Brightrev

I often run into people who can't figure out why their computers run so slowly.  There are a lot of reasons a computer might be slow, but the common thread is often that these machines are three to four years old and were originally sold without much RAM.  Memory was a lot more expensive a few years ago, so computer manufacturers didn't include much.   Keep reading to find out if your computer needs a RAM upgrade. 

The amount of memory you need is strongly related to your every day computing tasks.  If you only use a web browser and word processor, your memory requirements are pretty low.  If you're doing print production work with Adobe Create Suite programs like Illustrator and Photoshop, your computer needs a lot of RAM.

The biggest performance problem is when you're using as much or more physical memory than you actually have.  When this happens, your computer uses your hard drive as memory, which is extremely slow.  If that's the case, a memory upgrade will drastically increase your computer's performance.

Windows

To check whether you need more memory on Windows, open the documents, browsers, media players, e-mail clients and other applications you typically use during the day.  Once you have all that stuff open, right-click your Windows taskbar and click Task Manager.  When Task Manager opens, click the Performance tab. 

I included a list below that will help you convert memory numbers, but you're looking for two things.  On Windows Vista, find the Total number under Physical Memory (MB) and then the green Memory number.  The Total number is the amount of memory you have and the green Memory is the amount you're using.  As mentioned above, if you're using more memory than you have, your computer badly needs an upgrade. 

Ideally, you'd like the Total number to be double the Memory number, but Memory plus 512 MB will give you acceptable performance, as long as you run about the same number of programs every day.  You'll see that I have 2046 MB, or 2 GB of memory and I'm using 1.3 GB, leaving me a cushion of 700 MB, which means I generally don't have memory-related performance problems.

The process is similar on Windows XP, but you're looking for Total under Physical Memory (K), which you'll want to compare to the green PF Usage number.  Again, if your PF Usage is the same or larger than your Total, you need more memory right now.  You'll see that my Windows XP virtual machine has 512 MB of RAM and that I'm using 229 MB.  This is actually an acceptable number, but it doesn't give me much of cushion for heavy multitasking, so I'd be better off with 1 GB of RAM. 

Mac OS X

On Mac OS X, I'll use Activity Monitor to accomplish the same task.  I'll open my typical applications, go to Spotlight, search for Activity Monitor and then click it in the search results. 

At the bottom of the Activity Monitor window, click the System Memory button.  The number under the pie chart is your Mac's physical memory and the number next to Used is obviously the amount it's using.  This is another little area where Mac OS X is easier to understand than its Windows equivalent.  You'll see that I have 2.5 GB of RAM and that I'm using about 1.0 GB, meaning I have plenty of memory on my Mac.

To find out what type of memory you need, go to Crucial.com and enter your computer's manufacturer and model number.  Once you find your particular memory specifications, I'd recommend comparing prices for the same memory at Newegg.com or ZipZoomFly.com. 

If this is all too convoluted, I included a chart that includes my memory recommendations for each different operating system.

Memory reference chart

Memory Conversion chart

512,000 KB = 512 MB = 0.5 GB
1,024,000 KB = 1024 MB = 1 GB

The memory icon used in this article was provided under a LGPL license by http://icon-king.com.

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