Amount of ram doesnt really affect CPU speed. SPEED of ram does affect performance though.. but not enough ram is a MAJOR performance killer.
The more memory you have, the computer will have to use it's page file less. When program-A needs more ram than the system has got spare, the system moves chunks of data already in ram (data belonging to other programs) to the hard disk temporarily to make space available.. after program-A has done its thing and releases the ram back to the system, the data chunks that were temporarily sent to the hard disk are moved back into ram..... this is called paging.
Hard disks are LOTS slower than ram, so doing this causes the system to slow down, This can happen many times a second, as programs demand memory space the system tries to juggle chunks of data between ram/hdd, usually with the HDD led blinking like mad (a tel-tale sign of paging). And if it's a noisey hdd, you'll hear it grinding away. A faster hdd can speed up paging alot, more ram will stop the need for it in the first place.
Older systems have much slower hard disks so the performance hit is a lot more noticeable, adding ram to a system struggling with paging can give amazing improvements... the more the better, but depending on what you use the PC for, you'll get to a point where you're hardly ever paging, and the benifit of adding more again drops off.
The more memory you have, the computer will have to use it's page file less. When program-A needs more ram than the system has got spare, the system moves chunks of data already in ram (data belonging to other programs) to the hard disk temporarily to make space available.. after program-A has done its thing and releases the ram back to the system, the data chunks that were temporarily sent to the hard disk are moved back into ram..... this is called paging.
Hard disks are LOTS slower than ram, so doing this causes the system to slow down, This can happen many times a second, as programs demand memory space the system tries to juggle chunks of data between ram/hdd, usually with the HDD led blinking like mad (a tel-tale sign of paging). And if it's a noisey hdd, you'll hear it grinding away. A faster hdd can speed up paging alot, more ram will stop the need for it in the first place.
Older systems have much slower hard disks so the performance hit is a lot more noticeable, adding ram to a system struggling with paging can give amazing improvements... the more the better, but depending on what you use the PC for, you'll get to a point where you're hardly ever paging, and the benifit of adding more again drops off.
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