Máy tính có RAM nhiều hơn có khả năng nhanh hơn nếu tất cả bộ nhớ không thường được sử dụng?

Suppose I have a computer with 16 GB of memory. If my computer is usually using about 4 GB of memory and never reaches 8 GB, is it any faster than a computer with only 8 GB of (the same type of) memory? Would my computer run as equally fast by removing half of the 16 GB and working with only 8 GB or memory?

Yes, because the operating system can use the extra RAM as disk cache, which speeds up access to data on the disk. Extra RAM will not make CPU-bound computations (not involving much disk I/O) faster though.

Since every operating system manages memory differently, and none was listed in the original question, I will answer in the context of Windows 7.

Below is an example from a computer with 24 GB of RAM. Even though only 7 GB is currently allocated as “In Use” memory, another 10 GB is allocated as “Standby” memory and contains data that may or may not be read again. If it is read, it will make your computer faster. The “Free” memory is not being utilized whatsoever at the moment.

• “Available” memory includes Standby and Free
• “Cached” memory also includes Standby and Modified
• “Total” memory is all memory except Hardware Reserved

If you would like to learn more about memory usage in Windows 7, TechRepublic has a great article.