RAM memory is essential for the functioning of the PC, because its main function – in short – is to temporarily store the operations performed by the processor, so that you can quickly access it when you need it without having to recalculate again. For this reason, it is important that the RAM has adequate capacity and speed for good performance.
Reasons why you should change your RAM
The main reason you want to change RAM is, of course, when you “jump” to a new architecture, i.e. when you change PC. If for example you currently have a PC that uses DDR3 memory and you are going to buy a new one, it will obviously need to have DDR4 memory.
The second reason why you would want to change or rather expand your RAM is because of the capacity. Currently, a computer with 8 GB of memory capacity has more than enough for most tasks, including gaming. If you have less than 8 GB, the equipment is very likely to suffer in terms of performance and capacity expansion will be more than warranted; In fact, if you have an 8GB gaming PC, it might be a good idea to double that capacity and use 16GB as many games already demand peak performance, and you will notice this in overall system performance as well.
Currently having more than 16GB of RAM is something very few users will take advantage of, but it makes sense for people who use virtual machines, editing tools (audio, video or image), or who use their PC as server. of some sort (for example, a Minecraft server can easily “eat” all the RAM you want to allocate to it).
Finally, change the RAM to have a better performance in terms of speed (frequency) this is something quite relative. If you have an older computer that used DDR4 RAM, it might be running at 2133 or maybe 2400 MHz. Changing your RAM to faster RAM, such as 3200 or 3600 MHz, can dramatically improve performance, especially in games. but that will depend on the rest of your team. Check before doing this if your motherboard supports it and what is the native speed of your processor RAM.
Reasons why RAM is not worth upgrading
Suppose you have a PC from 4-5 years ago, so you probably already have DDR4 RAM, not the speeds that currently exist and in some cases exceed 4000 MHz, but surely you have them from just one at least 2666 MHz. Let’s say you have 8GB of 2666MHz DDR4, will it be worth upgrading to, say, 16GB at 3200MHz?
Maybe not. You will not gain a great performance with the increase in speed (you will gain in performance, but it is not that this implies too noticeable an increase) or in capacity, except in the assumptions which we made previous. Therefore, in your case, it wouldn’t be worth investing in RAM, and you might want to use that money on another component that has a more noticeable performance boost, like an SSD.
The same applies if you already have a relatively modern PC, for example with 16 GB at 3200 MHz. Is it worth buying 4000 MHz RAM? Certainly not, high speed RAMs always come at a very high price point and the performance boost won’t be worth it. You’re going to improve performance somewhat, yes, but again we’re facing the situation where you might want to invest that money in a faster SSD or better graphics card, which you’ll notice more.
