When a computer first boots up, the system loads data from the hard drive into the RAM. At any point of time when the CPU needs any information, it will access the RAM to retrieve the data it needs. Since the RAM transfer data at a speed faster than any other storage media (such as the hard drive, CD-ROM and floppy disk), the retrieval process is shorter, work gets done faster and hence the computer performs better.
How does the RAM affects the performance of your gaming computer?
The amount of RAM you have in your gaming computer affects the speed at which the game reacts. To process the huge amount of computation involve in a 3D game, there must be enough RAM to store all the information. For systems with a small amount of RAM, the memory space will be filled up easily and all overflow data is then written or page to the hard drive. When such situation arises, the CPU will have to travel a longer path to retrieve the data from the hard drive. This results in sluggish game performance and intermittently ‘hanging‘ of the game. To increase the performance of the game, the foolproof way is to increase the amount of RAM in the system. The more RAM you have, the better the game performance.
