On your laptop, multitasking is enabled by many factors. There are a bunch of specs that equip your laptop to handle multiple programs at the same time. Besides your laptop’s processor (CPU) and physical screen size, RAM is one of the key factors for multitasking.
RAM, or Random Access Memory, serves as your laptop’s temporary memory bank, facilitating quick data access. When you open browser tabs or office applications, they are temporarily stored in RAM, which is depleted as your applications run. However, when you close these apps or shut down your laptop, the data in RAM is lost. The more multitasking and the greater the number of apps, browsers, and tabs you use simultaneously, the more RAM you require.
Let’s delve into determining the ideal amount of RAM for multitasking, taking into account not only your current work demands but also factors like the extent of multitasking, future needs, and the potential for upgrading your laptop.
The RAM You Need to Run Multiple Programs
When it comes to how much RAM you need, it all boils down to the type of work you perform.
Most commonly, it is recommended that you get between 8 and 16 GB of RAM. Typically, 4 GB is not enough because it is easily filled up by your operating system and a just few browser tabs.
Here are some things to consider:
- Do you perform standard office work such as web browsing, document editing, and online communication?
- Do you work remotely?
- Do you work in specialized fields that use resource-intensive applications?
If you often perform standard office work with standard applications, great, 8 GB of RAM is often all you need.
8 GB would suffice because the standard office apps – such as Microsoft Suite, Google Chrome, and cloud storage applications like Dropbox – are typically not as memory-demanding as apps used for other specialized tasks. Using these standard apps, I have tested how different levels of multitasking with 8 GB of RAM affect my laptop’s performance and how much my laptop could handle without overheating, lagging, or getting its battery depleted fast. If you are interested, you could try this once on your own laptop to get a sense of its multitasking capacity.
If you are a remote professional, you may often collaborate with remote teams or clients via video conferencing and other collaborative tools. This means that your laptop will need more RAM than the in-office worker who never does any video conferencing with colleagues.
Online collaboration apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams exhaust more RAM, as they handle real-time video/audio streaming and screen-sharing. Although a minimum of 8 GB of RAM is needed, your laptop might occasionally operate at higher capacities. Note that it might approach its maximum memory threshold to meet the demands of these tasks.
If you work in specialized fields such as professional video editing, 3D design and rendering, statistical analysis, gaming, and more, you need at least 16 GB of RAM. Many of the apps involved are very resource-intensive. You might need external storage or even a ‘dedicated’ graphics card as well, depending on the work you do. You should read up more on what your specialization demands and get specific information for those demands.
This article was originally published on unboundist.com. If it is now published on any other site, it was done without permission from the copyright owner.
Should you get 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB?
Some people might prefer to ‘play it safe’ and just get 16 GB of RAM upfront, because they are unsure of the amount of multitasking that they’ll do.
8 GB of RAM is a cost-saving option for most people who perform standard office work with standard productivity apps. Yet, 16 GB can indeed support serious multitasking and future-proof your computer to handle more technologically evolved software and apps that demand more resources over time.
Hence let’s consider whether avid multitasking or futureproofing your laptop impacts your RAM needs.
Serious Multitasking Demands More RAM
Consider your working habits. What level of multitasker are you?
To paint the picture, consider your working style and daily work habits. Do you have a focused or distracted working style?
- Focused working style: You work on one task at a time with only the applications, programs, browsers, and tabs that support your current task
- Distracted working style: You rather keep multiple tabs open that do not relate to your work. Perhaps you have a few virtual desktops and windows for your corporate job, and a few others for business, entertainment, and hobbies. You rather leave them open than exit them. You’d sometimes work on peripheral tasks as you take a break from a main task.
I personally have a distracted working style. My laptop is equipped with 8 GB of RAM and sometimes it heats up a little. I’m fine with that, and it sometimes reminds me to close the applications and programs that I do not need.
In theory, 8 GB of RAM supports quite a good deal of multitasking and should suffice for most users. You can develop the habit of freeing up RAM from time to time, to make more memory available.
But if you have 8 GB and regularly catch yourself getting annoyed at closing apps and browser tabs, or if your device heats up a lot, you might need more than 8 GB. I’m pretty sure that if I’m still using my 2014 13-inch Macbook Pro which also has 8 GB of RAM, its processor and software may not be strong enough to handle this same level of multitasking. I’d most likely experience more issues of lag and ‘frozen’ apps.
Future-proof your Laptop with 16GB of RAM
Some people are concerned about future-proofing laptops. It’s worth considering questions like these: What if you decide someday that you want to perform new resource-intensive tasks – such as video gaming or video editing on your 8 GB Chromebook? What if your laptop gets old and is unable to keep up with newer versions of operating systems and feature-rich software?
These are legitimate concerns. As software and applications continue to evolve technologically, they become more feature-rich and demand more memory bandwidth.
Thus a laptop with more RAM will have greater longevity; it will stay capable of handling these advancements for a longer time.
There are no straightforward answers when it comes to the question of whether to future-proof your laptop with more RAM. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you a ‘get it over a done with’ sort of person?
- Do you hate dealing with technical or maintenance work when it comes to your laptop?
- Do you have a large budget and do not mind investing more upfront?
If the answer to all three questions above is YES, you should probably lean towards 16 GB instead of just 8 GB of RAM.
Personally, I’d recommend that you future-proof your laptop to some degree, but getting an excess amount of RAM isn’t necessary.
If you are unsure, you could go with 8 GB, but get a laptop that allows you to perform RAM upgrades.
In fact, besides prioritizing RAM, I’d suggest that you future-proof your laptop by prioritizing the following components that are key for multitasking. Note that RAM is something that can be upgraded on many modern laptops, but these other factors are permanent once you buy a laptop:
- A powerful processor
- The right operating system
- The right screen size
- A laptop that allows upgradeability.
Related: Upgrade an Older Laptop’s RAM or Buy a New Laptop
How Do You Know If Your Laptop Needs More RAM?
Perhaps you have an existing laptop and are thinking of either upgrading it or increasing its amount of RAM. It might be slow, laggy, and at times unresponsive.
How can you tell if your laptop needs more RAM?
Fortunately, you can easily run a check on how much RAM your applications and browsers are using and how to free up RAM – this is a simple and quick process. First, find out which web pages and apps are using up the most RAM. Then, before you make any sort of upgrades to your laptop, see if you can free up RAM – that is to make more memory available by doing a few basic, simple ‘housekeeping’ items – follow the brief steps here. Doing so will also ensure that you maintain your laptop well.
But make no mistake that RAM is not the only spec that is key to multitasking.
There could be other factors, so you should explore other causes of lag before pinning it on RAM limitations.
Other important factors in your laptop also contribute to its multitasking capability and potential, such as your laptop’s processor, storage, operating system, and availability of ports amongst other things.
For instance, if your laptop is older and its processor is weak, upgrading its RAM may not necessarily help with speeding up your laptop.
Thus before you invest in a new laptop that could handle multitasking well, browse through this entire list of key factors that you should look for.
If you find out that RAM isn’t the only problem with your slow laptop, you’d need to either upgrade certain components of your laptop all at once, or you’d want to replace your laptop entirely with a brand new one.
Is Increasing RAM on a Laptop Worth It?
Supposing that RAM is an issue, should you increase your laptop’s RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB, 8 GB to 16 GB, or even to 32 GB?
Increasing a laptop’s RAM is one of the most cost-effective ways of upgrading your existing laptop’s multitasking performance.
You’d first need to check whether your specific laptop model supports the RAM upgrade that you want. Supposing it’s possible, you can then decide whether increasing RAM is worth it. Weigh the total estimated cost of upgrading your laptop, involving RAM and any other things, against the cost of buying a new laptop. I’ve outlined a quick guide with regard to whether you should prioritize upgrading RAM and whether you should instead get a brand-new laptop.