4gb RAM and 90%+ Memory usage in games?

A screenie of the performance tab (IIRC) is more useful, it shows you how much RAM is in use, how much is used for cache (pretty much everything else), and a small amount of free RAM doing nothing.

If everything is in use, and you have very little free and unused RAM, something is wrong (i,e, you need more RAM). The RAM usage per program doesn't look too bad to me at all, and I also agree with others that with 4Gbs and a quad core, there shouldn't be a need to close it all prior to playing.

If some is in use, and lots is in cache, then that's fine, and stuttering isn't an issue with running out of RAM.
 
It's quite clear something is eating into your RAM that isn't infact showing up in Task Manager, if a background task like an anti-virus was doing a full system scan, it would use a lot more cpu than 12% and also show up in Task Manager. (depending on settings and AV).

You have 4GB of ddr3, like you said... 73 processes isn't that big of deal and you should be able to switch in and out of programs no problem. Maybe on an old 512MB, P4, perhaps not.

You said this never happened a week ago, I would try a system restore to over one week ago, and I'm pretty sure the offending program/programs will be banished.

You do get certain viruses that max out your RAM to of course deliberately cause system stutters and haults, this doesn't seem to be the case as it's only when playing games.

Try a system restore, if not. Go into msconfig and select the services tab, then select the "hide microsoft services", disable all other services. then restart. Check your ram usage then. This should also highlight the offending program.

Here is a photo I have attached for you.


services.png
 
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Squark said:
66 is a lot too Arknor.

Mine gets to 50/55 processes at most
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Indeed. Mine runs at 48 and that's with the usual running; Steam, Firefox, Mumble, MSE, Utorrent and others.

Probably just a personal thing, but any processes above 60 is just too much for me! :p
 
Swifty55 said:
Indeed. Mine runs at 48 and that's with the usual running; Steam, Firefox, Mumble, MSE, Utorrent and others.

Probably just a personal thing, but any processes above 60 is just too much for me! :p
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Doesn't matter if it's 60 or 160 if there are enough resources. If his old PC handled it and his new one can't, there is something else amiss obviously.

I have never given any thought as to how many processes I 'should' have running.
 
Of my 79 processes running, there are 3 AMD/ATI ones, various game and software update programs, a couple for displayfusion, 2 for my EV, 2 for firefox, 8 logitech ones for my keyboard/mouse/wheel, 11 svchosts, webcam, a couple for MS Office, 3 for MSN/Live ID and 3 for Windows Media Player, among others.

These processes are together using 46% of my ram, some of which will simply be stored programs that I haven't even run yet thanks to whatever it is that loads up programs before I actually need them. And in games, I've never run out of ram, only ever time I've hit 100% is when stress testing.
 
dirtydog said:
Doesn't matter if it's 60 or 160 if there are enough resources. If his old PC handled it and his new one can't, there is something else amiss obviously.

I have never given any thought as to how many processes I 'should' have running.
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Indeed, like stated. It's my own personal thing, was processes mad when I had XP! :p
 
Neil79 said:
I know i'm using windows 7 too :p, just like my life at home i like things clean!. If i don't use it, i don't want to see it
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You also have 8GB RAM, which makes your percentage lower. I have 4GB RAM and get about 33-35% most of the time, so I'd assume with double the amount of RAM, I'd half the percentage (unless I'm being ignorant and it doesn't work like that). I also usually have like 52-57 processes running. The max I ever get is like 62, but that's only when I turn my computer on and everything seems inclined to start running - it settles down after a minute or two.
 
Hi guys, thanks for the feedback.

I'd answer all of the questions but I think there is no need now. Think I've found the problem, these screenshots should explain:

No major programs running:
125qdme.jpg


Same programs plus WoW on ultra settings:
muwzrm.jpg


So the question is, why do I only have 2gb out of the 4gb available for use? Looks like 2gb is "hardware reserved"?
 
Go into your bios and enable a feature called "Memory Remap" or something of the like. I had a similar problem earlier in the year. It will enable all of the 4GB to be usable
 
id also try to re-insert your ram to see if it goes back upto 4gb usable.

as your using a 64bit os, you shouldn't have any limit on the ram so u should be able to use all 4gb.

another thing u can try is to reseat your cpu cooler.
the memory controller is on the cpu itself, and sometimes if u put too much presure on it, it can cause this kind of problem
 
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