installed more RAM, but it doesn't seem to help...?

Question

i initially had 512 RAM and my computer lagged at some points. I bought another 512 of compatible RAM and plugged it in. should there be a noticeable difference in speeds? if so, was i supposed to do more than just plug it in? how can i maximize my computer's performance?

i think i have a P4 sony vaio, 2.33 gHz..

my computer reflects that i have added more RAM.

i noticed lag when i use video editing programs (Adobe Premiere) and music software (Reason).

hey guys, i really appreciate your answers so far (wish you could all get 'best answer'). how would i change the number of programs that load on startup? i know i have many, and that could make a huge difference.

Answer 1

512MB upgrading to 1GB is not going to knock you out of your seat performance! We are talking a 10~15% increase here!

Answer 2

Most likely you won't see much difference using XP. The only time you will see a speedup is when using computer intensive tasks. These generally are things such as multimedia production and game software.

If you're just using a word processor and surfing the web, you wasted money on extra ram.

I have one gig too, in this computer. You will need it when upgrading to Vista so not all is lost... you're just early.

Let me rephrase with more detailed information.

1) Extra ram will only help if you have a bottleneck.
2) With 256MB and XP you are near a bottleneck with just the operating system alone so increasing it to 512MB creates a noticeable speed increase.
3) With 512MB and XP you are far outside the bottleneck unless you use "ram intensive" software. Generally this is any software that extensively uses graphics, such as games, multimedia design software, and computer programming (compilers).
4) Most people judge the speed of their computer on how fast it boots, and how fast it shuts down, and how fast web pages are loaded. More ram will not improve this unless you already have a bottle neck, such as an application working in the background.

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Oh, this is funny... I just saw what you added.

Adobe Premiere -- That's exactly what I use this computer (I have 3) for.

Your question makes a lot more sense now. You are right... and I know what you have been reading ... that boosting the ram will make Premiere scream. Guess what? It doesn't... of course you already know that.

I have done the same time, more times than once for Premiere. Adobe (and their followers) tends to make the same claim about Photoshop that not true either.

I know exactly where your bottleneck is and I can tell you that you will be disappointed in the improvement.

It's the speed of your hard drive and your CPU. You need a second drive (a physical one, and not one partitioned as a different drive) for your scratch drive.

And I'll tell you exactly what you will say when you upgrade your CPU and hard drives. You'll say, "It seems a little faster."

The only way you can make Premiere scream (and that is still an exaggeration) is to use a dual processor. We have one and work and it's a lot faster.

FWIW, I'm using 1 gig ram, 3.2GHz cpu, two SATA hard drives and premiere is still slower than a dog.

BTW, if you haven't realized it, Premiere demands more from your comptuer than most video games.

When you can convert from one video format to another "real time" then the speed of your cpu is as fast as needed... iow, it won't get any better.

You will get the fastest boot time that no hardware can do by using WIN ASO Registry Optimizer. There are others, but I like this one the best. It "defrags" your registry.

You also need to defrag your hard drive since you are using Premiere. It leaves huge spaces on your hard drive that the head has to jump over. Do it from the following:

Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Disk Defragmenter

It doesn't improve it as much as in the old days (FAT) since NTFS is designed so much better, but it helps. It might take a long time so do it before taking a break. Also you can 'analyze' and it will tell you if your hard drive needs to be defragged. It is "accurate" so if it says it's not needed don't waste your time.

It's also good to let your computer stay on for a while. If you are one to turn it on, start working and then turn it off, it will perform better to leave it on for a couple of extra hours a day. There are a lot of background tasks that are performed and they are done at times of inactivity. So instead of stacking them up during the time you are on your computer let it clean things out for a while.

Answer 3

Your saying you have Intel P4 2.33 is that an older P4 or the new core duo 2.33? I am assuming your talking about a standard P4 because if it is the core duo that computer should be lightning fast.If it is the older P4 I'll give you a little lesson in computers.There are other factors other then memory involved in the processing speed of a computer.I'm almost sure the older 2.3 P4 only has a front side bus speed of 400 MHZ ( Abbreviation for megahertz,one million cycles per second) that is like a bottleneck for your processor speed .Its like going from a super highway(2.3 Processor) to a dirt road (400MHZ FSB) it slows your computer down.There is some good software out there that will help you max your settings on your computer to get its optimal performance.One other thing make sure your keep your computer maintained by using disc cleanup and keep your hard drive defragged to run its best.

Answer 4

Increasing memory doesn't necessarily mean that you are going to speed up the performance if memory wasn't an issue before. Increasing memory will improve performance if you were regularly using the "pagefile" (a file based way to increase memory...not as fast as RAM) due to a shortage in RAM. If you weren't exceeding your system's physical RAM, you won't really notice a performance increase though. I guess if your system supports dual channel memory and you set it up with two pieces, then you might notice a slight increase in performance.

If you are looking to increase performance, you really need to find the bottleneck in your system. This could be one of the following:

CPU - upgrade processor
Disk access - spread over multiple controllers and faster disk
Memory - sounds like you already did this
Graphic processing - higher performance graphic card

You can only go so far with these upgrades without also considering a new motherboard. It really all depends on how much money you have to play with as to where to spend your money to get the most bang for the buck.

Answer 5

If u had 128 ram and put an extra 512 u sure could see the difference but with the 512 u allready had your computer should not have any lags.Maybe something else is wrong p.x. to many programs on startup config, a heavy antivirus, a full hard drive , a defrag , conflicts in DMA or spyware and virus...

Answer 6

Ram does not make your computer go faster. It is your processor that do the work.
Random Access Memory (RAM) only helps in memory usage, but it is volatile. That means if you don’t save your job onto your hard drive or ROM before shutting down, guess what your information is gone. It depends on how old your computer is. If your computer is 5 years old I will advice you it is time to upgrade. When you upgrade stay away from Celeron or Sempron or else you will hate your self.
Good Luck..
Rogue.

Answer 7

If you werent smothering the H out of the original 512, you probably wont see much diff! Explain what you mean by lag and provide esplicit details for an answer that will help.

Answer 8

check that the system is actually recognizing the full 1gb of ram.

anyway, it's not going to give you a faster processor or boost read speeds on your dvd drive...it will give you the added resources for running a lot of programs and should help improve performance on games or any other memory hogs.

Answer 9

Speed varies depending on how well your system runs together with your hard drive, motherboard, video adapter or card, and the RAM. Sounds like you need to upgrade your motherboard, especially if the graphics card is on board.

Answer 10

What CPU you have? If you have lets say a 300MHz it wouldn't matter if you have 512MB or 16GB of RAM, you wouldn't get any performance increase.
(not that it would recognize it) its just an example.

Edit: to your last question, go to Start, Run and type "msconfig"
under the startup tab on top uncheck everything you wish not to start up with windows (I have all unchecked)
click on the services tab (on the felt of the startup tab) and check the 'hide all microsoft services) and again uncheck everything you wish not to start with windows. (here I only have my graphic and audio drivers) And restart your PC.

Answer 11

You might consider your processor which can only process for what it's limits are, you might have to change your motherboard! Increasing the size of your processor make a big difference in speed!