Can You Get More Speed From Your SSD By Adding RAM?

There are a number of different hardware upgrades capable of speeding up an aging PC. A new processor does the trick, though many times that turns into a new motherboard, new memory, and often a new power supply, too. An add-in graphics card is often the answer, particularly if you're a gamer. But two of the easiest and most effective purchases are an SSD and more system memory.

Switching over from a mechanical disk to solid-state storage is probably the most effective way to really feel your system get faster. However, adding RAM can also cut down on boot-up time, make applications start faster, and keep more programs open at a time without a big performance hit. The ability to fit more data into memory means your CPU will make fewer trips out to the slower tier of user storage for the information it needs.

But what if your machine already boasts an SSD? Will adding RAM still help, accelerating it further? Or can you save the cost and sink it into a higher-end GPU down the road? How much does more memory affect write operations? We're taking a closer look at those questions by repeatedly running our benchmark suite on an SSD-equipped machine, while varying the amount of RAM installed.

The result took us by surprise. In essence, there is no such thing as too much memory in a desktop with solid-state storage. The more RAM you add, the better off endurance looks, and the more I/O performance you get from the storage subsystem.