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CPU and RAM on WordPress PageSpeed

CPU and RAM on WordPress PageSpeed

March 5, 2025
4 min read
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For website owners utilizing Virtual Private Servers (VPS) or dedicated servers to host WordPress sites, server scaling is an inevitable reality of digital growth. As your website gains traction and traffic begins to surge, you’ll inevitably reach a critical point where your current server resources become a bottleneck to performance. This is the moment when web administrators face a crucial decision: how to effectively enhance their hosting infrastructure to maintain optimal site speed and user experience.

When the time comes to scale your WordPress hosting, you’ll likely find yourself wrestling with fundamental questions: What specific server resources should I increase? How much CPU or RAM will make a meaningful difference? Which upgrades will provide the most significant performance boost without unnecessary expense?

How do CPU and RAM Work on WordPress

CPU and RAM can have an impact on the speed of a WordPress website. Increasing the amount of RAM and CPU allocated to a website can help improve its speed, but it is not the only factor.

CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of the computer and it processes all the instructions that the computer receives. Having a fast CPU can help a WordPress site load faster and handle more traffic.

RAM (Random Access Memory) is a type of memory that the computer uses to store data that is being actively used. A website with a lot of high-resolution images or videos may require more RAM to load quickly.

Note: Other things like website optimization, caching, and content delivery networks can also play a role in website speed.

CPU or RAM for WordPress PageSpeed

In general, for WordPress PageSpeed RAM is considered to have a higher weight than CPU, especially for WordPress sites. This is because RAM is responsible for storing and quickly accessing the data that the CPU uses to process instructions.

If the CPU has to constantly wait for data to be retrieved from storage because there is not enough RAM, it can slow down the performance of the computer.

Having a sufficient amount of RAM is important for ensuring that a computer or server can perform at its best, whereas a faster CPU will make the computer process the instructions faster but it can’t compensate for the lack of RAM.

So having enough RAM is important for the smooth and quick performance of a website or application.

Exceeding RAM Helps Nothing

Exceeding the recommended amount of RAM for a specific application or website like WordPress may not necessarily provide any significant performance improvements. If the application or website is not designed to take advantage of the additional RAM, it may not make a noticeable difference in terms of speed or performance.

Additionally, having too much RAM can actually have a negative impact on performance because it can cause the computer’s memory management system to work harder to manage the excess RAM.

It is more important to have the appropriate amount of RAM for the website you are running, rather than trying to exceed a certain amount.

However, for servers that are hosting multiple WordPress websites, having extra RAM can help to handle the traffic of multiple websites at the same time, so it can be beneficial in some cases.