RAM questions? What would happen if I use more RAM than I have, NOT more than the motherboard supports?

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The program will either shut down, or the computer will start having to go to the HDD for data that should be in memory. Visually it will have pauses while it waits for data to become available. An SSD will help a little being structured more like RAM, but then the bus speed is the limit. It won't damage anything.Closing programs running in the background can help if it keeps you from using all of the RAM.
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kanewolf

kanewolf

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May 29, 2013
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Your motherboard won't know you are using more RAM than you physically have. Why? Because the OS takes care of that. This is what the swapfile or pagefile is for. BUT the penalty for using more than your physical RAM is that your performance suffers significantly. The OS having to move data on and off disk to give you more virtual RAM than you have physical RAM is really slow compared to real RAM.
 
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Insomniac Jack

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Mar 22, 2016
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Kanewolf gave a very good technical explanation as to what happens when you use up your available RAM. What this translates to is incredibly slow game performance and overall PC performance. You'll notice long stutters and pauses while browsing/gaming. It's not a recommended way to play. Couldn't open the link to your build but saving up and buying another 8 GB of RAM will solve this.
 
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william p

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Sep 22, 2010
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The program will either shut down, or the computer will start having to go to the HDD for data that should be in memory. Visually it will have pauses while it waits for data to become available. An SSD will help a little being structured more like RAM, but then the bus speed is the limit. It won't damage anything.Closing programs running in the background can help if it keeps you from using all of the RAM.
 
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