Video calls buffering way too much?
Oh, your frozen again...
It can make an already frustrating situation feel umpty-billion times worse.
Yeah, you’re gonna have to repeat that. Sorry what? Oh, you can’t hear me now?
Did you know that a RAM upgrade can actually help improve video calls?
Yeah, and I’m here to tell you all about it. This is DIY in 5!
Hey everyone and welcome to DIY in 5. I’m Trisha Hershberger and today,
we’re going to talk about leveling up your video calls with one of the simplest and most
affordable PC upgrades available - memory.
You may not need a whole new laptop to successfully take an e-learning class
or take a work call. Let’s check out some other options
because investing in a whole new PC? Not exactly the most affordable.
If you find the tips in today’s video useful, please go ahead and like this video,
subscribe to this channel and hit that bell so you don’t miss out on any future tech tips.
Yes, it’s most definitely true that the recent
explosion of more and more people using video chat for everything from work to school to
social engagements has taken its toll on ISPs and data centers.
There is little you can within your sphere of influence to change that, trust me I’ve tried.
However, what is within your sphere of control is your own personal device
and understanding how various video conferencing tools
use your most valuable system resources can give you the edge you need to improve your quality
and lead to smoother, more consistent, better performing calls.
Microsoft Team for example, adapts and scales its usage of memory based on system configuration and open tasks,
whereas other services which take a more static approach to using system resources.
Each video conferencing tool lists minimum system requirements and,
while some are more intensive than others, you should really keep in mind that these are minimums
and may not afford you the experience you are looking for.
The basic resources needed for most modern video conferencing technology
is about 2GB of RAM with a quad-core processor.
You may be able to get by with less but the video and audio quality may suffer as a result,
especially if you are multitasking at all.
If you video chat while having email open or web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge
or even having Microsoft Office open to reference a document,
all of these things will take up a sizable amount of memory.
Heck, just running your operating system takes up memory
so you will always want more than the minimum requirements advertised.
Even if you shut down everything else, if your system has a firewall, VPN or any company security on it,
this will take up valuable system resources as well. You get the picture.
Other, non-software culprits that may be taking memory bandwidth from your video call include having multiple monitors,
especially if your system doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card.
In that case, your PC will use system memory to power both monitors.
So what exactly does RAM do to improve your video calls?
In addition to letting you juggle other tasks at the same time,
increasing a computer’s RAM can improve video playback by allowing the computer to pre-load content before it plays
and will help to avoid any choppy video while trying to buffer or load in the moment.
Your PC pre-loads video during a call to compensate for any hiccups in your internet service and network bandwidth.
So while your internet speed is most important, and a RAM upgrade cannot change that,
your RAM directly affects the storage available for buffering.
If you are already getting smooth video, RAM won’t necessarily make it better,
but it can help if you are experiencing buffering or lagging during calls.
If you think this upgrade may be right for you, feel free to check out our other videos on finding the right amount and type of RAM for your system
and we’ve even got simple tutorials so you can install it yourself.
This is DIYin5 after all.
If you have any questions not answered in this video, please feel free to leave them in the comments
and we will do our best to answer them.
Alrighty, thanks for watching everyone and may there be many a smooth video call in your future.