When should you upgrade your RAM?
Arrrrr… I need more RAM that will make my computer go faster also i can download it at www.getextraram.com. Wrong! more RAM “can” improve performance and there was a time when it almost always would but those days are gone. Modern computers even ones that are two to three years old often have enough ground for the basic tasks that users want to perform.
So how would you tell that the slow system responsiveness is being caused by not enough memory? Check out the Performance Monitor in task manager. If available RAM is very very low then check processes as a diagnostic tool will see that you have way too many chrome tabs open(just for an example). If you closed some chrome tabs that would free up memory but if you are not willing to change your internet browsing habits adding more memory to that system would help improve performance.
Now personally I generally notice system slowdowns when I reach around eighty to ninety percent RAM utilization but some people are more or less sensitive to this. If RAM utilization is not exceeding even fifty to sixty percent in performance monitor then there is no benefit whatsoever to adding more memory because there's plenty available to the system.
The slowdowns that you experience when you run out of RAM are because your PC is swapping data out of RAM to your hard drive which is much much slower. This other system is likely slow for some other reason such as a virus or other malware or another outdated slow component. If your software is fine and you have enough RAM try adding an SSD to your system. Moving from a hard drive to an SSD can make your PC much more responsive even if it several years old. If none of that works, you might just be too much of a power user for your current PC. So it might be time for system upgrade.
