Will adding a second stick of RAM improve my system's latency or speed?

[McLilith]

I have an old Windows 10 notebook computer from approximately 2013 that I'd like to improve the speed of. It has an Intel Core i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz CPU, which is pretty slow by today's standards, but it's still useful for several things.

The system came with only one 8GB stick of DDR3 RAM. I'm thinking of sticking in a pair of new 8GB SO-DIMMs, which should have better specs, and will take advantage of both channels of memory, in addition to raising my total memory to 16GB. (Maybe the extra RAM might also help with some of the larger Kontakt instruments?)

For VST and audio applications, would it be likely I'd notice any better audio latency, system speed, system stability when using some of the more CPU intensive software?

Doesn't RAM usually work a bit faster when installed in pairs?

[Pictus]

I have an old Windows 10 notebook computer from approximately 2013 that I'd like to improve the speed of. It has an Intel Core i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz CPU, which is pretty slow by today's standards, but it's still useful for several things.

The system came with only one 8GB stick of DDR3 RAM. I'm thinking of sticking in a pair of new 8GB SO-DIMMs, which should have better specs, and will take advantage of both channels of memory, in addition to raising my total memory to 16GB. (Maybe the extra RAM might also help with some of the larger Kontakt instruments?)

It helps.

For VST and audio applications, would it be likely I'd notice any better audio latency, system speed, system stability when using some of the more CPU intensive software?

More RAM will be better when the bottleneck is the RAM amount and not the CPU.
For lower DPC latency check this
viewtopic.php?p=8667750#p8667750

Doesn't RAM usually work a bit faster when installed in pairs?

Yes, it works.

BTW, I saw this in your site
https://blog.glenvision.com/post/148159 ... oure-not-a

I did this using the same background
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10986424@ ... 093524617/

[vstdls]

Yes, even 2x4gig sticks would even logically quicken things up. Based on age, if it still has an HDD in it, obviously swapping in an SSD will be a more noticeable upgrade.

It's a little long in the tooth, but still a fine, usable machine.

[planetearth]

I have an old Windows 10 notebook computer from approximately 2013 that I'd like to improve the speed of. It has an Intel Core i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz CPU, which is pretty slow by today's standards, but it's still useful for several things.

The system came with only one 8GB stick of DDR3 RAM. I'm thinking of sticking in a pair of new 8GB SO-DIMMs, which should have better specs, and will take advantage of both channels of memory, in addition to raising my total memory to 16GB. (Maybe the extra RAM might also help with some of the larger Kontakt instruments?)

For VST and audio applications, would it be likely I'd notice any better audio latency, system speed, system stability when using some of the more CPU intensive software?

Doesn't RAM usually work a bit faster when installed in pairs?

It should definitely help, but you'll want to get the fastest RAM the notebook can support, and make sure it can support all 16 GB — not all notebooks from a decade ago can.

You'll also want to make sure you optimize your system for audio, by disabling any apps and services you don't need. And an SSD would help a lot, as would an external audio interface (if you don't already have one).

Steve

[CrystalWizard]

Experts have commented and all i can add is to repeat the advice to replace the spinning rust (HDD) with an SSD. After a few years of having all my machines upgraded with SSDs a friend gave me a Dell 5566 i3 cheapie laptop. I was shocked at how #$%^ slow it was ( i knew that's why he gave it away). So i upgraded a different machine (a music maker) from 500G SSD to a roomier 2G (thanks Omnisphere) and put the 500G in the beater machine (kept the 1T rust for other uses), wowwwzers, like a newer machine. Like-normal. Next: upgrade the RAM ( currently one stick 2G and one stick 4G! whoohoo, i've never seen that (straight from the factory).

This lowly device has Reaper running a decent bunch of plugins.

[FranklyFlawless]

I have an old Windows 10 notebook computer from approximately 2013 that I'd like to improve the speed of. It has an Intel Core i5-3340M @ 2.70GHz CPU, which is pretty slow by today's standards, but it's still useful for several things.

More than that, it is discontinued and service updates are no longer available.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... 0-ghz.html

The system came with only one 8GB stick of DDR3 RAM. I'm thinking of sticking in a pair of new 8GB SO-DIMMs, which should have better specs, and will take advantage of both channels of memory, in addition to raising my total memory to 16GB. (Maybe the extra RAM might also help with some of the larger Kontakt instruments?)

It helps with sample libraries when you have multiple instances of Kontakt active at once.

For VST and audio applications, would it be likely I'd notice any better audio latency, system speed, system stability when using some of the more CPU intensive software?

It would be marginal at best. CPU intensive software benefits most from better CPUs.

Doesn't RAM usually work a bit faster when installed in pairs?

Absolutely.

[Shinizzle]

RAM in pairs can take advantage of dual channel mode so absolutely it can give better performance.