RAM (Random Access Memory) is the storage space while using your computer. The program or game installed on the computer is stored on the hard disk.. However, while the program is running, the files are transferred to the RAM area and the RAM starts to use the files.. RAM is freed after the program is closed. The more programs open or running at the same time, the more RAM is used.
All modern operating systems allow multitasking, which means multiple programs can be opened at the same time and the user can switch between them.. These multiple programs are kept in your computer’s RAM while they are running, allowing fast switching without the need to reload the program from the hard disk drive. using them at the same time means that you may depend on the RAM capacity in your system.
The following are suggestions for how much RAM is needed for some common use cases.. These recommendations are the same for Desktops and Laptops alike.
4GB RAM
Windows 8/10, Mac OS X Lion advanced, or a modern operating system using Linux, GNOME or KDE A minimum of 4GB of RAM is recommended for the system. The operating system will use 2GB of RAM and 2GB of RAM space will be left for the user to run other programs.. If a 4GB RAM Computer is only used for general applications like documents and internet browsing, 4GB RAM will suffice. More RAM is required.. This feature is usually available in Notebooks.. What is the difference between a Notebook and a Notebook?
8GB of RAM
You will need 8GB of RAM to surf the web and do other tasks like editing documents or simple photo and video. 8GB provides gaming performance up to a certain period. There will be games that you cannot play.
16 GB RAM
If you are a serious gamer and work on high quality video editing projects, if you are working on high resolution photos with Photoshop, 16 GB RAM is recommended. This means you’ll need plenty of RAM for resource-intensive applications.
32GB RAM
With 32GB of RAM, you can do what we’ve talked about so far with the highest performance. 32GB and above are for professional work. It is the most suitable RAM starter to use high performance programs of the business world.. It is preferable to use high quality software to support 32GB and later hardware devices.
What Happens When My Computer Is Out of RAM?
If your computer has more applications to fit in your available memory, it will start swapping. The swap will start moving information from RAM to hard disk. Swap is very slow due to the lower bandwidth of hard disk drives. The computer runs slowly and you cannot do your operations properly.. The computer will run in slow motion. Since computer hard drives are HDDs in general, they work hard during program operation.. RAMs are SSDs. You can check the difference between HDD and SSD here.