Why have alot of RAM???

Question

why is it good to have alot of ram??

Answer 1

Because RAM operates at much greater speeds than hard-disks. All the active programs (those that you currently use and all the system processed and OS core) are loaded in RAM.

Once you run out of RAM, the OS creates a space on the hard-disk called "swap" and uses that as RAM memory. But this operates at the speed of the hard-disk, which is thousands of times lower than the RAM speed (hdd speed is measured in miliseconds, RAM speed in nanoseconds).

Thus, the more RAM, the better (of course, until you reach an amount that basically covers all your needs).

Answer 2

As long as the amount of programs you run at one time (and all of the Windows Services) don't exceed the available ram you have, then I guess it doesn't matter. If you're running one program at a time (even a big one) and close it down before going onto something else, then extra memory isn't an advantage. You can check memory status with Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Task Manager. Click on the Peformance tab. On the bottom graph, you 'll see a yellow line, mine pretty much stays close to the bottom (under the first grid), which is great. The more programs I open, the higher the yellow bar goes. Once you get past about 75%, then the system has to compensate by using a virtual memory file on the computer. The program them swaps out some of the memory and writes it to the disk. That takes time. Then if it needs it again, then it has to read the ram disk file and then write it to ram memory again.

I have 756Mb of RAM and that plenty. I can run Paint Shop Pro (a graphic editing program, memory intensive, and i can have 10 internet explorers open with different websites, I can run even start a big game, while all those programs are still running, and I dont exceed the memory I have. If I had 512Mb or less, then I'd probably want to close out the paint shop pro and 10 IE's before starting my game.

So the extra memory mainly only comes into play when/if you want to run multiple programs at the same time. If you're using one or two at a time and exit them before doing something else, then extra memory is a waste of money.

Answer 3

RAM largely determines how much TOTAL ACTIVITY your computer can handle at the same time. In other words, it affects how many programs you can run at once and how fast they run on your computer. Some programs use more RAM than others, but basically, that's what it is. You got the idea, no?

Answer 4

Another RAM tidbit to supplement the above- not sure what OS you are running, but be warned that if you go to Vista, you will need a 1GB of RAM at minimum just to satisfy the OS hardware req. Running Vista and more memory intensive apps/games like in the above answers, you are looking at shooting for 2 GB (at least) to get things running decent.

Answer 5

its actually only good to a point ... 1 gig will handle almost anything ... some late games will use alittle more like 2gigs ... and to register 3 gigs or more with xp requires some special tweaking of the boot.ini and the registry. ... 1 gig of ram is actually faster than 2 gigs in most systems so unless ur a gamer ur wasting ur time and money buying more than 1 gig.

Answer 6

Your computer will run faster. When you have little ram the memory is constantly paged in and out to disk.

Answer 7

RAM is like a playing field. If you have a small playing field you cannot have as many activities going on at the same time without affecting the performance of the playing field.

In relation to a computer, RAM is the operating space that allows various activities to run. If you do not have enough RAM, system performance is affected. So you only need enough RAM for all of your activities to occur at the same time without affecting the performance of your computer (i.e. multiple Windows open, games, etc.)

Answer 8

a lot of ram won't do anything good,but a high capacity RAM will boost ur comp performance..
RAM help ur comp to retrieve data from ur harddisk,the bigger hertz it have,the bigger data u'll get in the minimum time..nowaday,people buy 1 gig RAM..not that expensive..it's worth..

Answer 9

Bottom line is, everything loads and runs faster with more memory available. If you don't have enough memory for the programmes, it uses available memory from your hard drive, which is quite a bit slower.

Answer 10

because you can run a lot of programs at the same time and your computer won't lag as much.