No Noticable Performance Increase

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justyermama

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Apr 23, 2013
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My system uses DDR2 dual channel memory. I recently upgraded from a 32 bit operating system to a 64 bit os, and went from 4 gigs to 8 gigs. I was using Infineon and Hynix initially. I bought 2x4 gb of Kingston memory w/heat spreaders. My system does not seem noticeably faster. Everything loads up about the same. I do notice that video and audio don't quite match. What gives? Memory increases in the past (much smaller) couldn't be denied. NOT this time. What is up? Any ideas? Thank you.
 
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Windows 7 is a 64-bit OS and there is a tool called 'Resource Monitor' where you can see how your 4GB or 8GB memory is being utilized. In my example below, I have 8GB but while browsing on Modzilla Firefox and running email client...
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getochkn

getochkn

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Jul 2, 2006
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If your system is DDR2, it's old. You upgraded 1 piece, but that doesn't alway make a difference if everything else in the system is slowing it down as well.

It's like taking a 2004 Ford Taurus and putting a high performance exhaust and fancy tires on it. Won't really make it go faster, the engine, tranny, everything else is still as slow as it was, and it won't make the car go any faster.
 
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Soumil

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Feb 17, 2014
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Since you have upgraded the amount of RAM, you will only feel the difference when you are doing RAM demanding works. Like playing heavy games, video editing or rendering.
There is difference but you can't feel it because you are doing stuff which won't require 4GB+ RAM.
Other way of experiencing the difference would be benchmarks. :)
 
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sedona

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Jan 13, 2014
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Windows 7 is a 64-bit OS and there is a tool called 'Resource Monitor' where you can see how your 4GB or 8GB memory is being utilized. In my example below, I have 8GB but while browsing on Modzilla Firefox and running email client Postbox, I only used up 2GB out of 8GB. The 'Standby' is just predictive caching based on my regular usage routine and Windows 7 pre-loaded those files as standby. It still doesn't use 8GB. It's probably the same in your case. You upgraded from 4GB to 8GB and it won't make your system "faster". Increasing memory does not improve speed.

On the other hand, you are using DDR2 memory which means your processor and motherboard are still the FSB (front-side bus) technology from 6 years ago. Your processor/motherboard/memory and possibly SATA 3Gbit/s old harddisk with 16MB cache is SLOW. A new DDR3 memory running at 1333/1600Mhz is twice as fast on paper as a DDR2 memory on 667/800MHz.

In the past, 2GB memory is sufficient for Windows XP. 4GB max it out. But in below picture, Windows 7 on light browsing and email already ate up 2GB so you need 4GB as "sufficient" and 8GB to max it for normal users. For my kind of usage I don't need 16GB or 32GB. Using the Resource Monitor tool will help you decide based on your usage practice and what you plan to do in future with the PC.

dHAXVi2.png
 
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