Windows 7: Shared memory, how much of a boost would extra RAM give?

I've bought the machine (Acer Aspire 5742) described below.

I'm wondering what performance boosts I could expect if I raised the amount of RAM in the machine from 3Gb to it's max, 8Gb.

What kind of boost, if any, will the graphics get with the extra RAM, for instance?

Technical Details



CPU:Intel® Core™ i3-370M processor (2.4GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
Chipset:HM55
Screen:15.6" HD Acer CineCrystal™ LED LCD
Graphics:UMA
RAM:3 GB RAM
HDD:320 GB (5400 Rpm)
Optical DriveVD-Super Multi DL drive
Card Reader:2-in-1 card reader
Wireless:Acer Nplify™802.11b/g/n
Battery:6-cell Li-ion battery
WebCam:1.3 megapixel webcam
USB Slots:3
Color:Black IMR
OS:Windows 7® Home Premium 64-bit
Battery Life:3.5
Weight (KG):2.6

Hi Shaggydabbydo welcome to window 7 forums

well to answer you're question the amount of shared memory will be determined by the hardware you use

I can tell you a big boost will be gained of course useing 64 bit windows with 8 gigs of ram would be great but take in to account you do not have a installed graphics card which will hurt you memory wise cause the intergrated graphics will take from the 8 gigs i doubt it will be much given you want to install 8 gigs

On a happier note if you are using demanding applications with it you will see a big perfomance step for sure also depends on what programs are installed too......but typically you will be running smooth

just personal prefrence make sure you get the same exact ram or if you replace all the ram get the same one and maybe shoot for the higher lantency ram if you can use it

Thanks for the reply. I will be using paired memory, thinking of buying two blocks of 4Gb for the machine:

From Crucial:
"Each memory slot can hold DDR3 PC3-8500, DDR3 PC3-10600 with a maximum of 4GB per slot.*"
Computer memory upgrades for Acer Aspire 5742 Laptop/Notebook from Crucial.com


There seems to be lots of opinions on various boards about shared memory and about it being "bad", but if I shove 8Gb in there, will I be able to play games on the machine, or notice an improvement in graphics rendering, etc?

unfortunatly you ar limited by the intergrated graphics the best thing to do is find out if you can install a decent graphics card in the lappy if not then you will be stuck with the same gpu performance it might get a little better but not by much

it is the graphics card or controller that will dictate that and pretty much bottleneck you i would look into both or if you could afford so look into a mobo for the lappy that supports installed gpu's either way it goes it is going to make you're wallet a little lighter i would look into all options before the upgrades also WHAT GAMES are you trying to play smooth if thiere not intense you will be fine but just in case explain what games you like to play

Thanks for your reply.

I'd rather not install a decent graphics card in the machine (not sure if I could if I wanted too).

I'm wondering if I should upgrade the RAM to 8Gb from the 3Gb it comes installed with, ie, what benefits would I get. It sounds like I would not get much benefit from a Graphics point of view.

I'm not sure what games I would attempt to play yet as I've not played games on a lappy thus far. I'll be using it for surfing the web; YouTube; GoogleEarth; watching films on; general small office stuff; perhaps playing some games (which do you think would work on this machine? I do like First Person Shooters on my xBox).

Personally I think you would get a much better performance boost if you installed a SSD instead. I am running 32bit on a 3GB system with an 80GB Intel SSD. The performance is excellent. This is a desktop.

On another laptop with an i7 and 4GBs of ram, 1GB graphics card, 64bit Windows 7, I installed a 90GB OCZ Vertex2 - a world of difference in performance too. The bulk data I put on an external disk.

Even on my old 2007 HP laptop with 32bit Vista, 2GB RAM and a 1.8GHz duo core, an 80GB Gen1 Intel SSD made a big difference. But here my motivation for installing it was mainly heat.

Thanks for your reply. Hmmm, food for thought - more RAM or an SDD. The laptop I'm currently on is an Acer TravelMate 5720, 32bit Vista, 4Gb RAM and 1.8Ghz Core2 Duo (OS & installed programs c drive partition is 35Gb), similar to your old 2007 HP. Perhaps I should test my toe into SDD waters and try an SDD in that before I hit my almost automatic reflex to by more RAM as a way of speeding up laptops.

Fair enough. If you need mre help for the migration, let us know. For Vista a cheap Gen1 SSD would do because Vista has no Trim support. And for the migration, this program does everything automatically for you. But if you do not want to spend the extra $19.95, we can also tell you how to do it "manually". For a laptop, you do, however, need a way to attach the SSD to the USB port for the setup and transfer of the OS - either by an external enclosure ($20+/-) or a cable ($10 to $20).

Thanks for the reply. That migration tool looks very interesting. Does it migrate or copy the OS, ie, could I also use it as a general backup tool as well? "Migrate" to me means to 'move' rather than 'copy', hence the question. I've several machine that I don't have the OEM disks for any more (lost them) so transferring OS's off one HD/SDD to another would be very, very handy.

It does COPY, not move. I guess you could use it as an imaging tool. But I think, the full free Paragon or free Macrium is probably a better deal - especially as you probably want to take periodic images. If you use Macrium, many of us can help. I think there are fewer people familiar with Paragon.