PC Performance - How to Know if You Need More RAM – DIY in 5 Ep 134

In need of a PC upgrade but don’t know where to start? Upgrading your RAM is fast, easy to install and doesn’t require drivers or force you to upgrade everything else in your rig to stay compatible. But how do you know if a RAM upgrade is right for you?

RAM stands for Random Access Memory and it’s the memory that temporarily stores information used for computer processes that need to be done quickly. Not having enough RAM can cause performance issues like random freezing or rebooting, general lagging when typing or firing up programs and games, and even the dreaded blue screen of death. If you are noticing any of these issues, upgrading your RAM might be the solution, but there’s a few ways to make sure before taking the plunge.

First, try to eliminate any other hiccups that could be slowing down your system. Check for viruses and malware, make sure drivers and software is up to date, defrag your hard drive if you have a traditional HDD, etc. Next, keep track of which applications you notice an issue with, if the issue happens regularly across a variety of applications, it’s more likely to be a RAM issue. If it’s only one specific program, the problem might be localized to that specific program.

Then, check how much RAM your computer is using. In Windows 10, bring up your task manager and click more details if you don’t see very much there. Click on the Performance tab and you’ll see a few graphs. If you look at the Memory graph, you’ll see how much of your RAM is currently in use. If you aren’t currently running a bunch of programs or games or have a bajillion chrome tabs open, you should see this hovering right around 10% or so - just keeping Windows doing its thing. If it’s much higher than that with only idle processes running, you probably need more RAM. Next, try launching something that has been a little slow to load lately. If that graph spikes up super high (around 90%ish) then new RAM might be in your future. This portion of the task manager will also tell you how much RAM you currently have and what speed it is. If it seems like the amount of RAM shown is suspiciously low, you may want to check that some of your RAM hasn’t gotten dislodged from its socket. Maybe you don’t need new RAM at all, you might just need to reset what you’ve already got.

If you’re experiencing the dreaded BSOD and you are wondering if bad RAM is the cause, click start and go into your control panel. Type in Memory in the search bar and look for “Diagnose your computer’s memory problems.” If you click that and choose “restart now and check for problems” the tool will let you know if RAM is to blame.

Using the methods above, you’ve decided upgrading and/or adding more RAM is what you want. But how much RAM do you need? Well, it really depends what you use your computer for. For basic web browsing and email, 8GB of RAM might be fine. For gaming, you probably want at least 16GB of RAM and for serious productivity work-horse systems or systems that you might use to stream or edit content, you might even want closer to 32GB or RAM. The more RAM is in your system the more it can do at the same time.

[mammothachoo]

Instructions unclear, now own a goat ram instead of pc ram

[Brickbuilder]

Anyone just watch these because theyre entertaining instead of educational purposes?

[PEDoers]

Ms. Hershberger, I really like hearing you talk about Ram. Please forgive me for my insolence.

[anthonyfletcher]

This video is awesome! I’m not tech savvy at all but this video was very helpful. Turns out my old laptop with 2GB of RAM was doing 80% with just chrome open and 2 tabs 😂
no wonder their was a 2 second delay when I would type things. I’m going to look into a RAM upgrade rather than a new computer since this one has proven to be reliable 10+ years old.

[thomas]

I have never heard that "10% usage at idle" suggestion before. I have an Acer Aspire 5, i-5 running 12 GB of RAM. Windows Performance Monitor showed about 40% RAM usage at idle. So I maxed out my RAM to 20 GB and now shows only 25% RAM use at idle. That IS a big improvement, but still not 10%.
The flip side of the coin is . . . don't think I will ever use ALL the RAM in this laptop. Great video. Thanks much. (4 GB on the MOBO and 16 GB in the only RAM slot)

[stevef]

I’ve got 32gigs of ddr4 ram and am using around 8gigs system idle but have a very heavy startup setting. Still works great for 4K gaming.

[mohamedatef]

i have 8 gigs of ram at my laptop should i make it 16 or not ? i like to play Games too much and using heavy Apps

[thefix]

Thank you so much for helping me brush up. I'm trying to update an old laptop for my son to play Roblox. I took the A+ Support Tech Test but it was back in 2000, and I' got back into Construction. Still remember the basics.

[rylan_belleville]

my pc crashes and my monitor says hdmi no signal when i try to play games like warzone and csgo does anyone know y

[joshclonegaming]

Imagine being stuck with only an old motherboard due to budget issues and are stuck with DDR3 type 😂, imagine...

[buzzaldrin]

If we need only 10% usage of RAM when windows idles, every computer need at least 32GB RAM

[computerexpert]

Hi Love from india😇 the video is very helpful for me 👍

[ModernGeekReview]

You need 32gb like her system! all the slots is filled up and runs smooth. Windows 10 does cached the ram and paged pool and non paged pool . 11gb in use at 2.02minute on the video say a lot!

[DanElgaard]

You can never have too much RAM :-)
Especially, if you, like me, use a huge RAM disk for, like, everything!

[goat-zlbf]

my pc really needs a ram it is 74%-77% memory😫😫😫

[itsdeonlol]

I just downloaded more RAM for free after watching this video!

[abhishekrajurkar]

Kingston ddr4 value 3200 vs kingston ddr4 fury impact 3200 which is best

[lfernandorg]

But, if you not using too many software or a bunch of tabs on the browser or even you notice that your computer is using so many memory, but you not executing any software in your computer besides your operating system, and you know that you have sufficient memory to run you system and programs, so maybe you probably have I virus or spy software or even a bitcoin mining software being executed in your computer. This happened to me.

[mewmew]

Ms Hershberger you are the best, your place must must to be with CNN

[akshaydhawale]

Glad u made vdo on topic... realized that i need more ram...