Does Your PC Really Need More RAM?

Adding more RAM to your computer has long been considered a sure-fire way to improve performance. But, as this video by TechQuickie points out, that’s not always true anymore.

The addition of RAM can make a computer faster in some situations, but not always. If you are using your computer for basic tasks, such as email, normal web browsing and Microsoft Office, there’s likely no benefit from adding more RAM, even if you’ve noticed your system is running slow. PCs that are less than three years old usually come with more than enough RAM for the average user. If your computer is older than three years, it’s possible that adding RAM would help performance, but it’s also likely that there are other issues causing your system to slow down.

In many cases, it’s not a lack of RAM causing the decrease in performance. Instead, it’s likely a virus or malware, or a damaged or malfunctioning component. Before buying more RAM for your PC, it’s worth it to check your entire system and try to pinpoint exactly what needs to be fixed or improved.

Part of that diagnostic check can be done through Task Manager for Windows users. Task Manager is home to a Performance Monitor, which will show you a graph of your RAM usage. If you notice that most of your RAM is being used, check the running processes to find out what applications are hogging your resources. In many cases, a slight alteration of your habits with applications, or finding alternatives to bloated applications, can eliminate the need for more RAM and improve performance.

If you check the Performance Monitor and notice that RAM isn’t being used excessively, but your system is running slowly, that’s a tell-tale sign that there’s other issues at work. In some cases, this is a suggestion that it’s time to upgrade to an entirely new PC.

Before you throw money away on computer improvements that might not actually help performance, be sure to perform a diagnostic test to pinpoint the actual problem. Bring your computer, or other device, to Geek Rescue. We diagnose what’s causing your system slow down and fix it quickly. Call us at 918-369-4335.