Why Do You Need Plenty of RAM? - Part 3

By taking a glance at the Task Manager, you can receive a lovely suggestion of how your method is running. In case you have lots of available RAM, you are in lovely shape. But lots of systems I see actually have no free RAM, and this is what causes the method to make use of the hard disk in lieu and run slower. Note that the available RAM will usually never hit zero, but will fluctuate around low numbers if your method is out of memory.

Our example so far has been simplified to show how doing thing on your computer needs memory. But an actual benefit of having adequate memory is multitasking. Fundamentally, in case you are doing over thing at a time, you are multitasking. In case you are reading this news story and editing a picture simultaneously, you are multitasking.

Usually, in case you can switch between open programs on your machine quickly, they both are loaded in to RAM. In this case, you can likely see lots of available memory in Task Manager. On my machine, since I have lots of RAM, I switch between or Web browsers, Excel, PowerPoint, Instant Messenger, my audio player, and more quickly.

On the other hand in case you don't have RAM, even with programs open, when you switch between them your computer may slow down considerably. The program you are switching to is not in RAM, and the CPU is forced to get knowledge from the hard disk. As you open more programs, the situation only gets worse. A check on task manager in this case will likely show small free RAM, small in fact to fit all of your programs.

How Much RAM does you require?

The best answer is that you require RAM to run all of your programs and multitask between them quickly. If your method is running well and you check Task Manager and have lots of available RAM, you are probably in lovely shape. If your method is slow switching between over program, look at the task manager and see if your available RAM is low. If it is, adding more will likely make your whole method run faster, by fitting more programs in to RAM.

You'll be amazed how fixing this issue will improve you computing experience overall. That is the reason so lots of people speak about RAM as being the best upgrade for older systems.

In case you are purchasing a new computer 512 MB is a lovely amount of RAM for most users. In case you edit lots of picks or video, or in case you can afford the upgrade, moving up to 1024 MB GB) is not a bad idea. Memory prices are much lower than they were time, and you'll have additional memory for more programs now. For most users, the largest advantage to getting more RAM is that in case you keep your computer for a long time, the additional RAM could save you an upgrade down the road.

But how much RAM is much? Well you won't slow down your method by adding RAM. Typical systems currently can accommodate up to anywhere from 512 MB - GB of RAM. The issue is, after you have RAM, adding more doesn't get you much, if any performance gain.

With that in mind, check back soon for a news story comparing performance of common applications, including multitasking, with different amounts of RAM. We'll check from 256 MB to 1024MB, and you'll be able to see how all they have covered here has an actual effect on the speed of your computer.