Is it time to upgrade your RAM? Like most computer-related questions, there is no simple answer. It largely depends on whether more (or better) RAM will help you achieve your processing goals faster or more profitably. RAM, or Random Access Memory, is a specific type of digital memory that applies to the size and number of simultaneous tasks you can achieve.

Digital Trends offers an enlightening analogy: Think of your computer as a desk. RAM is the top of the desk, and its drawers are your hard drive. If you have a lot of RAM, you can fit a lot of different documents on top of your desk and work with them at the same time. If you don’t have much RAM, you will have to constantly search for things in the drawers, working on only a few small documents at a time.

Investing in a big desk can help you get a lot of work done. But having a bigger desk than you need brings no benefit, and of course, paying more than you have to is unwise. These considerations all play an important role in choosing to perform a RAM upgrade.

Things to Consider Before Performing a RAM Upgrade

Most modern desktops released today have between 4 GB and 16 GB of RAM. Upgrading your RAM can improve performance under certain conditions, but you should know the following things about RAM before performing the upgrade.

1. Not All RAM Can Be Upgraded

In order to upgrade RAM, you need to buy the appropriately sized RAM card, open up your computer, and replace its current RAM circuit with the new one. If your device uses a cartridge-style connection (think of vintage video game consoles), then this is easy to accomplish with no technical expertise.

But if the device manufacturers soldered the RAM cartridge directly onto the device motherboard, then you are out of luck. This is common in smartphones, tablets, and laptop computers. This saves valuable space on the device’s overall form factor, but it makes it almost impossible to replace the RAM card without damaging the motherboard.

2. Upgrade RAM Based on Application Usage

Buying more RAM than you need is wasting money. If your computer runs slowly, that doesn’t necessarily mean you need more RAM – it could be due to lots of different reasons.

For general business computer usage, responding to emails, watching video content, and working on documents and spreadsheets, 4 GB of RAM is an entry-level amount that will satisfy these minimal requirements This will change over time as application developers get used to newer systems having more RAM.

Google Chrome, for instance, is known for using up as much RAM as it wants to guarantee a smooth user experience. 8 GB of RAM is a good amount for most general computing purposes. It can handle most media and even gaming.

The only users who need more than 16 GB of RAM are those involved in processing-intensive professional media work and highly demanding games. Beyond this number, you enter the territory of purpose-built multimedia workstations and scientific work.

3. Upgrading Older Systems is Usually a Good Idea

If you have a five-year-old computer you’d like to upgrade, RAM could be the perfect place to start. Older RAM cards tend to be inexpensive, and the potential performance gain can be enough to make an older system run like new.

Just be sure to pay attention to compatibility. There is a maximum usable RAM for every system – putting in more RAM than necessary can actually hurt performance.

Almost every computer on the market released since 2010 uses DDR3 RAM, so all you have to do is find the right-sized card for your device. Earlier computers use DDR2 RAM, and the two RAM configurations are not compatible. If your computer uses DDR4 RAM, it is most likely new enough that you don’t need to worry about RAM upgrades for another few years.

Learn More About RAM Types and Computer Performance

You may notice that different RAM cards have different stated frequency speeds, “1600 MHz DDR3 RAM”, for instance. This refers to the clock speed of the RAM card itself. Faster frequencies mean the computer is able to access the memory more quickly.

When it comes to DDR3 RAM, the maximum that a user will use on a personal computer is 2133 MHz. The only cases when faster clock speeds would actually result in better performance are exceptions to the rule. Overall, the actual size of the RAM (measured in GB) is more important than its clock speed for most applications.

Not sure how a RAM upgrade will affect overall performance? Let us help you choose the best upgrade for your goals.