More RAM?

[Bane]

If I have this in the wrong section of forums, please let me know so I won't make any future mistakes when creating discussions.

I have a fairly old computer... okay... older than it should be. I have somewhere around a 5- or 6-year-old Dell Inspiron N5040. You could probably look up the model on the internet and get a pretty good idea of why I have it (it's cheap, I got it for free) and why it shouldn't be playing games. Here's the specs as far as I know:

-Make/Model: Dell Inspiron N5040
-OS: Windows 10
-CPU: i3 Core 2.67GHz Dual-core
-GPU: Intel HD Graphics (integrated graphics)
-RAM: 4GB (1 x 4GB)
-Screen: 1366 x 768 set at 40Hz

A few of my games are running below what I want them to run at (I usually like at least around 10-15 FPS without lag spikes) and have near-continuous lag spikes and just plain run slow overall. I assume this is mostly due to the combination of:
1) Integrated graphics.
2) A whoppin' 4GB of RAM.
3) About 2GB of said RAM is devoured by the OS alone.

I've been wondering about upgrading my RAM from a single 4GB stick to running dual-channel with two 4GB sticks totaling at 8GB of RAM. I mainly want to upgrade the RAM so more is available for the system and GPU to use separately.

If I do upgrade the RAM, will I need to manually assign more RAM to the GPU (through something like BIOS), or will it just take as needed? And my main question, will upgrading the RAM increase (even slightly) the performance? Or will the entire idea be for nothing and I shouldn't even be wasting the money to buy the upgrades?

In case this gives you an idea of the games I want to improve the performance of, I mainly want to fix the fair lag (especially the lag spikes) of:
-Unturned (~10-12 FPS, recurring lag spikes resulting in speeds of 5 or 6 FPS)
-Garry's Mod (~15-20 FPS, random lag spikes)
-Minecraft (~15-20 FPS, minor occasional lag)
-Terraria (~25--30 FPS, random major lag spikes resulting in speeds of around 10 FPS)

Thanks!

[Fluffy]

biggest factor will be the fact its integrated as more ram wont help a great deal with that but i recommend 2x4gb if it can handle it as its a laptop and it should dedicate more memory to gpu when you upgrade to 8gb

[_I_]

for better fps get a better gpu
more ram isnt going to help

post a cpuz validation link
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
cpuz -> validate button -> submit button
it will open a browser, copy the url (address) and paste it here

and what power supply does it have?
open the side panel and read the label or take a pic


or if its a laptop, save up for a gaming pc $600-800+

[Southpawe]

All the games you listed have a minimum requirement of 2gb of Ram as a requirement with the exception of "unturned" which requires 4gb. So I don't think RAM is your problem. More than likly it's the old integrated graphics card. Because I have a laptop that I gamed on for a while and it has the same amount of RAM and intel HD graphics, but had no problem with source engine games. (like Garry's Mod)

All the games you listed have a major online componet, have you tried playing offline and seeing if it is internet lag?

[hawkeye]

Extra ram can help stuttering but won't improve fps. The operating system, other software and the game has to fit into the available ram, otherwise the memory will be swapped in and out of disk, which can bog the system down and can stop the game loading game assets like textures.
To check what is being used by your system, open task manager, performance tab, click on resource monitor, look at the colored bar.
Obviously shut down web browsers, mail etc while playing.
Windows adjusts memory and the size of the disk cache automatically.
Make sure you have turned off any WIn10 feature that is going to use resources.

[𝕙.𝕓𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕒𝕤]

I doubt that more RAM in your laptop will make much difference for the Intel integrated graphics. Its just to weak to make effective use of more RAM. But RAM is cheap and will help to increase overall performance.
Also for a snappier experience consider a SSD.
The i3 380M used in this laptop seems to be a good processor for low end gaming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzGWi4iFpwM
Edit: Just noticed that you can not put more RAM into your laptop
http://laptops.specout.com/l/337/Inspiron-15-N5040

[Bane]

Fluffy님이 먼저 게시:

biggest factor will be the fact its integrated as more ram wont help a great deal with that but i recommend 2x4gb if it can handle it as its a laptop and it should dedicate more memory to gpu when you upgrade to 8gb

The fact that RAM won't help a bunch doesn't surprise me or make me too joyous, but if it will dedicate more memory on it's own, that's what I'm hoping for.

_I_님이 먼저 게시:

for better fps get a better gpu
more ram isnt going to help

post a cpuz validation link
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html
cpuz -> validate button -> submit button
it will open a browser, copy the url (address) and paste it here

and what power supply does it have?
open the side panel and read the label or take a pic


or if its a laptop, save up for a gaming pc $600-800+

Sadly, it is a laptop. It would be nice if I could upgrade the GPU, but not much can be done for upgrading a laptop's hardware. I do plan on saving up for a gaming PC that will ultimately replace my current one. Despite it being a laptop, are you still going to need the CPU-Z results?

Southpawe님이 먼저 게시:

All the games you listed have a minimum requirement of 2gb of Ram as a requirement with the exception of "unturned" which requires 4gb. So I don't think RAM is your problem. More than likly it's the old integrated graphics card. Because I have a laptop that I gamed on for a while and it has the same amount of RAM and intel HD graphics, but had no problem with source engine games. (like Garry's Mod)

All the games you listed have a major online componet, have you tried playing offline and seeing if it is internet lag?

I figured it would be my graphics card. For Unturned, it lists 8GB of RAM under "Recommended." Also, is it possible that when the RAM was listed, integrated graphics wasn't taken into consideration? Most of the time I do play offline, so I'm fairly sure that it isn't internet lag. When I do play online though, it is usually with friends where we connect through LAN. However, I noticed that Unturned's performance drops significantly with increased lag spikes when I am connected to the internet, even if I do play on singleplayer.

hawkeye님이 먼저 게시:

Extra ram can help stuttering but won't improve fps. The operating system, other software and the game has to fit into the available ram, otherwise the memory will be swapped in and out of disk, which can bog the system down and can stop the game loading game assets like textures.
To check what is being used by your system, open task manager, performance tab, click on resource monitor, look at the colored bar.
Obviously shut down web browsers, mail etc while playing.
Windows adjusts memory and the size of the disk cache automatically.
Make sure you have turned off any WIn10 feature that is going to use resources.

Thanks! The stuttering is the main problem I want to stop, so that is nice to hear. The low FPS isn't a huge problem, I have grown used to it, but the lag spikes are bad. I will follow those actions and see if I can find anything to turn off to increase performance.

h.barkas님이 먼저 게시:

I doubt that more RAM in your laptop will make much difference for the Intel integrated graphics. Its just to weak to make effective use of more RAM. But RAM is cheap and will help to increase overall performance.
Also for a snappier experience consider a SSD.
The i3 380M used in this laptop seems to be a good processor for low end gaming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzGWi4iFpwM
Edit: Just noticed that you can not put more RAM into your laptop
http://laptops.specout.com/l/337/Inspiron-15-N5040

I was hoping it would increase performance. If I could, I would try and get an SSD, but I don't think I can remove the hard drive that's already in it. That is strange that the website says the max RAM is 4GB... A while back I contacted my uncle (who is wonderful with computers), and he did a bit of research. He told me that my computer can have a maximum of 8GB of RAM, with space for two 4GB sticks. I'll do a bit of research myself and determine if my laptop has the ability to hold more RAM. I'll probably have to open it up just to find out though.