Upgrading my DDR3 RAM

So, I’ve got 2x4GB Crucial DDR3 RAM in my rig right now... thinking about upgrading to either 1x8GB or just grabbing another 2x4GB from the same brand, or does it even matter who makes them at this point? My ASUS motherboard is basically a relic from over a decade ago, running an i3 dual-core at 3.4GHz, and I'm still rocking a standard 1TB Toshiba Hard Disk Drive instead of a Solid State Drive. Every time I try to open more than a couple of tabs in Google Chrome, the system starts gasping for air like it's out of memory, so I figured I'd ask... 🙂

It’d be best to just pop in two identical sticks, but since we're talking about Crucial DDR3 RAM, finding an exact match might be a long shot. I guess just throw in whatever works and see what happens. 😁

8GB should be plenty for browsing, but how many tabs are we actually talking about here? And why isn't it using virtual memory?

You’d probably notice the biggest speed boost if you swapped in a Solid State Drive.

fadedorca66 said:It’d be perfect if you could just grab two identical sticks, but since we’re talking about DDR3, finding the exact same module is gonna be a nightmare... honestly, just throw in whatever you can find that actually works 😁

8GB should be plenty for just browsing, depends on how many tabs you're hoarding though. Why aren't you using virtual memory?

The biggest speed boost you'll ever feel is switching to a Solid State Drive

So, is it better to go with 2x4GB instead of just one 8GB stick, or does it even matter? 🤔
The OS is Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
If I theoretically upgraded to a Solid State Drive, would I still run into those memory issues when opening a bunch of browser tabs, or would that fix it too?

In any scenario, 2x4GB beats 1x8GB hands down.

A Solid State Drive will give you a much bigger speed boost than RAM anyway, so that’s what I’d upgrade first.

Honestly, 16GB of RAM paired with a Hard Disk Drive is still going to feel slow. An 8GB setup plus a Solid State Drive is the better move—even if your PC ends up needing more than 8GB, you won't feel the lag nearly as much as you do right now.

You could try bumping up the page file size. It might help if you're running low on RAM, but there's a catch. That space comes directly out of your drive capacity, so whatever you add to the page file, you lose from your available storage. Plus, let's be real: it’s significantly slower than actual RAM, especially if you're still messing around with an old Hard Disk Drive.

https://mcci.com/support/guides/how-...pagefile-size/

I honestly doubt it's a pagefile size issue. It's more likely that the Hard Disk Drive is just dragging everything down because accessing the pagefile from there is painfully slow. Plus, let's face it, the whole system feels sluggish when you're running off an old Hard Disk Drive anyway.

And which specific ASUS motherboard are we talking about here?

bluesurfer66 said:Which ASUS motherboard are we talking about exactly?

Not entirely sure, just an old ASUS Zenbook from like a decade ago... 🙂
I never said the machine was slow. It’s fast as hell, it just tends to hang up when I have a few tabs open in Google Chrome because it's hungry for more RAM. Everything stays in the memory though, nothing hits the Hard Disk Drive...

If you just download CPU-Z or Speccy, you'll be able to identify your exact model without any guesswork.

Something feels off here. I'm running Windows 10 with 8GB of Crucial DDR3 RAM, and even with five tabs open in Firefox—which is basically my max usage—I should have plenty of memory left over...
https://ibb.co/qnfhJkN

It'd be better to just check your Task Manager to see which programs you actually have running in the background.

Check out what urbanheron4 posted. I guess you should check if you even have your virtual memory turned on?

Thinking about just grabbing Pale Moon 64-bit since it actually handles older rigs way better than all those bloated Chrome clones everyone uses these days...