Processor RAM Questions

I would like to know if it is possible to increase the amount of RAM that my processor has to use? I currently have 512Mbs and I generally use about half of that during normal work.

If it is not possible, are there any sites that discuss replacing processors. I have browsed and I am not sure who can be trusted.

Any info is appreciated. Thanks!

 

umm.. well, you can buy more RAM. But if you're only using half your RAM it would be pointless and just wasting your money. 512MBs is enough for the average user.

 

Thanks for the answer. I guess I just have RAM envy. At least now I know that I can add more RAM if I want to. It won't make my system run faster with more RAM?

 

You'd get a performance improvement only if your system has to make up for installed memory it doesn't have by paging stuff in memory out to disk.

That really slows down the CPU, because it has to wait while stuff gets paged out, and then has to wait again when that stuff gets paged back into memory so the CPU can use it.

But if you have enough installed memory that your system rarely has to page anything out to disk, you'll get no benefit by adding more memory.

I recently doubled my installed memory (it's now at 512MB). The performance increase was only nominal. But then, I'm not doing much that's memory-intensive.

 

Thank you.