Google-sheets – CPU vs. RAM for Google Sheets

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I use Chrome and Google Sheets with large spreadsheets which have IMPORTRANGEs, VLOOKUPs and pivot tables. I am looking to improve speed.

For this use which has the bigger impact CPU or RAM?

Perhaps drive speed too (SSD)?

Trying to understand better how much improvement can be made locally compared to what runs Google's side.

Best Answer

My lessons from working with slow Google Sheets - might be partial and very particular to the task:

  1. CPU on your local machine is important -- it is the CPU executing the majority of work. You can see it working during long spreadsheet recalculations. From what I can tell, there is not much impact on RAM, disk or network.
  2. Use ARRAYFORMULAs with VLOOKUPs where possible, instead of copying the VLOOKUPs - or any other formulas - from cell to cell
  3. Use MMULT instead of SUMPRODUCT (plays nicer with ARRAYFORMULA too)
  4. Delete unnecessary rows and columns, do not keep them if they are empty
  5. Avoid conditional formatting applied to large areas of the sheet
  6. Use Safari if you are on Mac, as of 2019-2020 it is about twice as fast as Chrome in executing Google Sheets
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