Task Manager Explanation (Pic)

Camalot · 15 Mar 2006 at 11:58

Hi there, been looking at the mem usage of games on my pc latley, which led me to buy more ram. Anyway....

Could someone explain a few things to me. I'm getting bad stuttering and while it stutters, my hard drive is making loading sounds like its doing a defrag. I gather this is my pc using the page file?

The screenshot shows 478mb on page file, why is that? It hasn't run out of physical memory to use page file has it?

Also it says im currently using 490mb ram, i have a max of 654mb ram, but in avaliable it only says 42mb ? Shouldnt it be over 150?

I'm probably reading it totally wrong :eek:

sja360 · 15 Mar 2006 at 12:26

need to show us your processes tab to see whats running. checked for viruses or spyware recently?

csmager · 15 Mar 2006 at 12:46

The main problem you've got is 100% cpu usage - as above, check the processes tab and see what's using it.

The Page File isn't an overflow for when you run out of RAM, it's used all the time. This is why all the people who say 'I've got 2Gb, can I turn off my page file' get lynched. I'm sure someone else can explain more fully if you want them to.

Camalot · 15 Mar 2006 at 13:34

Ahhh, i thought pagefile was there for when your run out of physical ram :eek:

I just put wow back on and took pic of processes

Surely that doesnt add up to 450mb ram being uses?

csmager · 15 Mar 2006 at 13:38

Camalot said:
Surely that doesnt add up to 450mb ram being uses?

Nope. The clue why is the tick box at the bottom which is unticked: 'Show processes from all users'.

encephalopathy · 15 Mar 2006 at 13:46

the reason it is running like a slug and stuttering is because WoW.exe (i assume its world of warcraft) is hogging the cpu something shocking

close the program and see if you system livens up with the hdd thrashing disappearing

also check that you have WoW fully patched and up to date

Camalot · 15 Mar 2006 at 14:03

Thanks.

The stuttering im talking about is in wow...thats what im trying to clear up

Guess its just down to my old 1ghz cpu then?

There is only one user on my computer, if i tick that box nothing changes

Still dont know where the extra memory is going :eek:

NathanE · 15 Mar 2006 at 14:15

Kill, Crush and Destroy that WoW.exe process.

Also on the Processes tab goto View->Select Columns and tick "Virtual Memory size". You'll now have an extra column showing the total VM in use by each process.

Camalot · 15 Mar 2006 at 14:38

but but but, why kill wow.exe ? im playing it atm ! (world of warcraft) its the stutteing in the game i wanted to try fix

Borris · 15 Mar 2006 at 14:48

Camalot said:
but but but, why kill wow.exe ? im playing it atm ! (world of warcraft) its the stutteing in the game i wanted to try fix

Stop alt-tabbing from Windows to WoW.

That's probably what is killing your machine.

Camalot · 15 Mar 2006 at 15:34

Borris said:
Stop alt-tabbing from Windows to WoW.

That's probably what is killing your machine.

I NEVER alt-tab to windows when playing wow properly....only reason i alt tabbed was because they asked for a pic of processes

Etaqua · 15 Mar 2006 at 16:43

Unless it does that when WoW isn't running, there is nothing to worry about, and yes, your processor probably needs an upgrade.

ns400r · 15 Mar 2006 at 17:39

What is the spec needed to play WOW ?
And what do you have ?

Borris · 15 Mar 2006 at 18:19

Camalot said:
I NEVER alt-tab to windows when playing wow properly....only reason i alt tabbed was because they asked for a pic of processes

That's me out of ideas then

(Although alt-tabbing when playing WoW will moyder any PC)