I just bought an U56E with 8GB RAM....and I am confused...

[jjwagner66]

I originally bought a U56 with 6GB of memory and i5 2430m processor, and it worked fine, but I felt it was overpowered so I took it back and got a really cheap ASUS laptop instead. For like $350 bucks. Well, it sucked, and I decided maybe my the U56 wasn't so overpowered so I went to go buy one again. I couldn't find it but I did find a U56 with 8 GB instead for actually cheaper at Office Depot. Don't ask me how this is possible. So I was like hey I'll take it.

I got home and I swear it's faster. The processor is the same, the i5 2430m, but it's got the two extra GB of ram. Now everyone says that 4GB is enough, 6 GB is more than enough, and you won't even notice 8GB, but I stand here today telling you I notice a difference.

I'm using Windows 7 64-bit version and I don't do anything other than browse the web, use Microsoft office, and sometimes play Starcraft II with my brother. So I shouldn't see the difference. But I swear with 8GB it's smoother and quicker. Facebook pages seem to load right away. They didn't use to. Am I imagining this? I could very well be. But if not. Why is 8GB making my computer faster when it technically "shouldn't be" since what I am doing doesn't take more than 2 or 3 GB of RAM?

I have another question.

I've heard that extra RAM is only good when your CPU doesn't need it. However if your CPU is topping out RAM means nothing. So if I am using the word correctly, this is an example of a "bottleneck." My CPU speed is limiting the performance of my RAM. And I'm pretty sure that would be the case since it's just 2.4 ghz combined with 8GB of RAM.

When and where and how or however do you want to phrase it do you think my pretty average processor would cancel out or nullify or limit what my seemingly very large amount of RAM on my computer can do? I know that the CPU "processes" information while RAM "stores" but I don't know what those words actually apply to in reality.

Thanks. I just feel like I have a really lop-sided set up at the moment and it's making me self-conscious. What the heck is going on. And what can I really expect.

 

[jjwagner66]

And U56E refers to an Asus computer sorry I forgot to put that in.

 

[jsc]

Up to a point, more RAM is better. With a 64 bit OS and "normal" usage, 2 GB of RAM will work (barely ), 4 GB is pretty good, 8 GB is normally the "sweet spot", and you will not see much improvement at 16 GB.

RAM will always bottleneck a modern CPU. That's why the Level III caches are so large in the CPU's.

CPU and RAM - think of the CPU as your brain, RAM as the piece of paper you are working on, and the hard drive as the file cabinet you put that paper when you are not working on it.

 

[jjwagner66]

Oh good so 8GB is not absurd or useless. Because it does seem to be helping out!

Oh so if RAM is the bottleneck and not CPU, it's good I have a lot then. I was afraid the CPU would be the bottleneck and the extra RAM would be unused.