Stupid computer question

[Nerys Ghemor]

Please forgive me for sounding stupid here, but I started writing a line in one of my stories and I'm not sure I'm getting it right at all.

What are the effects of these on the way your computer behaves, and how would I tell the difference if someone made one of these upgrades while I wasn't looking?

a) A processor upgrade
b) A RAM upgrade

You'll have to explain this to me like I'm a 5th grader--I'm good at USING a computer, but not very good at understanding how it works.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Telling is easy.

Right click on "My Computer" and select properties.

Unless you get a BIG step up on a CPU, it would be hard to tell subjectively.

If your PC was initially under RAMmed, taking it to 1 GB or more would result in a noticable performance increase.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, unless you already have a bunch of RAM, a RAM upgrade is going to produce the most noticeable performance improvement.

The way CPUs work, you'd have to replace the motherboard as well in order to make a truly substantial upgrade that a lay person would notice.

 

[Jadzia]

Okay, 5th grader...

A faster CPU means the computer can do math quicker.

More RAM means your computer has a bigger corkboard to pin bits of paper onto.

That's not the whole story. There are two intermediates:

The size of the CPU's cache is like the size of your desk. The bigger the cache, the more space you have to lay out your notes and work stuff out.

The FSB speed of the motherboard is how quickly you can pin one bit of notepaper from your desk to the corkboard. Same if you want to remember something. You have to spend time reaching and grabbing it from your corkboard.

The corkboard is very big compared to your tiny desk space. But even the corkboard gets filled up sometimes. Hard disk is like a filing cabinet. It can act as virtual corkboard. But this is so far from your desk it's takes ages moving stuff in and out of it. You'd rather not if you can help it.

The compter can only do one thing at a time. The more time it has to spend moving stuff around, the less time it spends doing math. So having a faster CPU doesn't always help if you're spending most of your time moving notes.

But conversely, if you're doing some math that's very compact and not using a lot of paper, because you can rub out old calculations that are no longer needed, then you're not going to benefit from a bigger corkboard. Being faster at math will show the greater reward.


So the test... Give it a tedious but compact math problem. If it completes it quicker, then you've got a CPU upgrade. If it takes the same time, then you've got a RAM upgrade.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

The way CPUs work, you'd have to replace the motherboard as well in order to make a truly substantial upgrade that a lay person would notice.

Sometimes, but certainly not always. Determining the difference is beyond the scope of the conversation as set by the OP though.

Jadz, that's a nice primer!

 

[Jadzia]

Jadz, that's a nice primer!

Thanks

And DDR RAM is effectively having the ability to move two notes to/from your corkboard at a time. DDR2 RAM you can move four notes at a time. DDR3 RAM you can move eight notes at a time. That's the cutting edge.

The GPU is the guy in the office next door who draws art. The faster the GPU speed, the quicker he can draw stuff. But he needs a wall to paint on rather than a little desk because art is always big. The bigger the Graphics RAM the bigger his wall is, and the more room he has to paint, and the more room he has to keep pictures at hand which he can copy from. He doesn't want to have to ask you (the CPU) to send stuff from your corkboard, because that would take longer than is necessary, holding both of you up.

There is also a translator that the computer uses to talk to people like the GPU, or the sound guy, and even the mail man (I/O), because they all speaks foreign tongues. But this translator is getting better all the time, and it really quite advanced now, and can translate not much slower than you can move notes between your desk and your corkboard. This translator is known as Chipset.


The art guy can also can also have GDDR Graphics RAM, which means he can use two brushes at once, but that doesn't mean he can paint at twice the speed. GDDR2 is like four brushes. But don't be fooled into thinking that GDDR3 or GDDR4 or even GDDR5 Graphics RAM means umpteen more brushes. He only has two arms you know.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

This is a really awesome description...thanks! I can see I was screwing up with the fanfic, so that was helpful.

Also...if I have a program that requires both more RAM and a faster processor than what I currently have, might it be possible to get away with it if I upgrade the RAM, without bothering with the processor? If the RAM is the most important part here, is THAT the part that's causing it to shut down when I install?

(Worst-case scenario I just hang on to said program for a couple of years until I get a new computer...nothing lost. Of course, the sooner I can get into it, the nicer it would be.)

 

[Alpha_Geek]

Nevermind.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

This is a hijack.

I know replacing the motherboard with a fairly different one required a re-installation of the OS. What about if I replace the CPU with a slightly faster one?

It'll be the same type (Core 2 Quad), just a 3 GHz vs the 2.4 GHz I have now.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

No change in windows drivers, no revalidation if you're only changing one item.

 

[Jadzia]

Also...if I have a program that requires both more RAM and a faster processor than what I currently have, might it be possible to get away with it if I upgrade the RAM, without bothering with the processor? If the RAM is the most important part here, is THAT the part that's causing it to shut down when I install?

The CPU has a clock multiplier, which means it works at a scaled up speed of the FSB speed. So for every one thing the FSB does, the CPU does ten things, or whatever.

So if the computer is having to move a lot of data, the CPU will ask for things to be sent from the RAM, but then it has to wait while that data arrives, which happens at the slower FSB speed. Often, the CPU can't do anything until that data does arrive, so it's delayed and you don't get optimal performance. A faster CPU will have to wait just as long; it's only faster while it's doing math.

Not having enough RAM will slow things down a lot more than not having a fast enough CPU. So in situations where you really need more of both: A RAM upgrade will show the bigger improvement.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ Relating to what you're saying. If the computer is doing something that is taxing all 4 cores of the CPU (and I mean taxing), is there any way to get the RAM to "help out" so the system as a whole isn't bogged down as much?

 

[Jadzia]

^ Relating to what you're saying. If the computer is doing something that is taxing all 4 cores of the CPU (and I mean taxing), is there any way to get the RAM to "help out" so the system as a whole isn't bogged down as much?

The RAM is just a resource. It can't do anything to help. How efficiently that RAM is used is totally up to your operating system and how well your software has been written to manage the memory resources it allocates for itself.

But what can be done is to make your memory more responsive.

The first method is to use the highest DDR version your motherboard supports. ie, if you've got DDR2 memory, but you can take DDR3, then you should see the benefit of using DDR3 in cpu taxing situations.

A second method is to increase the speed of the FSB beyond what it should be. Commonly called overclocking. This impacts your chipset, your cpu and your RAM in synergy, giving you a generalised speed increase. But this does induce additional heating in all three of these components, which can be quickly fatal for one's computer -- in a matter of seconds if one is careless. So this isn't for amateurs. Specialised cooling and careful temperature monitoring of these components is advised.

A third method is shortening the RAM's charge timers in your motherboard's bios/chipset settings. The nature of RAM is that it stores data as charge within tiny capacitors, and it takes time to deposit this charge. The less time the computer allocates to charging, the less charge there will be in those capacitors, and the quicker that charge will dissipate.

Reducing the charge timers below the recommended value will allow your computer to access specific memory locations quicker, but the memory has to be capable of operating reliably with those reduced charges, because if it dissipates too quickly then you've got c0rRupt3D m3M0RY .

The current favourite I believe is the Corsair brand, which is generally tolerant of overclocking and reduced charge timers.