What does RAM do for your PC?

Question

I know what it stands for and all that. What does it store? Everything for examle if you are working on Word or what? Thanks.

Answer 1

Random Access Memory... Everything that you do on a computer is done in RAM hence comp going off in the middle of a 30 page report and you did not save... all gone...
the more RAM you have the better, faster, smoother OS and applications...

Hope that helped...

Answer 2

RAM is your computers memory, the longer your PC is being used with programs etc. the more memory that is being used. Eventually, your pages will slow down and maybe programs will not load or work correctly. Then that is when you restart your PC and gain all its memory back. If you are trying to run programs and are slow or games are slow, doing a Ram upgrade is cheap and affective. Ram chips are relatively cheap now days, so you can add another chip and gain some speed in running programs.

Answer 3

It holds in memory every open program and file.
It stores anything you are copying or cutting until you "paste" it. In addition, it holds your work until you File,Save.

You can see how quickly RAM can be filled, and if overloaded, your computer will freeze and you will lose anything you did not save to disk.

For this reason, it is a good idea to save your work frequently and not open too many programs at one time. It seriously slows down your computer.
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RAM (random access memory) is the place in a computer where the operating system, application programs, and data in current use are kept so that they can be quickly reached by the computer's processor. RAM is much faster to read from and write to than the other kinds of storage in a computer, the hard disk, floppy disk, and CD-ROM. However, the data in RAM stays there only as long as your computer is running. When you turn the computer off, RAM loses its data. When you turn your computer on again, your operating system and other files are once again loaded into RAM, usually from your hard disk.

RAM can be compared to a person's short-term memory and the hard disk to the long-term memory. The short-term memory focuses on work at hand, but can only keep so many facts in view at one time. If short-term memory fills up, your brain sometimes is able to refresh it from facts stored in long-term memory. A computer also works this way. If RAM fills up, the processor needs to continually go to the hard disk to overlay old data in RAM with new, slowing down the computer's operation. Unlike the hard disk which can become completely full of data so that it won't accept any more, RAM never runs out of memory. It keeps operating, but much more slowly than you may want it to.

Answer 4

Hi there

RAM increases the performance of your pc, the more you have the better the performance of your pc. That's basically it really. The RA stores every you load up on your pc, for example programs documents etc. Any data that is not saved is lost when you switch off your computer because RAM is only a tempory storage medium.

Scott

Scott

Answer 5

RAM stores temporary information on your PC, stuff before it's saved onto the hard drive. For example, when you type something into a word processor, those words aren't saved in your hard drive, they are stored on the RAM. Those words are on your RAM until you save them on your hard drive or close the document.

It also remembers things like what you've copied. Think of it as a notepad vs. a textbook.

Answer 6

RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers.
There are two basic types of RAM:

-dynamic RAM (DRAM)
-static RAM (SRAM)

The two types differ in the technology they use to hold data, dynamic RAM being the more common type. Dynamic RAM needs to be refreshed thousands of times per second. Static RAM does not need to be refreshed, which makes it faster; but it is also more expensive than dynamic RAM. Both types of RAM are volatile, meaning that they lose their contents when the power is turned off.

In common usage, the term RAM is synonymous with main memory, the memory available to programs. For example, a computer with 8M RAM has approximately 8 million bytes of memory that programs can use. In contrast, ROM (read-only memory) refers to special memory used to store programs that boot the computer and perform diagnostics. Most personal computers have a small amount of ROM (a few thousand bytes). In fact, both types of memory (ROM and RAM) allow random access. To be precise, therefore, RAM should be referred to as read/write RAM and ROM as read-only RAM.

Answer 7

Any program you use, or that the cpu must access has to be loaded into ram 1st. If you don't have enough ram to handle the programs plus the operating system your system will use the hard drive as temporary space, ie swap space..
Ram works in milli seconds hard drives work in seconds so your computer will noticeably slow down.

Answer 8

It stores anything currently in use or soon to be needed by the processor. It also stores what has recently been done and not yet saved (this is why Excel can cause major slowdowns if you use it a lot).

Obviously, the more you have the better.