put an SSD in it, it went from unbearable with a spinning disk to barely noticeable when it does swap.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Yes, an SSD is definitely worth is. As noted above, it has a Samsung (EVO 840) SSD, and that made a huge difference.

 

[SevenBizzos]

Yes. When I had 8GB, it was using just over 1GB after startup. After the upgrade to 16GB, it was using close to 2GB. Still overkill, but I use it for just about everything.

 

[alarmguy]

Originally Posted By: NateDN10
Yes. The OS uses the hard drive as a (much slower) backup for RAM - this is called a paging file. Otherwise the computer or at least a specific application would crash as soon as applications requested more RAM than was available.

OSes also preemptively fetch data from hard drive to RAM, and may not remove data from RAM after an application exits, if free space is available. This is to improve performance.

So, long story short, if you're just doing basic web browsing and that sort of thing you probably won't notice the difference. But if you have many applications open or are doing more intensive things like video/photo editing, CAD, video games, you'll definitely notice an improvement with additional RAM.


^^^^ That

 

[xfactor9]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Yes, an SSD is definitely worth is. As noted above, it has a Samsung (EVO 840) SSD, and that made a huge difference.


If you already have the pagefile on an SSD, you will see little noticeable improvement to adding another 4GB if you're a regular user (web & email).

Where you would see a noticeable benefit is if you're a RAM-heavy user, like doing video processing while you have 15 other windows open at once.

If you want to know if you're a RAM-heavy user, reduce your pagefile size to the minimum and see if you ever run low on memory.

 

[bunnspecial]

As with a lot of things computer related, RAM is important but past a certain point you get into diminishing returns.

My own experience is that even for modern day web browsing, with 2gb you will likely be miserable and also beat your hard drive up from the constant paging you're doing. Double that to 4gb, and I think folks not doing computationally intensive stuff will be content. 8gb will make a difference still, but it's not as dramatic of a difference as going from 2gb to 4gb.

16gb is overkill if you're not doing computationally intensive stuff, but it's also cheap enough that I take the philosophy of "why not?" with putting in that much RAM. I do run virtual machines-sometimes two at a time-so having the extra RAM gives my VMs some breathing room.

At the same time, if you're buying a computer without upgradeable RAM(such as every Mac laptop currently in production) you'd be well advised to cram as much RAM in as possible at the time of purchase. It wasn't THAT long ago that 8gb was much as I describe 16gb now, and the money you spend up front is well worth it if you can get a couple more years out of the computer.

I'll also add that I think a lot of the above is true of processor cores. I don't know if you would find a production single core system now(I haven't kept track) but EVERYONE benefits from two cores even for the most basic tasks provided that your OS knows how to use them(I think every Windows version since XP and EVERY version of Mac OS X) since even in the most basic operation it can offload "background" tasks to one core and run your current program on the other. Quad cores will be an improvement for most folks, especially if you're running a program that is multi-threaded, but it's not as dramatic of a difference. I have 8(physical) cores in my work computer and honestly in day to day use it's not noticeably faster than when I had four cores in the same computer. BTW, this is about as even of a playing field comparison as I can make as I simply made a lateral move from dual dual cores to dual quad cores of the same generation with the same clock speed and all other specs the same.