Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

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gododdin
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Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by gododdin »

I upgraded the memory of my oldish (2015) laptop from 4 to 16 gb which I thought would make a big difference to the speed but it hasn't made much if any. Is there anything I should change in the settings to make better use of the extra memory? Thanks

Here is my system information:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.0-100-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.18.1
    tk: Gtk 3.24.33 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.18.0 vt: 7 dm: LightDM 1.30.0
    Distro: Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia base: Ubuntu 22.04 jammy
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: SATELLITE C70D-C-11V v: PSCSWE-01700YEN
    serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: FF40 model: 0683 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 5.00
    date: 08/12/2015
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 4.4 Wh (100.0%) condition: 4.4/44.2 Wh (9.9%) volts: 15.1 min: 15.1
    model: PEGA G71C000HU210 type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: Not charging
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: AMD A4-7210 APU with AMD Radeon R3 Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP
    smt: <unsupported> arch: Puma rev: 1 cache: L1: 256 KiB L2: 2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1797 min/max: 1000/1800 boost: enabled cores: 1: 1797 2: 1797 3: 1797
    4: 1797 bogomips: 14372
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Mullins [Radeon R3 Graphics] vendor: Toshiba driver: radeon v: kernel ports:
    active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:01.0 chip-ID: 1002:9850 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Lite-On TOSHIBA Web Camera - HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 2-1.2:4
    chip-ID: 04ca:705b class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X:
    loaded: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1600x900 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 423x238mm (16.7x9.4") s-diag: 485mm (19.1")
  Monitor-1: eDP res: 1600x900 hz: 60 dpi: 106 size: 382x215mm (15.0x8.5") diag: 438mm (17.3")
  OpenGL: renderer: KABINI ( LLVM 15.0.7 DRM 2.50 5.15.0-100-generic)
    v: 4.5 Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Kabini HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 00:01.1 chip-ID: 1002:9840 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD FCH Azalia vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2
    chip-ID: 1022:780d class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.0-100-generic running: yes
  Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.99.1 running: yes
  Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.48 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8723BE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter driver: rtl8723be v: kernel pcie:
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:b723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Toshiba driver: r8169 v: kernel
    pcie: speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Toshiba Bluetooth Radio type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.92 bus-ID: 2-1.1:3
    chip-ID: 0930:0222 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.0
    sub-v: 9f73 hci-v: 4.0 rev: e2f
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 32.62 GiB (3.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABD100 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: HDD
    rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: 4M scheme: GPT
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.32 GiB used: 32.61 GiB (3.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 511 MiB used: 6.1 MiB (1.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swapfile
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 1-1:2 info: Advanced Micro Devices Root Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 0438:7900 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Full speed or root hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002
    class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-1:2 info: Advanced Micro Devices Root Hub ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    power: 100mA chip-ID: 0438:7900 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-1.1:3 info: Toshiba Bluetooth Radio type: Bluetooth driver: btusb interfaces: 2
    rev: 2.1 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 0930:0222 class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-1.2:4 info: Lite-On TOSHIBA Web Camera - HD type: Video driver: uvcvideo
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA chip-ID: 04ca:705b class-ID: 0e02
    serial: <filter>
  Hub-5: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-6: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 2 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0003
    class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 46.4 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 47.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: 2135 apt: 2128 flatpak: 7
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
    1: deb http: //packages.linuxmint.com virginia main upstream import backport
    2: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy main restricted universe multiverse
    3: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates main restricted universe multiverse
    4: deb http: //archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports main restricted universe multiverse
    5: deb http: //security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jammy-security main restricted universe multiverse
Info:
  Processes: 255 Uptime: 17m wakeups: 1 Memory: 14.56 GiB used: 2.23 GiB (15.3%) Init: systemd
  v: 249 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 11.4.0 alt: 11/12 Client: Unknown python3.10 client
  inxi: 3.3.13
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JerryF
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by JerryF »

Usually, increasing RAM won't make your system faster.

One of the best things you can do is get an SSD as your main drive.

Check out this blog from one of the forum members:

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... ?m=1#ID5.3
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coffee412
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by coffee412 »

When you are looking to upgrade a computer you have to first figure out what is slowing it down. Where is the bottleneck. Finding that bottleneck will bring you the best performance upgrade - or 'bang for the buck'.

Your running an AMD A4 processor. So, Do not expect great things from it. Its the budget processor put out by AMD to compete with Intels lower end processors.

From your hardware profile I see you have a Toshiba 5400 rpm mechanical drive. This is where you will get the best bang. I would upgrade that to a SSD.

After that, Fire up system monitor and go to performance. Run something like firefox and see where the heavy use is. Your basically doing an audit on your computer. Watch your processor and other devices like memory, Network.
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Hoser Rob
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by Hoser Rob »

It depends on how many programs you have open and how large they are. If you're running a bunch of them or, say, opening a lot of browser tabs you'll really see a difference. Linux loves having lots of program cache. But all the time, no.
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Pjotr
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by Pjotr »

Like others said: stick an SSD in it, which'll make your machine a lot faster. That old HDD spinner is currently slowing things down unnecessarily.

You can also put that extra RAM that you've added, to work more:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... -mint.html

Notably the parts about zswap and about shifting the Firefox cache to the RAM.
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gododdin
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by gododdin »

Thanks for your useful responses! As I got this laptop from a skip (dumpster) I guess I shouldn't complain! :)
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all41
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by all41 »

++for SSD recommendations. You can get 120gb for under 20usd.
this along with that extra memory would be a stellar improvement
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MikeNovember
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Re: Increased memory from 4 to 16 gb but no faster

Post by MikeNovember »

Hi,

Having increased RAM reduces swapping, and increases performance when you use apps requiring high RAM. No visible improvement when you use not demanding apps that will not induce swapping.

However, all the reads and writes stay unchanged, and are slow with a 5400 rpm hard disk.

Replacing it by an SSD would be a great performance improvement.

Regards,

MN
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