Windows 7/G-Skill Memory

welshdragon

welshdragon

welshdragon

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I am a bit of a noob but have recently build my own pc.

I have an Asus M4A79XTD-EVO;

4gb G-Skill memory (G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL)

An Asus 5770 and an AMD 965 C3 BE.


My question is this, resource memory constantly shows me 1.8gb in use and 2.2 gb in standby and often very little or no free memory. Is this normal?

Also, if I play a game, then exit to desktop and then relaunch the game, after maybe 2/3 times the system warns me it has run out of memory. And sometimes it just boots me straight to desktop and switches form aero to basic view. Is this normal?

I have the memory running at 1600 mhz if this helps? Could someone advise if I need certain settings turned on/off in bios?

Thanks for any/all help, it is much appreciated!
 
Sounds like a software issue with the memory running out. What operating system exactly? 32 or 64-bit?

High memory usage in Vista and 7 is common, but that seems a little higher than normal. It may just mean the system is utilising the memory effectively.

Have you checked what programs are running at startup - press winkey+R then type msconfig. There's a startup tab there. Also, look in task manager (right click taskbar, click task manager) and see if there are any rogue programs hogging the memory. Vista has/had a bug where sidebar.exe would eat up all your memory if used with certain gadgets.
 
Hi, thanks for the reply. I knew I forgot something its Windows 7 64 bit. All that appears to be running in my taskbar is Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and ATI ccc. I ahve disabled a load of startup items but problem persists.

I have 52 processes running when I check task manager, is this normal? Somehow things like tomtom at home are showing as a process but they aren'y running nor have I run that in a while etc
 
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Have you checked their memory usage? One may be a lot higher than the others. There's also an option to view all processes at the bottom.
 
The vast bulk relate to windows/host services with a couple of kaspersky/IE and ATI ones. I think they make up the 1.8 gig 'in use'.

I've checked a couple of times now and immediately after the system has started up it shows 1.3gb 'in use' 500mb in standby and 2.1gb FREE. Mmmm, is there a reason the memory doesn't "re-free" itself after an hour or two gaming?

Edit: after about 10-15mins of browsing the web I now have 1.5 gb "IN USE" and 1gb "FREE"
 
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It depends if your software configuration is actually using that much or there's some sort of rogue program with a memory leak hogging all the memory. High memory use in Windows isn't an issue unless it's generating errors, in which case there's something wrong. High memory use in normal circumstances just means Windows is making effective use of the memory you have installed, making commonly used programs quicker to load etc.

Is it a fresh install? Also, any process in particular taking up the vast majority of the used memory? You could download and use Process Explorer, which will give you an even clearer indication of what's happening.
 
Standby is cached items, standby will grow the more you use the PC, until there is little or no "free" left.

1.3Gb on boot up isnt all that bad, with ATi drivers (bit of a ram hog), Microsoft Security Essentials, iTunes, BBC's iPlayer, and some security app installed with my banking... (Meh!) my system sits around 1.5Gb on bootup (Windows 7 64bit).

I have 6GB of ram in my system, and have yet to see an out of memory.. Have you disabled your pagefile? You really shouldnt be getting out of memory warnings.

After a few hours of WOW (with WOW still running in the background), my system is running with 3MB hardware reserved, 3GB in use, 52MB Modified, 2.6GB in Standby, and 323MB Free.
 
My PC on Win7 usually uses over 1.8 and with a large program open can go up around 3.5, Win7 Ultimate though.. with ESET, steam, not much else.. some desktop widgets can take up ram, firefox will kill ram, utorrent and vuze use loads of ram.

Haven't tested on bootup, so sounds normal to me.. you will struggle to use all 4gb
 
My only concern is the recent memory dump and being binned out of games due to lack of memory. eg played sc1, quit to desktop, reloaded hr or 2 later then ran out of memory. Doesn't seem to want to free up the memory until its reset. Annoys me when windows askes if I want to revert to basic colour scheme as 'I have insufficient free memory'.
 
right now this is the only thing i have open, and a sidebar gadget is telling me im using 1122MB of 3.2GB (4gig - half a gig cos its 32bit win 7- 256mb graphics hypermemory).

never had issues with running out of memory ... yet
 
Just restarted, 1.19GB ram taken up using win7 ultimate, steam, magiciso, ati control panel, msi afterburner on startup.

Sounds like that is a big game...

I just saw that you have kaspersky... as far as I know.. it is still huge and slow after their whole speed re-build.

thingemajib said:
right now this is the only thing i have open, and a sidebar gadget is telling me im using 1122MB of 3.2GB (4gig - half a gig cos its 32bit win 7- 256mb graphics hypermemory).

never had issues with running out of memory ... yet
Click to expand...

If that is the one that most people use then check your processes for how much cpu % it takes up, around 15% it was on mine constantly, people have reported it slowing down games, so when I closed it I noticed the % instantly went to 0 and the ram available went up, not that it's a big deal unless you want all performance for gaming
 
@Corasik

Please forgive my ignorance but this is all new to me. How do I manage the pagefile, or what settings would you recommend for it? Also, are there ideal settings for caching etc.
 
Normally the default is to have windows manage the pagefile, which in most cases is sufficient to avoid out of memory issues. Its possible you disabled it by accident at some point, or while following some performance tweak guides.

If you right click on "Computer" in the start menu, and select properties, and then in the next window select Advanced System Settings, you'll get a System Properties windows. Pick Advanced, and Settings, and then Advanced again!.

It will have a section labeled Virtual Memory, and it will say "Total paging file size for all drives. Normally it will be equal in size to your physical memory (so you should have a 4GB approx page file.

You can hit Change... button at this point, and adjust it if needed. The simple option is to click the tickbox for Automatic and let windows sort it all out.

64Bit Windows 7 + ATi drivers can be quite memory intensive, and your certainly not a long way out of the accepted norms for your system, once you include Antivirus etc.

Its possible that the game itself is unusually memory hungry, and is coded to avoid pagefile usage, in which case adding another 2GB will probably sort the problem (Assuming its not as simple as having accidently disabled your pagefile). I run with 6GB on my system, and have frequently passed 4GB of "inuse" memory. But I've yet to reach the point where I run out with 6GB.
 
OCuk have kindly offered to take it back for replacement with something currently in stock. Though they have also mailed me to say they think the problem may also be my 5770. Memtest showing the sticks faulty and it wont even boot with just the one (faulty) but is running fine with the other stick.
 
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