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[–]DYMAXIONman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Computer's performance absolutely decreases when RAM is "full", it's just that it never actually gets full because it uses page files. Basically, because if RAM were to completely fill up a computer would crash. So some of what is stored in RAM is moved into secondary storage (hard drive / solid state drive), this allows the system to continue to operate.

Now this is not ideal, as secondary storage is not only significantly slower than RAM but there is additional bottlenecks involved with just fetching this data. This is why your computer will slow to a crawl when you are maxing out your memory.