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Does increasing your random-access memory always speed up your PC?

Does increasing your random-access memory always speed up your PC? Or is there an upper limit where increasing it further doesn't make much difference. If I only run fairly simply programs, is there much point upgrading from 2GB to 3GB?

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  • 1 decade ago
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    For average people when you pass 2GB or 3GB you no longer notice a difference in speed. For gamers when 4GB is passed games will no longer have a noticeable speed boost.

    Source(s): CT Quantum CCSvc. Assembly documents
  • 1 decade ago

    It really depends on what you do with your computer exactly. If all you use is a word processor, then you won't notice anything most likely. Since you say you only run simple programs, there's no need to go from 2GB to 3GB at all. The amount of demand on your RAM is based on what you're running and how many things you're running at once. So if you keep it simple, there will never be too big of a strain on your memory.

    Some programs are big RAM eaters at times even though they're fairly simple in nature (like Photoshop, Painter, etc). So if you use those heavily it could be worth it to add the next bit. RAM isn't very expensive, so I don't think it's bad to add more in any case even if you're not sure if you'll truly need it.

    Source(s): Computer builder
  • 1 decade ago

    Here is a way of looking at the whole thing.

    Picture a man sitting at a desk, in an office. The man represents the CPU or processor. His filing cabinet represents the hard drive. The work surface, or size of the desk represents the amount of RAM you have. A small desk top equates to a small amount of RAM. A larger desk top represents more RAM. If the man has a large desk surface, it means he can spread out more work before him, and do it all at the same time.

    The more RAM you have, the more programs you can run simultaneously and comfortably. If you really want to see your RAM usage, bring up your Task Manager (right click on the clock in the right corner, and choose Task Manager from the menu). Click the processes tab, and examine the amount of RAM each process is using. Do this when you are running programs you would normally be using. If you are using more RAM than your 2gb... you need to add more RAM. If you are always using less than 2gb.. then you don't need to add more.

  • 1 decade ago

    Im just gonna answer ur question by what you said.

    If ur only running fairly simply programs then theres no point upgrading to 3GB.

    More RAM only really comes necessary when most of your current RAM gets used up. 2GB is plenty generally only games would require that much so yeh dont do it.

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  • 1 decade ago

    Here is a true example:

    I recently bought a new Macbook Pro and it came with 2G Ram.

    I went out and upgraded it to 4G of Ram.

    I had NO noticeable increase in speed.

    Things that are more likely to increase your speed are:

    1) Faster processor

    2) Dual Core (or better) processor

    Increasing Ram only helps if your processor is fast enough to utilize it.

    In most cases, with average laptops and desktops, increasing Ram will not make a noticeable difference in your speed

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

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  • 1 decade ago

    there'll be a very minor change in the speed as u're not upgrading it very much but as u run very simple peograms u wont be needing any more.. and there's no upper limit after which it doesn't make any difference....

    Best Of Luck!

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    There is no need to upgrade, my computer has 564MB RAM ( seriously) and it works freakingly fast!!!!!!

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