Increased RAM usage under Vista?

[Amp34]

Recently I noticed the RAM usage on my laptop appeared to be constantly hitting the 90%'s when doing a few things at once (things that before never made it hit more than 70%ish). I hadn't really thought about it, although it was an annoyance, however I've just gone onto my desktop which I haven't used in a couple of weeks and that to is idling at around 70% at startup, I know for certain that it used to idle at around 46%. That seems to be a massive increase in RAM usage(both machines have 2GB).

Has anyone else noticed this? The only thing I can think of that would affect both my machines in is an update that has caused it?

It's rather annoying as before I never had a problem with running out or RAM (other than working with massive files in Photoshop), now it seems to occur if I have a few internet tabs open and contemplate using CS3! So in effect it's caused a major issue with the usability of my computers.

 

[Tute]

Are you getting errors or poor performance?

I'm guessing it's Superfetch moving stuff around, and no you don't need to turn it off.

 

[Amp34]

Poor performance on my laptop (ie computer grinds to a halt for a few seconds if I try and open a tab or window I haven't opened in a while), where as my desktop just had an error message telling me that I could risk loosing data if I don't close something (this was with 4 folders open and loading up CS3).

I can't see it being superfetch tbh (I was just going to edit the post saying this after reading the below thread ) as I haven't installed anything in the last few weeks on either so unless Microsoft have changed the system recently (by an update) I can't see it being the cause. Also i'm sure superfetch used RAM doesn't show up as "used" and if it does the whole purpose is to clear it out before it affects to PC?

There is a real and visible change in performance on both machines due to this, not just a change in some numbers in the task manager.

 

[Amp34]

Well 've just worked out what part of the problem with my desktop is, my media drive (with most of my page file on it) seems to have vanished... No idea why, but that explains why windows kept coming up with the error, a 200mb page file really isn't enough...