Windows 7 - Will a RAM Upgrade Speed Up My PC?

Currently I have a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, and 1GB of ram. Crucial say the max my netbook can have is 2GB, will this speed up my PC lots, or would I need a different processor.
I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate(overkill), which runs surprisingly fast with aero and all effects on, but it would be nice to play a few games that currently lag.
Thanks.

it will only help if you're running out of RAM. Which is very likely to happen when playing modern 3D games with only 1GB of RAM.

twick

Hi and welcome to seven forums

Memory wont make you faster. you will slow down less and be able to have more things open at once. Only way to make you computer faster is CPU.

there are things you can do to make your self more efficient like stopping un needed services, killing apps that you dont need,etc.

hope this helps

Ken

Thanks everyone, I will probably get the RAM, because I do slowdown sometimes. These are not modern games, but old ones.
Do you have any idea of processes I could stop?

The Ultimate version doesn't consume any more resources or put any more load on your box than 7 Home Premium or 7 Professional. Ultimate just has a few extra features (Bit Locker, ability to join a domain, etc).

OK, I was told that Ultimate was slower. I'm glad I chose it now.

Hi there
RAM is often the LAST resource that is the cause of slow performance.

The usual culprit is the I/O sub-system. IDE 5200 RPM disks with a low / small cache will usually KILL any system stone dead however fast the cpu is.

The next thing to look at is the CPU -- this will of course limit the number of concurrent operations and the amount of "throughput" your machine is capable of.

However even a humble ATOM celeron processor is quite good for typical "Officy" type apps such as WORD, Powerpoint, even EXCEL.

For games etc you need a decent GPU - Graphics Processor Unit (used to call them "Video cards" in the old days) as these will do all the graphical processing. You will also need a CPU that can keep up with the GPU -- you don't need the fastest CPU but one that's fast enough to be ready to process the instructions when the "Interrupt" is received from the Graphics processor that it has processed the request and wants some more work to do.

Memory (RAM) for home computers is not such a critical resource as even 2GB of decent RAM will perform quite adequately if the disks / CPU / graphics combination is OK.

Where you DO need RAM and lots and lots of it is in the following areas

1) Running Multiple Virtual Machines

2) Running a server (web or or otherwise) with LOTS of concurrent users.

3) Especially here -- hosting a LARGE Oracle / MySQL database which receives many many concurrent queries so typical queries can be retained in memory - saves re-execution of same query which in a DB can really slow down response time.

I've run photoshop CS4 64 bit quite happily on a computer with only 2GB RAM. Having fast SCSI disks means the system can tolerate "page faults and swapping".

On a Netbook with 1GB RAM I'd say you are probably wasting your money upgrading it to 2GB.

Put the extra RAM on another machine or buy an SSD disk --that will certainly pay dividends.

Cheers
jimbo

I would recommend swapping the hard drive out, and maxing the memory out and using ReadyBoost via an SD card.

I have an MSI wind that I put a WD Scorpio Black in, 2GB memory (max) and ran ReadyBoost from a 200x SD card. I noticed significant performance in everything I did on the machine.

As far making it perform better after that? Not going to happen. There are limitations to everything in life.

Is using ReadyBoost better if you do it from an SD card than if you do it from a usb stick. Also, I use this netbook for internet, photo editing, and VERY basic video editing. Would more ram or readyboost speed these up?

The ONLY thing RAM will do is speed up Boot time and the amount of programs you can run will increase...


Check your Task Manger and under the performance tab how much memory are you using??