Too much RAM slows down my computer?

[shade45]

I recently upgraded from 512mb of RAM to 2GB of RAM. I know you're thinking "wtf that should make it 4 times faster", that's what I thought too. On my cpu manual thing it says the MAX amount of ram it can support is 2gb, so I thought I would just get 2gb and not more (I mean why would I need more? ), but ever since I had the 2gb's of ram, my computer seems to have slowed down

I first decided to test my ram by going on Cs:S, so I went to settings, and it suggested (with the little '*') that I should set everything to high settings, but I wanted to test the frame rate on the lowest settings. So I ran the video stress test and HOLY SHIT it was so slow I was probably getting 5-10fps, and every 3 seconds it would freeze.

My computer also seems to be working a bit slower than usual, so is it possible that I overloaded it or someting since the maximum reccomended ram is 2gb, and I got exactly that? If not, could anyone please tell me what's wrong

[Askda]

List the specs first i might not help much but other will

[shade45]

I dunno if the specs are really the problem, I mean I could play Cs:S easily on low graphics before.
Here they are anyways:
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.66 Ghz
2.00 GB of Ram
ATI Radeon 9200 series (I think it's either 128mb or 256mb, also I'ma have an ATI Radeon x1650 pro 512mb soon)

[skyR]

Reason why your FPS didnt go up is because you still have a crap video card. Get your new video card than come back with the FPS results.

Video Card > RAM for game performance. RAM is only for multi-tasking, and graphic/video editing.

Only crap games with bad coding require more than 1GB of RAM. You can probably even run 3 CSS with 1 GB of RAM.

[shade45]

So you're saying that if my ram is better than my video card, it will run real slow? So in order to have faster performance, I need to have my vidoe card better than my ram? Also the overall speed of my comp has slowed down, not only in Cs:S, I just used that as an example.

[ZeronX]

Okay, for games it goes like this:

Video card --> Processor --> RAM

Ram will not affect your FPS noticeably (unless it's a game like BF2), I would've advised you to get a better video card, and maybe just upped your ram to 1GB...

EDIT: Maybe your RAM and Processor don't like each other... (figuratively speaking)

[Endless]

Well, most of the time RAM will make your machine run faster, but not if your system doesn’t have enough system cache for your computer. There might be some other reasons, and I’m not entirely sure my response is correct, but if your computer doesn’t have enough cache to handle the extra RAM, then you’re going to need to upgrade your motherboard. Another reason might be that if your using Windows 95/98; then there is a maximum amount of RAM you can install.

I’m not really sure why your computer might run slower, but I’m pretty sure that my first response is correct. You might want to wait for FabianN to take a look.

[FabianN]

First, adding more ram would not normally slow down your system, as long as it matches the type the mobo uses. There is no CPU element, or anything else, that would cause this.. The only time that would ever happen is if you got bad ram. It happens. Just go back to the store ask for a replacement.

Next, RAM upgrades gives you the largest over-all performance upgrade of any other part. The RAM can either make or break a system.

When it comes to games, the major performance increase really depends on how it was made. For example, the upgrades from 512MB to 1GB is really not noticeable, but going from 1GB to 2GB of RAM GREATLY increases the performance.
When it comes to the processor, if you got 2GHz or up, it will be able to run any game you throw at it.
The video card changes the visual performance the most of anything, and is most often the bottle neck on systems.



But as for what you're saying, it sounds like you got bad RAM. Go back to the store and return it. Also try with only one stick, and then the other, to see which stick is the bad one.

The only other thing that I can think of is that your mobo is very picky about the RAM speed, so if it doesn't seem like the RAM is bad, make sure it matches EXACTLY what your mobo recommends.

[Wrath]

Yeah I dunno if this will help but if your 512 MB was like 555MHz and now you bought 677MHz RAM so that is not compatible. Or you bought like different producers. Dunno.

[shade45]

Well I chcekd both the sticks individually, and the speed of my computer didn't change at all. Another reason for the slowness could be cuz my computer is just filled with shit =P Yesterday I spent uninstalling and deleting more than half my programs and games(cuz I didn't need 'em) and I'm gonna reformat my hard drive after I transfer all the needed files to my new one.

I'm pretty sure the rams are compatible because when I bought it, I showed the guy my user manual for my motherboard, and he said that yeah the ram would be compatible, and both the sticks are the same.

I'll report back if anything changes after I reformat and shiz, and thanks for all the help everyone =)

[Darc]

He might have gotten ripped off,and actualy degraded his RAM.
I suggest you run something to test you're system for games,like http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest .

Report back and tell us if it's REALY 2GB.

[Darc]

Don't worry I checked it through DOS (when your computer starts up, and you press Delete or something), and it recognized it as 2gb, and if I right click My Computer and go to Properties, it says it's 2gb as well.

Hm..It might have something to do with BIOS.Go to BIOS and browse trough the sections,especialy RAM and see if you find something unusual.

Oooh,almost forgot!I need to clean my CPU...Dirty dirty boy!Now let's open that box....