If I upgrade my ram on my laptop do I need to reset my laptop and install windows again

[Ironman]

I have a lenovo l390 yoga Intel i5 with 8gb ram and I was wondering if I could upgrade it to 10 gb and I was wondering If I had to reinstall everything

[Illusion of Progress]

No. RAM upgrades are "plug and play" like CPU upgrades (barring potentially needing BIOS updates but that's something else). There's more involved with adding a storage drive (which is next to nothing) or a GPU change than there is with a CPU or RAM change.

[Ironman]

Publicado originalmente por Illusion of Progress:

No. RAM upgrades are "plug and play" like CPU upgrades (barring potentially needing BIOS updates but that's something else). There's more involved with adding a storage drive (which is next to nothing) or a GPU change than there is with a CPU or RAM change.

so can I just plug in the 2 GB ram and just play games

[Prof. Insanity]

Ram can be easily replaced.
Since it seems like you want to simply put additional ram into it, it's important to know that problems might occur.
If I understood correctly you want to mix a 8gb ram and a 2gb ram stick.
The Ram will work with the slowest ram build in as lead.
It's not guaranted it will work simply then, because problems might occur.
Timings play a important role here.
It's always recommended for inexperienced users to use ram of the same type you have build in already to avoid upcomming problems.
Or at least equal the size.

[_I_]

make sure it has a free dimm slot to add ram
and get compatible ram

why add a 2g dimm?
i dont think they even make 2g ddr4 dimms

[[N]ebsun]

Publicado originalmente por Bennetsabin:

Publicado originalmente por Illusion of Progress:

No. RAM upgrades are "plug and play" like CPU upgrades (barring potentially needing BIOS updates but that's something else). There's more involved with adding a storage drive (which is next to nothing) or a GPU change than there is with a CPU or RAM change.

so can I just plug in the 2 GB ram and just play games

From windows 8 up, even changing motherboard, cpu, gpu, ram, drives, you no longer need to reinstall.

[Prof. Insanity]

Publicado originalmente por _I_:

make sure it has a free dimm slot to add ram
and get compatible ram

why add a 2g dimm?
i dont think they even make 2g ddr4 dimms

Correct.
2GB only is for DDR3 available.
Towards the OP, you can't mix DDR3 with DDR4.
The minimum Ram you can buy as DDR4 is 4GB; So you will end up with 12GB of Ram.
You should buy identical RAM, so 8GB + 8GB to use the Dual Chanell.
4GB + 8GB will perform worse than 4GB +4GB in most cases even because the Dual Chanell does the trick in case you Laptop supports it.

Edit: Same goes for 1x 16GB Ram; 1x 16GB will performe worse than 4GB + 8GB. That Dual Chanell is very important for the most efficient use of it which. Two Ram sticks overall are more important than just one single stick.
In order to use Duall Chanell the sticks must be Identical in size, otherwise duall chanell will not work.

[nullable]

Publicado originalmente por Prof. Insanity:

The minimum Ram you can buy as DDR4 is 4GB; So you will end up with 12GB of Ram.
You should buy identical RAM, so 8GB + 8GB to use the Dual Chanell.
4GB + 8GB will perform worse than 4GB +4GB in most cases even because the Dual Chanell does the trick in case you Laptop supports it.

Edit: Same goes for 1x 16GB Ram; 1x 16GB will performe worse than 4GB + 8GB. That Dual Chanell is very important for the most efficient use of it which. Two Ram sticks overall are more important than just one single stick.
In order to use Duall Chanell the sticks must be Identical in size, otherwise duall chanell will not work.

You might be interested to know about Flex Mode, which has been around for quite a while. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005657/boards-and-kits.html#flex (yes, AMD has a similar implementation)

In short, 8+4 will run in dual channel in a 4x2 configuration and the remaining 4GB will run in single channel. At least on most modern systems.

It's also important to note that while no one would avoid running in a decent dual channel configuration given the option, the performance benefits can be quite limited as not everything is really that RAM intensive, so the extra bandwidth possible doesn't get you much.

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/1349-ram-how-dual-channel-works-vs-single-channel?showall=1

I mean it's better than a poke in the eye mostly. But nothing to really write home about.

IE single channel won't cripple your machine in most cases. And at the end of the day a slightly slower RAM configuration would be better than not enough RAM, something to keep in mind.

[_I_]

flex/mixed ram mode runs at 2x the smaller dimm for dual ch speed, and the remaining of the larger dimm at single ch speed
32+4 = 8g dual ch + 28g single

many laptops have some ram soldered to the board, and a single free dimm slot
it might have 8g soldered to the board
in that case, look up the ram specs with cpuz, and buy a so-dimm with matching specs
(speeds, timings and voltage)

[Prof. Insanity]

Flex mode is something I in fact didn't knew about. I'm working with Computers for a long time already but this seems to be something I didn't saw yet. So my entire post is technically not interresting at this point, and is mostly aimed for DDR3 only seems like. Seems like the phrase "Learning daily new things" got here to the point. Thanks.

[Illusion of Progress]

Publicado originalmente por Prof. Insanity:

Flex mode is something I in fact didn't knew about. I'm working with Computers for a long time already but this seems to be something I didn't saw yet. So my entire post is technically not interresting at this point, and is mostly aimed for DDR3 only seems like. Seems like the phrase "Learning daily new things" got here to the point. Thanks.

You can never be in it for too long to learn new things. I always do too.

I remember hearing of various forms of flex mode for a long time but I learned more about it when I got my laptop in 2013. It came with 6 GB RAM (1x 4 GB and 1x 2 GB) and it had flex mode too. I remember being in awe because I thought you had to have physically matching modules and that it was all or nothing. I replaced it with 16 GB (2x 8 GB) around a year ago because just going up 2 GB to 8 GB felt pointless, and if I was going to add 8 GB for 12 GB, I felt I'd just match it and just max it out to 16 GB so that I could used the 4 GB module I was removing to add to a family member's laptop which only had 1x 4 GB RAM so now it has 8 GB (plus dual channel).

If OP has 8 GB already in a single module, and another slot free, I'd just add another 8 GB. Adding 2 GB (which doesn't seem available in DDR4 anyway) seems pointless. If you need more RAM, I'd say even adding 4 GB would be rather little. It might be enough but if you're having to upgrade, you want to do more than the minimum even if it is slightly excessive to avoid being right against the limit still.

[nullable]

Publicado originalmente por Prof. Insanity:

Flex mode is something I in fact didn't knew about. I'm working with Computers for a long time already but this seems to be something I didn't saw yet. So my entire post is technically not interresting at this point, and is mostly aimed for DDR3 only seems like. Seems like the phrase "Learning daily new things" got here to the point. Thanks.

Well at least you didn't develop a broken and un-fixable game.

https://youtu.be/_zD33Hrbo4Y

There'd have to be like a dozen developers and none of them were aware of memory fragmentation.

That's IT at any level for you, "Welp, turns out I'm stupid after all." Every other day.

[Illusion of Progress]

Interesting. I didn't know Stardock made games (or I keep forgetting). There's something else I learned. I still know of them of the company that made themes for Windows XP, a dock program (Object Dock, which I still use) and fences for... desktop shortcut arrangement I guess.