Do I Need More RAM?

Trying to decide whether or not my laptop needed more RAM, I hit the forums. Someone responded saying,

The important thing is to look at your Task Manager. Under Performance, find Peak and and Physical Memory. If Peak is near or over Physical Memory, you need more RAM. I have 1GB of RAM and my Peak is very close to the amount of Physical RAM with most games, but when running the F.E.A.R. demo, it hits about 1.3GB so I have lost performance already. 2GB will help if you are running these "next-gen" games.

I do not run any of the next-gen games so I would only need about 1GB of RAM. It's funny, 512MB used to be the standard but 1GB is slowly becoming the new standard. When I multi-task, running several applications at once, the computer slows down significantly. I recently downloaded the Google Desktop and added a gadget that told me how much of my RAM was being used. Shockingly, around 90% of my RAM was being used and my computer wasn't running many applications at all. When the RAM shoots up this high, the computer starts using the hard drive and you experience significant lag, or so I'm told. My dad's laptop came with a 1gig and runs at about 50%, handling multiple applications at a much faster rate.

Upgrading your RAM is a cheaper way to speed up your computer if you cant afford a new processor. Be careful when you purchase RAM to purchase the right part. Each computer requires its own kind of RAM, you can't just plug in any old chip.