Will increasing my computers memory from 3GB to 8GB speed up operation?

OK this will be a long but very detailed answer to your question so read it whole and actually do the things I tell you to if you want to save yourself some money.

First, you must understand that some people don't need more RAM. if you are using all of your RAM for regular use, more RAM will help out. If you aren't however, then more RAM won't help. Think about it like this, if you have a box to carry stuff but the box can already hold everything you need, then a bigger box wont really help.

to find out if you need more RAM then turn on a really heavy program. something that makes your computer slow down a lot. usually this is a modern game, media editing program or 3d design program.

then, press CTRL + SHIFT + ESC. this will bring up the task manager. go to the Performance tab and look at the Memory use. if you are hitting your maximum or are very close to it, then you can use more RAM.

now there are issues with how much your system can handle. first, you'll need to find out the maximum that your hardware can hold. go to the manufacturer website for your computer. search your model and try to find out how much RAM your specific model can hold.

To find your model if you don't know it, then go to My Computer (you can use Windows Key + E) and right click on the main window. click on properties. on the System Properties page you'll see the manufacturer and model for your computer. on this same window you should also look at the System Type.

once you have found the maximum allowed RAM for your motherboard then you'll need to think about the operating system type. if you have a 64 bit OS, you are good. however if you have a 32 bit OS (sometimes noted as x86) you can only use 4gb. you will either need to upgrade to a 64 bit version or only get 4gb of RAM.

with all that being said, I personally wouldn't get 8 gb of RAM for that system which seems like it isn't made for heavy use. i'd get 4 or maybe a maximum of 6 gb of RAM. then depending on the performance that I want think about either getting a Solid State hard drive (SSD), or graphics card.

for non gaming performance, a solid state drive means that your computer will turn on faster, open programs and also load files faster. it will make your computer feel like a whole new system. in fact a solid state drive is the best single performance upgrade that you can add to any computer. if however you want to play games, a graphics card is a much better upgrade. games nowadays rely heavily on graphics card performance. a solid state drive wont help out much in gaming performance since games load all their info on RAM then run from there. they have very little hard drive use. meanwhile if you don't game, a graphics car wont really help you out. graphics cards don't perform system tasks that are used in loading programs and files.

There are many guides online that teach you how to do all these upgrades. look up the most reputable sites for the easiest and best advice. Sites like tech magazines are great resources because their high traffic keeps them from posting false posts. meanwhile sites like small tech forums can be full of users with much more knowledge and expertise but they are less exposed to more users to call them out on things that aren't true. I'd try to stay away from places like yahoo answers which have high traffic of posters but low people actually reading the responses. this means that theres a high chance that someone who doesnt actually know what they are doing will give you a false answer.

You need a 64-bit OS to support anything over 4GB of RAM.

You PC is designed to work at a certain performance level. If you have too little RAM, it will under perform, or work slow. When you increase the amount of RAM you are bringing the computer closer to it's maximum performance level. At that point adding more RAM just means you can have more applications open without affecting the computer's performance.

So doubling the RAM may or may not improve performance.

If you get at least 4GB of RAm then you can run 64 bit applications. I personally don't find a big difference between 4 and 8. It depends what you are using for. I upgraded to 4GB from 8GB and noticed NO difference. It could save you money just keep that in mind. Although it will be slightly more "future proof" with 8GB. Hope I have helped.

Maybe. It depends on what you are trying to do wtih your comptuer. A computer only runs as fast as it's slowest component. For most computers sold today, the weakest link, by far, is the video card.

Yes, however, make sure your version of Windows supports that much RAM, as well as that your Motherboard will support that much. No point in buying it if it won't actually be recognized.

Yes it should unless your OS and Processor cant handle it

Yes, it should help, what is the processor?

Yes it will since there will be more RAM available to use.