Q: How much RAM do I need for my laptop? I mostly use it for word documents, Internet browsing with multiple tabs, and, occasionally, light video editing. I currently have 4GB but I’m considering going up to 8GB. (via Quora)
A: Here’s an easy way to see if you have enough RAM in any PC, including laptops.
(You don’t say what PC or OS you’re using, so I’ll answer for Windows10, because it’s extremely common; but other versions of Windows and other OSes, have very similar options.)
Figure 1 shows a screen snippet of Task Manager’s Performance tab on my PC when I had just a few things going on — mostly Chrome, an image editing app, and a word processor.
Roughly half my 8GB of Memory (RAM) was in use, and the other subsystems — CPU, disks, internet — were loafing along, lightly loaded. This is a happy, healthy system, with plenty of resources in reserve, ready for heavier workloads:
Figure 2 shows what happens when I open three RAM-hungry apps (virtual PCs) on the same setup: Memory use shoots up to 95%! The other subsystems also register the heavier workload, but only RAM is just about maxed out. This PC is now RAM-starved, and bogging down.
(Note: I used virtual PCs for this example, but the same would be true with any apps that use a lot of RAM — possibly including your video editing.)
Here’s how to check your system’s ability to handle RAM-hungry apps:
● Open Task Manager; there are many ways; one easy one is to right-click on the taskbar, and then select Task Manager.) Switch to the Performance tab.
● With your system quiet and not doing a lot, note the values for Memory, CPU, and any other metric you’re interested in. The numbers will bounce around a bit; guesstimate an average.
● Leaving Task Manager open and running, now launch and use your video-editing app, and/or any other apps that you suspect may be causing RAM-starvation. Check out the graphs again as you use the apps normally.
● If your RAM use routinely climbs to and stays in the 90%s, your PC probably would work better/faster with more RAM. The higher the percentage, the more certain the diagnosis.
But note: If you have a 32-bit PC — typical in older or lower-end models — then 4GB is all your system can access. Even if you put in 8GB or more of physical RAM, it won’t matter: 32-bit systems are mathematically limited to accessing no more than 4GB of RAM.
(Why? It’s because each location in RAM has to have its own unique numeric address, so the PC can locate the data in memory, and not get confused with data in other locations. A 32-bit system runs out of unique numeric addresses to assign at about the 4GB mark, so it literally can’t do anything with a larger amount of RAM, even if it’s physically available. There simply aren’t enough numbers to assign to the additional memory addresses!)
But if you have a 64-bit PC, then you’ll almost surely be able to increase RAM to 8GB or more; limited only by the manufacturing design of the physical PC — not by basic math! (Check with your PC maker to see how much RAM your system is physically able to hold.)
Don’t know if your PC is 32- or 64-bits? See this.
If your PC is 64-bit, I suggest upgrading to 8GB, and then rerunning the above Task Manager test: The PC almost surely will seem faster, and the maximum Memory used should be lower than the current reading.
If not — if you’re still maxing out RAM — consider going to 12GB.
But I bet 8GB will do the trick for more normal tasks — as long as your system isn’t 32-bits!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Task_Manager_(Windows)
https://www.intowindows.com/11-ways-to-open-task-manager-in-windows-10/
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21726/how-do-i-know-if-im-running-32-bit-or-64-bit-windows-answers/
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