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    RAM vs. Processor

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Ella Grande, Aug 21, 2006.

  1. Ella Grande

    Ella Grande Notebook Evangelist

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    Which do you consider more important in a notebooks overall performance...The amount of RAM or the processor?
     
    Ella Grande, Aug 21, 2006
    #1
  2. adinu

    adinu I pwn teh n00bs.

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    I say ram. The way I think about it is that u can have a 50ghz cpu, but if u only have 128 ram XP is gonna run like s**t. But with 1gig of ram, u can have xp work fine even with a 800mhz p3.
     
    adinu, Aug 21, 2006
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  3. yamla

    yamla Notebook Consultant

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    RAM is vitally important right up until you have enough. Then, the extra RAM makes very little difference and CPU speed matters much more.
     
    yamla, Aug 21, 2006
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  4. Tim

    Tim Notebook Virtuoso

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    I believe ram is the most important. It kind of depends what you are doing though.
    Tim
     
    Tim, Aug 21, 2006
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  5. Lil Mayz

    Lil Mayz Notebook Deity

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    I agree, RAM as well. There is no point having a fast CPU if the CPU cannot access data quickly from the RAM.
     
    Lil Mayz, Aug 21, 2006
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  6. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

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    well to compare two examples
    2.16ghz 256MB ram
    1.66ghz 2GB ram

    the second system will work much better then the first due to thrashing. No matter how fast the cpu is; when you open an application youll thrash the hdd(using the hdd for ram) causing a system slowdown.

    For most applications the amount and speed of ram is the bottleneck. But once you're out of the thrashing area, where you reach the limit of ram, then the cpu can become the bottle neck. But now with core duo ; ram and HDDs are the current bottlenecks and CPUs are the last thing you should upgrade; after ram and HDD of course.
     
    Thaenatos, Aug 21, 2006
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  7. sheff159

    sheff159 Notebook Deity

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    I cant understand how you can say one is "better" than the other. Both are vitial components to a pc. You cant say one is better than the other.
     
    sheff159, Aug 21, 2006
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  8. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    as said above, the "best" is to have a well rounded system with *enough* of both. You can't really say one is better than another, any more than you can say whether it's better to have wheels or an engine on your car.
     
    Jalf, Aug 21, 2006
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  9. Thaenatos

    Thaenatos Zero Cool

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    Most of us are speaking in terms of bottlenecks in systems; and ram is higher on that list then a cpu. Yes changing a cpu in a systems does make a big impact on system performance. But if you only have 256mb of ram and a 1.66ghz core duo; then adding ram will give you a bigger increase at that time. Granted youll super pi fast; but actual application performance wont increase. Getting a much faster cpu wont cure the HDD thrashing at all, therefore zero system bottlenecks have been cured.
     
    Thaenatos, Aug 21, 2006
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  10. gethin

    gethin Notebook Evangelist

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    I've got XP to work fine on a celeron 400Mhz with 128Mb of RAM

    But back on the subject - a good balance of both is deffinitely the way forward as jalf said
     
    gethin, Aug 21, 2006
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  11. xAMDvsIntelx

    xAMDvsIntelx Notebook Deity

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    It depends - upgrading RAM will help a lot to a certain point, then CPU speed will matter more.
     
    xAMDvsIntelx, Aug 21, 2006
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  12. mujtaba

    mujtaba ZzzZzz Super Moderator

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    This poll is meaningless...It totally depends on what you wanna do with your notebook...
     
    mujtaba, Aug 22, 2006
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  13. chris2pher71

    chris2pher71 Notebook Evangelist

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    The sheep said it best....."Baa RAM ewe"
     
    chris2pher71, Aug 22, 2006
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  14. Fred from NYC

    Fred from NYC Notebook Evangelist

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    RAM usually gives more bang for the buck.
     
    Fred from NYC, Aug 22, 2006
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  15. C420

    C420 Notebook Enthusiast

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    C420, Aug 24, 2006
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  16. ez2remember

    ez2remember Notebook Evangelist

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    As mentioned before ram is more important until you have a SUFFICIENT amount for what you do then the rest hardly makes any DIFFERENCE.

    e.g. If you have 2GB RAM vs 20GB RAM. You won't notice much of a difference...

    Ram is easy & cheap to upgrade yourself. I always upgrade ram to either 1GB/2GB so I have sufficent amount for my use. CPU is a bit more tricky and expensive to upgrade.
     
    ez2remember, Aug 24, 2006
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  17. PC_pulsar

    PC_pulsar Notebook Evangelist

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    ram isn't cheap at certain point!
     
    PC_pulsar, Aug 24, 2006
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  18. acruxksa

    acruxksa Notebook Consultant

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    I chose cpu because generally it's easier to upgrade ram. Yes ram is important, but it's also plentiful and easily upgradeable so in terms of initial laptop purchase, CPU speed is more important.
     
    acruxksa, Aug 24, 2006
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  19. RogueMonk

    RogueMonk Notebook Deity

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    Another dumb poll. As has been said, RAM and CPU are both necessary. Running a top-end CPU without enough RAM is worthless. But so is running load of ram with CPU that can't handle a RAM-intensive task.
     
    RogueMonk, Sep 5, 2006
    #19
  20. Iter

    Iter Notebook Evangelist

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    If you upgrade a cpu from 1.83 to 2.0, it seems to be a big difference. It doesn't give you consume the time much. Similarly, if you need to run some huge application for graphic design, video editing, gaming or run a couple program at the same time, upgrade the memory from 512MB to 1024MB will be be smooth without sluggishness. To see the gap between of them, upgrade the both will be perfect if the budget is not an issue.
     
    Iter, Sep 24, 2006
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  21. Dreamer

    Dreamer The Bad Boy

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    Overall performance is the most important.
    So it's good to find the balance between the amount of RAM and the processor.

    Things like high-end CPU without enough RAM or low-end CPU with so mach RAM are useless.
     
    Dreamer, Sep 24, 2006
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  22. AlexMcIver

    AlexMcIver Notebook Consultant

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    For the vast majority of situations I find a high end CPU is pointless. CPU architecture matters so much more than clock speed these days. Even at 1.00ghz my core duo runs most things well. So unless you're talking about the extreme low end I would go with RAM.
     
    AlexMcIver, Sep 24, 2006
    #22