5 Reasons to Upgrade Your Old PC to 16GB of RAM

RAM is cheap and the biggest performance gain Adding RAM is one of the most cost-effective upgrades you can make to an older computer.

Running out of RAM cripples your system more than a slow CPU When you hit 8GB, your computer starts swapping to disk, making everything crawl. A slightly slower CPU might cost you seconds; low RAM makes the whole machine unusable.

16GB lets you keep more tabs and apps open With 16GB, you can run a browser with many tabs, background apps, and even light gaming without constant slowdowns.

Your old CPU is probably not the real bottleneck For browsing, Office work, and light gaming, an older processor is still fine. The real limit is almost always too little memory.

Only skip the upgrade on very old, low-value machines If you have a Core 2 Duo or first-gen i3 and the RAM costs more than the computer is worth, it’s not worth it. Otherwise, 16GB gives your old system another year or two of useful life.