Aspire E 15 laptop running slow -- do I just need more RAM?

I just bought an Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575-33BM laptop, and it's running slower than I would like. I tend to have several windows and browser tabs open (right now, 17 browser tabs, and a pdf viewer). My new laptop came with 4 GB RAM. My old laptop, a Dell XPS from 2011, also had 4 GB of RAM, and didn't have much trouble with that number of tabs. So I'm a little disappointed with the Acer as I would have expected it to beat a 6-year-old laptop with the same RAM, even if the other one originally cost a lot more.

I called Acer and the guy gave me a few helpful straightforward tips that didn't really get at the core problem. The computer runs great when I have only a few tabs open. So my thought is that I should upgrade the RAM, but before I do that I want to make sure that

1) This is the best solution to the problem
2) This lagging is expected in the situation I described and isn't a problem with the laptop.

I'd love to hear advice, and also what I should look for for a RAM upgrade. Thanks!

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brummyfan2

Hi,
You can check the RAM usage in Task manager, click Ctrl+Shift+Esc buttons and view the RAM usage in task manager, if needed increase the memory to 8GB by adding another module of same specs as your current 4GB RAM. You could also consider replacing the HDD with a SSD and it will improve the speed immensely.

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automorphic

Thanks for the tips! My memory usage is upwards of 90%, mostly taken up by various Chrome properties, so it seems like that's the issue. I'll plan on getting another stick of RAM like you said.

Would a SSD help speed up my internet processes? I thought it only worked for files saved on that disk, which wouldn't include anything online.