Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Is It Worth Upgrading My RAM?

Hey guys,

Usually I'm quite good with stuff like this, but I was wondering whether it was worth upgrading my RAM further.

My current laptop has a 2.5Ghz i5 processor, and 4GB of RAM (originally 2 but I upgraded). I am using only 50-65% of the 4GB currently, would it be worth upgrading to 8GB? It would cost around $21 USD.

Cheers

5 Answers

Relevance
  • 8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    Sure, max it out if price is affordable. Why wouldn't you want the best ? : )

    You can use the extra RAM to run test servers, virtual containers and high end games. You can even use it for virtual drives with ISO images mounted to the system.

    I bet you a million dollars that if you asked the two individuals below who recommended you don't upgrade the following question they would contradict their own answer.

    If you had the option to upgrade from a New Toyota to a New BMW for chump change even though you don't need it would you upgrade the car ?

    If they say no they are full of it.

  • 8 years ago

    Is it worth it to upgrade your RAM? I would say no considering the fact that currently you are not using what you have.

    You will only notice a difference with RAM if your system needs it or if you change your configuration for better performance.

    More RAM Means Better Multi-Tasking

    First, let's take a moment to clarify what exactly more RAM can (and can't) do for you. The biggest benefit of upgrading your PC's memory is better multi-tasking, especially for those of us using RAM-hogging applications like Photoshop, Outlook, or Firefox 5 minutes after we've opened it. Having a lot of memory means that you can quickly switch back and forth between the different applications without Windows writing the process memory out to the pagefile. (The pagefile performs much the same purpose as RAM, but the data is stored on your much slower hard drive.)

    To put it another way, your RAM generally does not make your PC faster, it just allows it to do more things at once. If your single application uses 200 MB of RAM, it won't matter if you've got 2 or 8GB of total system memory, but if you've got 10 windows open using 200 MB each, then you are probably going to benefit from an upgrade.

    More RAM Will Not Make Single Tasks Faster

    Other than the specific applications that hog your RAM, if you think bumping your RAM from 3GB to 8GB is going to increase the speed of a regular application-like a video game—you should think again. The only thing that additional RAM does is allow your computer to do more things at once, not actually make it faster. So if you normally have a few dozen windows open before you launch your video game, you'll see some speed improvement by upgrading, or you could just close a few apps.

    If you are running with 2GB or less RAM in your system, you could probably benefit from an upgrade unless you barely use your PC or run a single application at a time—it should be easy to open up Task Manager and check whether your memory usage is reaching the limit. If you consider yourself a power user, you'll want to consider upgrading your PC to 3 or 4GB of RAM. So what if you already have 3GB+ installed? Should you drop the cash for 6 or even 8GB of RAM?

    How Do You Know When to Upgrade?

    To really analyze whether your PC is using the memory properly or paging to the disk, the best tool is the Resource Monitor included in Windows 7 or Vista—it gives you a quick view at exactly what resources are being used, and what they are being used for. The key thing to pay attention to is the Hard Faults/sec graph, which tells you how many times an application attempted to read memory that Windows was forced to push into the pagefile because of a lack of memory.

    If you really want to get a performance bump you should switch to a SSD or get a SSD-Hybrid Hard Drive. Replacing your regular hard drive with a SSD will give you performance that WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!

  • ?
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    If you're an severe gamer, reminiscent of Doom, Oblivion, then sure, 2GB improve might be one of the viable enhancements that would upgrade efficiency. For a laptop, approximately $two hundred-$three hundred. If you've got a laptop laptop, then you definately must rather don't forget in upgrading your video card. I think that this might yield a greater efficiency spice up, than a RAM improve for your case. $one hundred-$four hundred, relying on how a lot juice you wish. Next, might be a processor improve. If you've got something not up to 3Ghz, then this might be a well notion. If you've got greater than 3Ghz, then the advantages are minimum. $one hundred-$three hundred For a laptop, difficult force improve might be the final viable benefit. Upgrading as much as a 7200 or 10,000 rpm difficult force will deliver you somewhat spice up. $one hundred-$three hundred relying how a lot house you wish. If you've got a computer, then you're constrained to RAM and difficult force enhancements. Most laptops handiest include a 4200 or 5400rpm difficult force. Boosting it as much as a 7200rpm might do wonders. Of direction, computer enhancements are a minimum of two times up to the laptop improve charges.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    If you hardly use up the 4GB on your usual applications then you won't see any benefit in having more memory. Right now I only have as much as you. I run virtual machines while running other applications in the background. I still have enough to spare that's why I still cannot convince myself why I need more than 4GB.

    If I were you, if you still haven't purchased an antispyware I would suggest that you use the money to get Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Pro. A lifetime license only costs $24.95.

  • How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
  • ?
    Lv 7
    8 years ago

    it is worth the upgrade and the price is right

    Source(s): RN, tech & author x 30+ yrs
Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.