I've heard both but I'm not sure.
Last time I bought memory for my old comp.. I added it and I didn't see a speed difference and I was doing 3D rendering.

So what does adding memory do? Just be able to have more programs open at once? Then does it really help in doing stuff with just one program?

I have 3GB RAM now. Want to move up to 10GB. And I do 3D graphics rendering and stuff

Adding RAM should help with graphics intensive stuff. But you may get more bang for your buck by upgrading your graphics adapter.

SCottGem is right about looking into a better adapter.

You do have a 64-bit comp. right? Wouldn't want you to have a 32-bit and hope for getting 10GB of RAM. ;)


"When you run a program such as a word processor or an Internet browser, the microprocessor in your computer pulls the executable file (.exe) off the hard disk and loads it into RAM. Large programs like Microsoft Word or Excel use large amounts of memory. The microprocessor also pulls in a number of shared dynamic link libraries (DLLs) -- shared pieces of code used by multiple applications. The DLLs take many more megabytes.

­Then the microprocessor loads in the data files at which you want to look, which might total several megabytes if you are looking at more than one document or browsing a page with a lot of graphics. So a big application can easily take 100 megabytes of RAM or more, which can slow your system down significantly if there isn't enough memory" -howstuffworks

As you know video cards have there own built in memory. Adding RAM to the machine will help graphics performance but not as much as adding a graphics card with more built-in memory.

That's why ScottGem and I suggest looking into this instead of adding more RAM. Especially since your graphics oriented!

It may not add speed to your computer but it will be able to run multiple functions at once a lot easier and RAM upgrades are important for graphics. Also you might not see a difference right now but when you are upgrading your software you won't have to worry about the RAM because you will have plenty of it so that is when you will notice a difference.

If you have 32 bit windows you can only max out at 4 gigs, even then it will only show as 3.2 or 3.4

Zemuss- You're correct, it was already hinted toward in my first post but it's worth mentioning again!