The first point is that more RAM allows more applications to run simultaneously, which has been explained in amazing detail by a5cent already. However, there's a second scenario where more RAM can make things faster - an application that requires more RAM than available will also start swapping during execution, which will result in sloppy performance of said application. Remember - what a5cent refers to as secondary storage can be up to 1000x times slower than memory, considering the fact that a triple-channel DDR3-1866 bus can move around up to 45GB per second and a harddrive can get as slow as 50MB per second. Thus, something that would take one second in memory can take up to 20 minutes in a worst case scenario when swapping occurs.
On Windows Phone this is a bit different, since there is no secondary storage to swap hence applications have to be quit to clear available memory. Obviously, a 2GB device can keep much more in memory without having to force-quit applications than a 512MB device. Applications that require more memory than the device has to offer will simply not run, whereas on a PC or Mac they will run, albeit slow due to the swapping issues explained above.
And this, in short, is why 512MB of RAM will not cause Internet Explorer to render websites slower. It might cause applications to launch slower since the system might have to quit background tasks more often, and it will definitely result in more and loger "Resuming..." screens for apps that have been removed from memory and have to be resumed from Flash.
Additional note for the tech enthusiasts: on a modern PC swapping is not secondary storage but depending on the microprocessor architecture either quaternary or quinary. The hierarchy goes 1st level cache, 2nd level cache, 3rd level cache, RAM, SSD/HDD. Whether it's quaternary (4th level) or quinary (5th level) depends on whether the microprocessor sports an exclusive or inclusive cache architecture. From the microprocessor's point of view even accessing a triple channel DDR3 memory is painfully slow considering cache level speeds of for example Intel's current Haswell architecture: L1-Cache: 700GB/s, L2-Cache: 200GB/s, L3-Cache: 120GB/s, triple channel DDR3-1866 RAM: 42GB/s.
And in case you're wondering: yes, I did have to look up what comes after tertiary. Thanks Oxford Online Dictionary :wink:
On Windows Phone this is a bit different, since there is no secondary storage to swap hence applications have to be quit to clear available memory. Obviously, a 2GB device can keep much more in memory without having to force-quit applications than a 512MB device. Applications that require more memory than the device has to offer will simply not run, whereas on a PC or Mac they will run, albeit slow due to the swapping issues explained above.
And this, in short, is why 512MB of RAM will not cause Internet Explorer to render websites slower. It might cause applications to launch slower since the system might have to quit background tasks more often, and it will definitely result in more and loger "Resuming..." screens for apps that have been removed from memory and have to be resumed from Flash.
Additional note for the tech enthusiasts: on a modern PC swapping is not secondary storage but depending on the microprocessor architecture either quaternary or quinary. The hierarchy goes 1st level cache, 2nd level cache, 3rd level cache, RAM, SSD/HDD. Whether it's quaternary (4th level) or quinary (5th level) depends on whether the microprocessor sports an exclusive or inclusive cache architecture. From the microprocessor's point of view even accessing a triple channel DDR3 memory is painfully slow considering cache level speeds of for example Intel's current Haswell architecture: L1-Cache: 700GB/s, L2-Cache: 200GB/s, L3-Cache: 120GB/s, triple channel DDR3-1866 RAM: 42GB/s.
And in case you're wondering: yes, I did have to look up what comes after tertiary. Thanks Oxford Online Dictionary :wink:
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