Specifically How Does RAM Improve Performance?

[Vanchatron]

I've just ordered two 512mb sticks of RAM so will be upgrading from 512mb to 1gb.

What improvements will I notice when I've installed the 1gb of RAM as I'm not completely sure what to expect.


HK

[UNDIESRULES]

Ram is the chepaest and easiest upgrade you can do, can you not leave the 512mb inside your pc then you will have 1.5gb?
It speeds things up because as Windows does its thing its using the Page File all the time, that is an area of the hard drive that Windows uses as though it were Ram. But hard drives are slower than Ram so by putting more ram in your system you are reducing the need for Windows to rely on the hard drive.

You will nroamlly notice better games performance, quicker startup/close down of programs and just generally smoother running.

[marvinmatthew]

In very simple terms:

Adding more ram will allow you to load up more data into your memory. Lemme give an example:

When you start any game (let's take Half Life 2 as an example), the data for that level that you're on is loaded into the ram. Since you will have more ram, it will mean that you will be able to load up more of that level (if not all of it). If you had less ram, you wouldn't be able to load up that entire level into the ram, and it would be having to constaintly load up parts of the level that you haven't got to, and unload parts of the level that you have got to. But now that you have the extra ram, it dosen't need to do this, and therefore is freed up to do other things.

Furthermore, all versions of Windows will use something called a 'page file.' This page file is space on your hard drive that it set asside, and it acts like ram. Windows does this inorder to supliment the amount of ram that you have. But, this page file isn't nearly as fast as actual ram, because it runs off of your hard drive. Adding more ram will allow Windows to use the page file less, becasue Windows has access to more actual ram.

I hope that that made sense. The way I said it is a tad compliacted.

[Bs|Archaon]

Your system will be faster, basically.