Is my CPU even worth a ram upgrade?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Millar14

Honorable
May 10, 2013
21
0
10,520
I tried to avoid asking the community an easy question but honestly I couldn't find my answer anywhere.

So my dad has an Intel core i3 processor (5005u) and 4gb ram in his laptop. I was considering upgrading the ram to 8gb (which it definitely is possible to do). And this got me thinking that since 4gb seems to be working OK and since it's a relatively low end processor, would there be any difference in performance by doubling up on ram?

I guess the short question is can a processor be limited to how much ram it can make use of by it's own power after which the ram is just a waste of money?

I know generally more ram the better but in the case of low end processors is this still the case indefinitely?

Thanks,

David
 
Solution
T
Are you running out of RAM during normal use? Get more RAM. If not, you'll probably see little to no performance improvement*. RAM is one of those things where you either have enough or you don't (more or less). Whether or not you need more is largely independent of your CPU. As others have said, 4 GB is fairly small so it's not hard to use it up, and RAM is cheap, so adding more may be a good idea.

*If you have a single 4 GB stick in your laptop, adding a 2nd would allow the RAM to run in dual-channel mode. This improves bandwidth, but I'm not sure how noticeable it is for the typical user.
Sort by date Sort by votes
T

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
Apr 15, 2014
11,481
1,630
72,390
Are you running out of RAM during normal use? Get more RAM. If not, you'll probably see little to no performance improvement*. RAM is one of those things where you either have enough or you don't (more or less). Whether or not you need more is largely independent of your CPU. As others have said, 4 GB is fairly small so it's not hard to use it up, and RAM is cheap, so adding more may be a good idea.

*If you have a single 4 GB stick in your laptop, adding a 2nd would allow the RAM to run in dual-channel mode. This improves bandwidth, but I'm not sure how noticeable it is for the typical user.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
G

Guest

Guest
Hey David,


I agree with OhioLeda. A ram upgrade will always help with overall speed. Even on an Atom processor. I used to test little netbooks and upgraded them from 1gbs to 2gbs and it made the biggest difference in terms of performance. And you are going from 4 to 8! But take in mind that extra voltage will drain your battery a bit more and it will get a bit warmer. Worth it? 100% yes. Your dad will be less frustrated with multitasking, Media playback, web browsing, editing, compiling etc. Everything gets a boost. Most modern programs will now utilize 8gbs so that upgrade will definitely come in handy. Of course a SSD will never hurt! Good luck and happy modding!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OhioLeda

OhioLeda

Honorable
Dec 15, 2012
309
0
10,860


IKR..
Find some ram on Craiglist cheap and max it out.. Talking what.. 20 bucks? :/
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
T

TJ Hooker

Titan
Ambassador
Apr 15, 2014
11,481
1,630
72,390


No, adding more RAM will not always increase performance. Also, DDR3L RAM (the kind that CPU uses) only consumes a a watt or 2, so it will not have a noticeable impact on battery life or temperature.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
photonboy

photonboy

Titan
Jun 20, 2006
21,567
13
85,015
Will it help?
Maybe, maybe not.

I have a desktop with 16GB (i7-3770K), but occasionally use my dad's 8-year-old laptop that has 2GB of RAM. Both run Windows 10 64-bit.

My dad's laptop works almost exactly the same as mine for normal usage, and only gets sluggish if I open up many tabs in the web browser. That's with 2GB so 4GB would make a huge difference there.

So...
I wouldn't bother unless he's opening up lots of tabs or using other memory-intensive programs like video editing.

Other:
An SSD as mentioned will help with boot times, and program opening times though it can be a hassle to switch over (i.e. CLONE or reinstall). In general, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

*Note that my dad's laptop had an HDD with Vista initially and it was incredibly SLOW after a while to boot and use. I then upgraded to W8 (at launch it was $40 upgrade option) and performance was great again.

I did clone over to an SSD and while it was slightly faster it wasn't by enough that I would do that if I wasn't comfortable already with computers.

I finally upgraded to W10 for free, but performance is essentially identical to W8.

Other:
Adding more memory can help though it's usually not related to how fast the CPU is. When you fill up the system memory then it has to start swapping back to the main drive, thus the main drive becomes the bottleneck at times.

You can have a lot of memory related slow-downs because of this even if your CPU isn't used very heavily. For example, the slowest dual-core CPU paired with 4GB of system memory at times can be faster than the fastest CPU paired with 2GB of system memory at times (though the fast CPU system would win any time it's not a memory bottleneck issue).
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Millar14

Honorable
May 10, 2013
21
0
10,520
Thanks for everyone's input and advice it is really great to hear everyone's knowledge on the matter, really appreciated.

The RAM i was looking at would cost £25 (say 35-40 USD) and that would double the amount. The funny thing I notice is that in task manager under performance where you can view the amount of ram in use it seems to be at a constant level no matter what I do and that makes me think that it is at a ceiling amount. So for instance the RAM in use is just under 3GB and the rest is deemed 'standby' (which windows defines as 'memory that contains cached data and code not currently in use'). And that is really where my original question came from; I was wondering maybe my CPU couldn't take advantage of all the RAM as it is now, let alone adding more.

I wonder if anyone could clarify that as I can't make sense of it as I'm not too knowledgeable in this area.

Thanks again everyone!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
M

Millar14

Honorable
May 10, 2013
21
0
10,520


Thanks, I think that I'll go for it and upgrade. If it doesnt alleviate the symptoms I described well at least there isn't a large cost.

Thanks,

I'll let you know what happens with it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom