It’s been quite some time, and you notice that your computer or laptop is getting a little slower. Or you are buying a new computer but have a tight budget and wondering which one to add to the cart, RAM or SSD. Now a friend suggested upgrading your RAM or adding an SSD.
As a tech enthusiast and gamer, I have been in your shoes, believe me. So the dilemma arises,
Which Is More Important RAM or SSD?
So you should upgrade your RAM if you have trouble running programs and upgrade to SSD if you are fade up with your slow HDD.
I will be telling you more about RAMs, Storages, and upgrading in this article. If you want to find out more, stay with me until the end.
RAM vs. SSD
RAM and SSD being two different components of a computer, should not be compared. But in terms of performance boost both of them plays an important role. So often, users get confused about if they should upgrade RAM or SSD.
People usually look out for speed, price, and CAS latency when choosing to upgrade between RAM or SSD. Here I will be walking you through the easy path.
Not every RAM or SSD is compatible with your desktop or laptop CPU, check out another post to find out what RAM is compatible with your laptop.
RAM vs. SSD Speed
RAM is way faster than SSD in terms of speed. On paper, SSD read and write speed can go up to 6Gbps (750 MB/s) through the SATA interface. In reality, it can achieve a speed of 456 MB/s which is far greater than a typical HDD.
For RAM, on the contrary, its speed is determined by its PC and module number. A module of PC3-12800 RAM can transfer data at a speed of 12,800 MB/s.
A motherboard won’t turn on without RAM or storage (HDD or SSD) because the CPU and the motherboard are directly connected with those parts for storing temporary and permanent data.
RAM vs. SSD Price
Right from the start, as I have said, RAM and SSD are totally different computer components. As for price, it differs too, and RAM is more expensive than SSD.
For example, a 1TB Samsung SSD costs around $200 to $230. So a GB of SSD costs more or less a dollar. Prices may vary from company to company, but you get the idea, right?
Now as for RAM, the prices change a lot. I am showing the prices of some commonly used RAM sticks here:
- 4GB DDR4 stick costs around $15-$25
- 8GB DDR4 stick/kit costs around $30-$45
- 16GB DDR4 stick/kit costs around $60-$100
So judging from the price, we can see that 1 GB of RAM might cost around 3 to 4 dollars. And the price is varied depending on the RAM frequency and generation, such as DDR4 and DDR5.
Nowadays, many competitors in the market result in much cheaper and reasonable RAM and SSD prices. So upgrading your RAM or SSD is much more affordable now.
Should I upgrade RAM or SSD first?
You might have a tight spot between upgrading RAM or SSD because of budget. So looking for the best outcome is inevitable. Matter of fact is you have to know what condition you are in before making a decision. Making the best purchase is by knowing what your system needs right now.
Sometimes adding RAM will boost your computer’s performance, and the vice-versa is true too.
I will be giving 2 cases here. Find out which one suits your system.
Case 1: Add More RAM if It’s Inadequate
Random Access Memory or RAM is a vital component of a computer as every program needs a certain amount of memory to run smoothly. If RAM is inadequate for a program, then the program might run very slow, or in the worst case, it might not even run at all.
For most modern programs, 4GB to 8GB RAM is enough for most modern programs to run properly.
You can check your usable RAM from the computer. You can follow these steps to find out:
- Go to the Start menu or simply press the Windows key and search Control Panel.
- Click on System and Security and then to System.
- There you will find Installed RAM.
For gamers and video editors, however, having 16GB or 32GB results in a noticeable performance increase. So if you find your system has inadequate RAM, then grab a RAM right now.
Case 2: Upgrade to SSD if RAM Is Adequate
If you have adequate RAM for the programs or games that you run often, then adding more RAM will not improve the performance that much. Rather, changing the old HDD with an SSD will give you a performance lift as SSDs read and writes much more faster than HDDs.
Before migrating to the new SSD, you should consider transferring or backing up all the data from the old hard disk drive so that after installation, you can safely transfer all the data to the new drive.
How RAM and Storage Affect Your Computer’s Performance
As two of the most important element of a computer, RAM and Storage are essentially incomplete without one another.
RAM
For general usage such as browsing the web, watching Netflix, hovering over social media, checking mail, playing a game or two big-sized RAM is not necessary. Though after some time, it becomes somewhat necessary to add some memory to run the updated softwares and operating system.
Again if you need to do heavy work such as 3D rendering, video editing, high-resolution image editing, large-scale computation work for engineering, or science works, then big RAMs come in handy.
As said before, every program needs a certain amount of memory to run properly. So opening a lot of programs, documents, and tabs all together might fill up a huge chunk of RAM. For this reason, new operating systems write some temporary data on storage to keep track of all the programs and work as intended.
This temporary space taken on storage is known as virtual memory. So it is obvious that if the storage reads and writes faster, the RAM works better, resulting in an altogether performance increase. As SSDs are faster than HDDs, RAM works better with them.
In order to turn on a CPU, you must install RAM. In other words, a CPU won’t run without RAM.
Storage
Typical HDD (Hard Disk Drive), as the name suggests, has a physical moving disk that rotates at a certain RPM. The faster it rotates, the better it performs in terms of data transfer rate. So, the higher the RPM, the higher will be the price.
As HDDs have moving parts, it generates heat which may intrude on its performance. Again it consumes much power to operate.
Now, if we look at the SSDs, they are just chips and do not consist of moving parts. It performs better in every term of HDDs. Primarily it transfers data way faster and does not have any moving parts, it does not generate that much heat, and on top of that, SSDs consume less energy.
So in terms of performance, SSDs boot programs faster and works better as virtual memory for RAM. A performance boost is inevitable in this regard.
Note: Upgrading both RAM and SSD will improve the system performance by up to 70%.
Should I upgrade RAM or SSD for gaming?
Now solely for gamers, it is a must to have higher specs for playing A+ games such as Farcry 6, Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla at high graphics. FPS is very important for battle royales and competitive games such as Apex Legends, Valorant, Fortnite, etc.
For achieving these, both RAM and SSD are needed. Though from a benchmark test comparison from justbenchmark.com, it was found that RAM benefits more than SSD in terms of getting more in-game FPS.
So for gaming, I would suggest upgrading RAM over SSD. And then, when you get the chance, just go for the SSD.
Conclusion
To sum up, the gist, upgrading RAM or SSD is dependent on how you use your computer for. Upgrade the components according to your system need. Please let us know if the article was helpful to you and for further query feel free to contact us.
