More RAM or Graphics Card?

[JustinR]

Hi all,

Looking for a bit of advice. For one of my desktops I currently run a pretty basic set up (about 2 years old) with an AMD A4-7300 chip, 4GB memory, Win 10. I'm using the built in graphics to run 2 x 22" monitors @ 1680x1050 (extended desktop) using HDMI & DVI.

Often I will use one screen for work (light load - basic Excel, Word + web browsing) and have Netflix or DVD playing on the other screen. The machine struggles if I do too much on Excel, etc. at the same time as Netflix / DVD.

My question is what is the best upgrade - more RAM to take it to 8GB or a dedicated PCIe graphics card eg with 2GB dual screen or display port output (a CPU upgrade is planned for next year - I tend to do this with my desktops to push them all the way before replacing).

Any advice is gratefully received.

Thanks

Justin

 

[Oussebon]

Unlikely to be the GPU. Have you tried using Task Manager or similar to look at CPU usage?

Is this a PC Specialist system?

 

[ubuysa]

When your PC is struggling have the Windows Resource Monitor running with the Memory section expanded. If you see a consistent Hard Page Fault Rate that's greater than 0 then you need more RAM, if it's consistently around 0 then you don't. Note that short transient values above 0 are normal, it's consistently high values that indicate RAM exhaustion.