Memory acts as a placeholder for information that is needed quickly and regularly by your computer's CPU (see our article on How Memory Works for more info on this). If your system is currently using all of the RAM available (for example, if you are working in several software programs at once or working on very large files), then the system uses what is called Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory is space on the hard drive where data is temporarily stored and accessed by the CPU in case of a lack of available RAM. This allows your system to access more memory than it would have available if it relied solely on physical (RAM) memory.

The problem with Virtual Memory is that since the information is stored on the hard drive, it is accessed far more slowly than the information stored in RAM. To give you an idea, it takes an average CPU 200ns (nanoseconds) to access information stored in RAM, compared to 12,000,000ns to access the same information stored in the hard drive. That means it takes 60,000 times longer to access Virtual Memory than RAM! If your system regularly has to rely on Virtual Memory to perform your tasks, you will notice an enormous slowdown in your performance. Upgrading your memory can eliminate this bottleneck, making memory-intensive tasks run smoothly. You will be able to multitask and work with larger files with none of the limitations of virtual memory. You'll be amazed at what a difference a memory upgrade can make.