Aspire E5-573G ram upgrade - questions

First of all, thanks in advance.
Pretty much since the beggining, my pc has been pretty sluggish. I bought it a few years back and thought the ammount of ram was pretty respectable. Whenever I try to see what the problem might be, the task manager indicates that the memory is always close to the max. So I thought of upgrading it (maybe with an 8GB card), but a few questions came up:
-Can I do it? (task manager says 2 out of 2 slots are being used, while some sources say this model should have one slot free)
-What brand/model is compatible? (because apparently there are various versions of my PC model with different specs)

PC info, as per the About page in Windows10 Settings:
My laptop: Acer Aspire E5-573G
Original (factory) Memory: 6GB (4GB+2GB, I think those last 2GB are integrated with the graphics card(?), forgive the noob)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz-2.40GHz
Card: Nvidia Geforce 920M

Again, thanks a bunch!

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StevenGen

daffl4l said:

First of all, thanks in advance.
Pretty much since the beggining, my pc has been pretty sluggish. I bought it a few years back and thought the ammount of ram was pretty respectable. Whenever I try to see what the problem might be, the task manager indicates that the memory is always close to the max. So I thought of upgrading it (maybe with an 8GB card), but a few questions came up:
-Can I do it? (task manager says 2 out of 2 slots are being used, while some sources say this model should have one slot free)
-What brand/model is compatible? (because apparently there are various versions of my PC model with different specs)

PC info, as per the About page in Windows10 Settings:
My laptop: Acer Aspire E5-573G
Original (factory) Memory: 6GB (4GB+2GB, I think those last 2GB are integrated with the graphics card(?), forgive the noob)
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70GHz-2.40GHz
Card: Nvidia Geforce 920M

Again, thanks a bunch!

The most precise and easiest way to find out your specs and max RAM is through command prompt as an administrator and do the following. You will need CPUz to find out the exsact specs of your current RAM at “Memory” and “SPD” as "SPD" will also show you every slot that you have a RAM stick inserted. After this go to command prompt as administrator and do this to find out MAX RAM per slot of your mainboard:

Go to cmd prompt and use it as administrator and use this command: wmic memphysical get MaxCapacity, MemoryDevices

The above example shows that the MaxCapacity is 8388608 with a MemoryDevice of 2 (btw this part tells you the max slots of a mainboard, some OEM mainboards have either 1 or 2 or even 4 slots for ram, that is what this part tells you) then you divide whatever this says which in this case its MaxCapacity is 8388608 that you divide by 1048576 which = 8, this tells you that the maximum RAM capacity is 8 GB. If your motherboard has as in this example 2 memory slots, it means the maximum RAM capacity per slot is 8 divided by 2 = 4 GB per slot.

Btw and by some RAM manufacturers (which you can't be 100% certain?) your Aspire E5-573G max RAM is 16GB (at DDR3L-1600 SODIMM) but I've used the DDR3L-14900 SODIMM on a V3-571G which is an older laptop and it worked 100% and works very well and fast. As your laptop has 2 slots for RAM (2 banks of 1) which means that each bank can take a MAX of 8GB RAM and comes with standard memory of 8GB removable which means that it has 1x stick of 8GB RAM in one slot.Also, your Storage Drive Interface is SATA/PCIe and SATA version: SATA 3 - 6GB/s. Hope this helps and good luck, its all very simple.

daffl4l

StevenGen said:

(...)
Btw and by some RAM manufacturers (which you can't be 100% certain?) your Aspire E5-573G max RAM is 16GB (at DDR3L-1600 SODIMM) but I've used the DDR3L-14900 SODIMM on a V3-571G which is an older laptop and it worked 100% and works very well and fast. As your laptop has 2 slots for RAM (2 banks of 1) which means that each bank can take a MAX of 8GB RAM and comes with standard memory of 8GB removable which means that it has 1x stick of 8GB RAM in one slot.Also, your Storage Drive Interface is SATA/PCIe and SATA version: SATA 3 - 6GB/s. Hope this helps and good luck, its all very simple.

Thing is, it doesn't come with a single stick of 8GB RAM in one slot. The current RAM is 6GB, not even 8GB, which is divided in 4GB+2GB, and those 2GB I think (I can't say for certain) are integrated with the 920M graphics card. So, the question would be, are both ram slots occupied, or just one (with 4GB), with the other one empty and those other 2GB stored in some other fashion, since they're a bit "special" and, as you said, able to accept an 8GB expansion for a total of 12GB+2GB.

My fear is that when I open the pc and try to install the ram I bought I run into one of two problems:
1. Both slots are occupied and it's not possible to remove any of them, because they come welded or something like that;
2. The RAM I ordered isn't compatible, be it because of size of the stick or some other reason, because I couldn't determine the right model;

It would be so much easier if the Acer had any information about my model of pc, so I could check the specs, but unfortunately whenever I type the SNID or the serial number, I get nothing...
In any case, when it comes to the rest, you got it spot on, it's always good to see some confirmation. Still, these doubts remain...

StevenGen

daffl4l said:

StevenGen said:

(...)
Btw and by some RAM manufacturers (which you can't be 100% certain?) your Aspire E5-573G max RAM is 16GB (at DDR3L-1600 SODIMM) but I've used the DDR3L-14900 SODIMM on a V3-571G which is an older laptop and it worked 100% and works very well and fast. As your laptop has 2 slots for RAM (2 banks of 1) which means that each bank can take a MAX of 8GB RAM and comes with standard memory of 8GB removable which means that it has 1x stick of 8GB RAM in one slot.Also, your Storage Drive Interface is SATA/PCIe and SATA version: SATA 3 - 6GB/s. Hope this helps and good luck, its all very simple.

Thing is, it doesn't come with a single stick of 8GB RAM in one slot. The current RAM is 6GB, not even 8GB, which is divided in 4GB+2GB, and those 2GB I think (I can't say for certain) are integrated with the 920M graphics card. So, the question would be, are both ram slots occupied, or just one (with 4GB), with the other one empty and those other 2GB stored in some other fashion, since they're a bit "special" and, as you said, able to accept an 8GB expansion for a total of 12GB+2GB.

My fear is that when I open the pc and try to install the ram I bought I run into one of two problems:
1. Both slots are occupied and it's not possible to remove any of them, because they come welded or something like that;
2. The RAM I ordered isn't compatible, be it because of size of the stick or some other reason, because I couldn't determine the right model;

It would be so much easier if the Acer had any information about my model of pc, so I could check the specs, but unfortunately whenever I type the SNID or the serial number, I get nothing...
In any case, when it comes to the rest, you got it spot on, it's always good to see some confirmation. Still, these doubts remain...

No, No, No none of your RAM is integrated onto the mainboard, its all installed in your laptops two RAM slots, graphics RAM is different and don'r worry about that, as I've said, use CPUz and look at “SPD" Slot#1 to Slot #4 and see exactly which slot the 6GB and the 2GB sticks of RAM are in there and their specs. Which you can find out by looking at Max Bandwidth of their specs and as I've said, you can put 2x 8Gb DDR3L-1600MHz RAM and also the higher spec 2x DDR3L-14900MHz SODIMM that will total the Aspire E5-573G max RAM which is 16GB, the 2x DDR3L-14900MHz SODIMM is faster and will work much better as I've done on my V3-571G and it works 100%.

This is the CPUz "SPD" Slot#1 of my V3-571G look at Max Bandwidth as in this its "DDR3L-14200MHz SODIMM" look at the same on your Aspire E5-573G, simple.

This is "Task Manager" look at yours also. Here it says 2 of 4 slots used but the Aspire V3-571G has 2x slots for RAM the Aspire V3-571G type of mainboard is also used on desktops where the specs have 4x slots for RAM that is why it says 2 of 4 used (its integrated in its specs) and that is why I explained the equation above of how to figure MAX RAM out with the RAM slots.

daffl4l

StevenGen said:
No, No, No none of your RAM is integrated onto the mainboard, its all installed in your laptops two RAM slots, graphics RAM is different and don'r worry about that, as I've said, use CPUz and look at “SPD" Slot#1 to Slot #4 and see exactly which slot the 6GB and the 2GB sticks of RAM are in there and their specs. Which you can find out by looking at Max Bandwidth of their specs and as I've said, you can put 2x 8Gb DDR3L-1600MHz RAM and also the higher spec 2x DDR3L-14900MHz SODIMM that will total the Aspire E5-573G max RAM which is 16GB, the 2x DDR3L-14900MHz SODIMM is faster and will work much better as I've done on my V3-571G and it works 100%.

This is the CPUz "SPD" Slot#1 of my V3-571G look at Max Bandwidth as in this its "DDR3L-14200MHz SODIMM" look at the same on your Aspire E5-573G, simple.

This is "Task Manager" look at yours also. Here it says 2 of 4 slots used but the Aspire V3-571G has 2x slots for RAM the Aspire V3-571G type of mainboard is also used on desktops where the specs have 4x slots for RAM that is why it says 2 of 4 used (its integrated in its specs) and that is why I explained the equation above of how to figure MAX RAM out with the RAM slots.

Ok, on the "SPD tab" there exist two slots, both occupied, one displaying 4GB and the other displaying 2GB, both DDR3 PC3-12800 (800MHz). Meaning I'll have to replace one of them. Interestingly, 2GB of memory are also present when I select the Geforce 920M chip on the "Graphics tab". But the total memory on the "Memory tab" is 6GB (4+2), not 8GB (4+2+2), which is screaming at me that the 2GB might be special. Unless the 2GB of RAM from the Geforce 920M GPU are separated from the other 6GB I have. Is this the case? I apologize if I'm being a bit slow.

In any case, does this mean I should keep the 2GB piece I have and replace the 4GB one, or can I replace the 2GB piece to maximize the value I get by installing a new 8GB stick (4+8=12GB instead of 2+8=10GB)? Thanks for all the help with my ghost model PC!

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