who cares about memory usage,or at least the kind of memory usage we are talking about here. I have 8gigs of ram and it cost me 150 dollars. At that price,windows can use all it wants.
In order to ixnay on the oadinglay you just have to stop the SuperFetch service.
Note on the side (to the guy that disabled SuperFetch and still has no clue), memory management isn’t impaired by disabling the SuperFetch service since its a design, SuperFetch is only meant to IMPROVE it and isn’t the engine behind it, think of it as high-class motor oil.
vista precaches regulary used programs
When i try to update AVG Free 8.0.169 from a dir (Tools- Update from directory…), i get the message Update Failed. General Error - not enough free memory, write error. I have tried every thing from increasing virtual memory manually to setting virtual memory to be system managed - no effect. i still get the same message. i don’t think memory management is so hot on Vista. The feature of AVG works fine on my 1.5 GB RAM Laptop whereas my desktop (which has the problem) running VIsta Professional SP1 has 2 GB RAM and is a Core 2 Duo processor to boot.
Any suggestions???
Hello - I have 8 gigs of ram, and windows has decided to use all of it. So much so that I can’t even save a 400x300 jpg out of photoshop that has 4 layers and no effects.
I could see letting Vista pre-cache with a couple gigs, but it caches up 6GB! This is ridiculous. Everything runs super slow. Launching Firefox takes forever. And everything keeps saying not enough memory to run etc. I don’t know what is wrong with the service… maybe something got corrupted. But it would be kind of nice if you could have a setting of max RAM to use in your pre-cache. Or tell it programs to not precache.
I am having a similar problem to this. I am running XP with 3 gigs of RAM on a Gateway Laptop W350A T-1628. I am having a tough time typing in anything, let alone this text box, without it coming to a complete halt. It freezes up every several seconds while typing, then fills it in. I am using Mozilla Firefox as well. Does this issue relate?
the reason why this usually happens is windows XP has a background task that defrags the hard disk. when it kicks in, you feel it. massive swapping can cause this too. Really, other than defrag, I honestly don’t know what causes this. I have 3GB ram too, and I have the same problem.
I think the more memory you have, the slower the system you are going to have, because windows must manage more ram, and it does it in chunks. some programs do garbage collection, which takes a while.
These are only educated guesses. I would really like to nail this one down because it really bugs me.
People think ram is the God component of the PC. IT is not. Think of it this way. Ram prevents your system from being slow, kind of like preventing a bottleneck. Ram does not make your computer faster (in a way). The CPU does.
(1.66 dual, 2 gig RAM, 32 bit) One thing I didn’t see mentioned here is starting the computer in Safe Mode, which I plan to try soon. This is supposed to run bare OS processes only. I can see caching is sapping my CPU resources, because every time I do something, CPU spikes disproportionately. I have turned off most non-
dependent processes, which has my RAM used now at about 730 Mb. The person who said RAM not used is RAM wasted fails to consider that RAM unused can be used for the computing-intensive application you’re currently using, and it takes CPU to modify that RAM. I will take the advice to get a second high quality hard drive, but does anyone know how to set the page caching to the second hard drive?
Superfetch as nothing to do with it!!! The cache still registers as free memory when seen by programs, cos Vista just discards it when you need the memory. I want to know why Vista has to use something like 700MB+ all on it’s own (i.e. that difference between 905MB and 334MB on the graphs you show)
Free available RAM is everything in modern IT environments that run vm’s, java, firefox …no free RAM and you get swapping to disk.
And why shouldn’t the user be able to choose which apps are cached rather than Vista???
I’ve got 3069Mb of RAM, Cache 2659Mb, free 73Mb
The question is how can one view what vista has cached???
I got 1 gm RAM and vista, it was working quite well but from yesterday I cant even update my briefcase in my USB pendrive with the mother folder in my Laptop. It is saing dont have enough memory to run… Task Manager showing, it is using 77-85% of the physical memory. I have done everything possible from hijackthis to disabling various services, still no outcome. I am desperate. please help.
You, sir, are and idiot (sic)
Thank you very much for this useful article and the comments.
Ok here’s one i didnt see on this whole page. I just built a new rig, and opted to switch to vista to take advantage of the 8 gigs of ram i threw in. the system registers that there are indeed 8 gigs installed, but strangely the task manager physical memory is limited to 2 gigs. any attempt to run software of high demand is met with out of memory errors. i cant seem to find any way to get Vista to use the other 6 available gigs of ram. anyone seen anything like this before?
intel core2 duo (2x T7300 @ 2ghz), 3gb ram, 8600gs.
windows indexer - manual
ready boost service - off
all auto update services - off (I manually check for updates on a regular basis, and do update checks for security software once a day (more often if I’m abouts to download data or launch the browser)
Physical memory (MB):
Total 3069
cache 2398
FREE 1 ---- JUST ONE MEG!!!
Page file 914/6340
I find vista does lag, and lags very often. I start any browser (firefox/ie/opera/avant/safari/netscape and others) they launch no problems, but soon as I click in a search box, I get the mouse pointer change to its ‘busy’ icon, and it stays like this for around 3-5 seconds, WHY? all i’ve done is click an input box. doesn’t matter what input box I select, the same happens. This is clearly a major problem, and must be something to do with my free memory being 1 meg.
I use a whole bunch of different apps, I’m also a big games player, do lots of web designing and video editing, I’m very random on what I’m going to do, with 320 gb harddrive capacity, theres absolutely no way that the computer can predict the next thing I’m going to do, when its memory is no more than 2 percent of the amount of data actually on the drive.
This superfetch is a good idea though, but must be user limited to prevent this lagging.
The latest games all require that the cpu in a vista system must be more powerful than the cpu for an xp system, on avergae it looks like vista needs an extra 0.2 - 0.6 ghz of cpu power to play the same games, surely this tells you that vista is a p*ss poor os and slower than xp don’t you think?
I’m very spontaneous and have a great lack of concentration, I can be working on some web stuff, and within half hour be either bored or just have the urge to launch fear, juiced 2, COD4. All games play fine. Then I get bored of that, decide on some video editing, get bored again and have a good few hours of browsing the net. My vista experience can sometimes really be a pain in the neck with all these lags in the os environment.
On some websites, if its a long page, I can often find myself happily (sarcasm) watching the menu bar display ‘(Program Not Responding)’ for anything upto 5 minutes while the cache is emptied to make room for the web page. No sh*t. Thats an extremely pleasent experience, and Bill should get a baseball bat across the back of his head for making us all so happy and thrilled with the smooth running of vista.
My systems not exactly top notch in the high end market for a laptop, but is one of the good ones, and I certainly dont expect the slowness I experience. My last xp laptop was only 1.6 single core with 1 gig, and was far far faster without lags within the xp enduser experience.
So, anyone found a way of limiting the amount of ram used for caching yet? I’d be happy to have 512meg of real unused memory, so when I do launch something superfetch didnt predict, i dont have to wait so long for the program to launch. 512meg would also give me a good amount spare to fill up while browsing the net without having to wait before I can interact with the browser again.
Sorry if not made much sense, been awake 45 hours now so not thinking too good lol.
A do have another question, if I increase my ram from 3gb to 4gb, will the other half a gig that cant be used by the os, instead be accessible by my graphics card? (256 meg dedicated, upto 1.5gig shared)?
Thanks, and so far this thread has been a good read.
Same here. I have 8gb of RAM in dual channel mode (1066), Intel CoreDuo 3.16ghz, etc. Just finished playing a racing game, and only had 30 mb free. Now it is 10 minutes later, and I opened Firefox, and TaskManager says I still only have 39 mb free, and 6292mb cached, with a total of 7166mb reported. Seems like it won’t go down. Total paging file size for all drives is reported as 7466mb. This is running Vista x64 of course.
Well that was a great article, I didn’t take the time to read all those reply’s to it. It did answer my question though. I been using Vista on my home laptop for a few months now. It only had one GB of ram to start with so I assumed Vista was just that hungry for memory. After adding more and getting it up to 4GB’s (3 for system and 1 for Video) I went in the task manager and to my horror I was staring at 7MBs or less of free Ram. I was still thinking on the old XP system memory usage.
I was like, well if its all full whats using it. I knew it had to be some free memory some where because all my programs were loading fast as hell and the computer was even cutting off faster. I just wanted to know why it was so full all the time. I tried killing processes and all kinds of stuff but it was always full! So then I hit up Google for the answer, and it led me here. Now I just feel silly, I was trying to unknowingly break the one thing that makes it run so well.
Thanks for answering that one for me
-Britton
I see a lot of you complaining about your Vista experience, I was like that at first. I didn’t want to switch to Vista either, but since I have been using it. I would never go back to XP now, XP was a good one though. It doesn’t lag for me, and loads all my games fine, even Diablo II which did take a few work arounds to make it play with out having to run in Admin mode. With the extra video memory the upgrade gave me, I can run Dynasty Warriors 6 in full on video mode now and it looks freaking awesome just like on PS3.
OH yeah one more thing as I scan your comments its like some of you just didn’t read that article at the top or your rambling on about something I missed. I figured this out though, you can determine on your own what is in the cache and what is being used by your programs. Here’s an example, I’ll use my current task manager info for you.
I have 59 processes running, 16403 handles, 731 threads, and the page file is at 1050/3906M
Physical Memory is
Total 2813
Cached 1982
Free 1
So what is being used by my programs? Simple 2813 - 1982 = 831
831MB of ram is being used as the storage for the active programs, which are yahoo messenger, a folder, an IM on yahoo, firefox, the task manager, AVG, Screenthemes, and winamp. Those are are just the visible ones on the surface and don’t forget that memory hog vista.
As you can see it not hogging anything 831MB and you consider that hogging??? That’s a drop in the bucket on your 8 gig systems running some ungodly fast processor. The cache memory just unloads stuff as you need more ram, so just think of the cached memory as your free memory if your trying to compare it to XP’s task manager layout.
Sure, this is a big debate, but just doing a web search for any XP vs. Vista (32 or 64 bit versions) benchmark tests shows the truth.
Vista is a resource hog, and there’s really no list of technical jargon, or opinionated statements for that matter, that will convince me otherwise.
XP runs programs faster, and it’s painfully obvious! I mean, come on… Caching has always been a double-edged sword, but only for CPU’s and other miscellaneous hardware, has it worked as well as it had been expected. Otherwise, the human being, using their home computer, often does something different every time he or she uses it.
With the unpredictable nature of people, leaving it to Vista to guess what they’re going to need ahead of time is pointless and consumes too many resources at this point in time.
At this rate, it won’t be long until we’ll have invented another stage in computer memory. A caches of caches, then a cache for that… It’s pointless.