Why do computers start to slow down over time?
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One thing that hasn’t been discussed is the effect of memory size vs the number of programs running simultaneously. Active programs keep their context and execution space in RAM. Dormant programs can also be in RAM until RAM starts running low. At that point, dormant program contexts get swapped out to disk. If a program that needs to run is on disk, it must be swapped back into RAM. This takes added time. Newer more complex software needs larger context space, which slows the context swapping operation. This is why adding memory can speed up a computer, since fewer program contexts will need to be swapped out to disk.
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