Strange Vista memory usage ion new build!

andymac

andymac

andymac

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I have just built a new PC. It in a Q6600 based system using a P31 Mobo, with integrated graphics, and 2GB of 800MHz RAM.

I have installed Vista x64, and with nothing else running at all on the PC, a fresh clean install, all updated and patched, the PC is using 82% memory capacity at idle on desktop.

Now I realise that between 128 and 256Mb of system RAM is being used to run the graphics on the MoBo, but this is silly, that equates to 1.4GB of memory used at idle! I haven't installed any other software at all bar Nero 7 and AVG free. There are no unusual processes running and the system disc has done all its indexing.

As the MoBo only supports 2 DIMMs and I have a 1GB stick in each, would I see an improvement in overall system performance with 4GB of RAM over 2 sticks?

The PC is running fine at the moment, but I want to get all the hardware sorted nicely before I get into software installs.

Any advice, or views gladly accepted.

Andy
 
That's microsoft for you.

If memory isn't being used it's allocated to system cache hence the sytem shows little free memory.

Vista is supposed to run better with 4GB. Since you are using the onboard VGA I assume the machine isn't required for heavy gaming or 3d design therefore I'd keep the 2GB unless you notice excessive disk access indicating that it's using the swap file too much.

I have 3GB in my XP machine, while writing this and recoding a video it shows system cache as 2.7GB !!!


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andymac said:
I have just built a new PC. It in a Q6600 based system using a P31 Mobo, with integrated graphics, and 2GB of 800MHz RAM.

I have installed Vista x64, and with nothing else running at all on the PC, a fresh clean install, all updated and patched, the PC is using 82% memory capacity at idle on desktop.

Now I realise that between 128 and 256Mb of system RAM is being used to run the graphics on the MoBo, but this is silly, that equates to 1.4GB of memory used at idle! I haven't installed any other software at all bar Nero 7 and AVG free. There are no unusual processes running and the system disc has done all its indexing.

As the MoBo only supports 2 DIMMs and I have a 1GB stick in each, would I see an improvement in overall system performance with 4GB of RAM over 2 sticks?

The PC is running fine at the moment, but I want to get all the hardware sorted nicely before I get into software installs.

Any advice, or views gladly accepted.

Andy
Click to expand...

Vista memory management works completely differently to XP. No matter how much RAM you have, it will always swallow nearly all of it. According to Task Manager, out of the 3GB my PC has, I have 34mb free. 2383mb of that is cached.
 
Mine uses roughly the same out of 4gb. Run a memory munching app and Vista will free the ram for that program. If you have it, it will use it!
 
thats the weird bit, my main pc runs vista 64 and 4gb of ram. It only shows a 27% load at idle! I dunno, will use it for a bit, and see how it does!
 
dont worry about it, if a program needs it vista should allow it to use the ram, im using 30% of my 2gb ram with just ie open

in task manager it shows us as 1.5gb being cached and only 28mb free and yet my system runs fine.

Its just how vista works, nothing to worry about
 
As above don't worry; if you really need your ram back then turn the pre-fetch feature off and it will all come back.
Its only cause Vista is grabbing recently used programs so they open nice and quick for you :)
 
the amount of memory vistage uses for prefetch scales with the amount of memory installed, and its good because it clears out if needed, meaning performance isnt reduced but more of the ram is used rather than just sitting idle. atm with nothing but firefox on its using around using 1.11GB of ram, but on a pc with 2gb or 1gb it would use much less.
 
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