Cached Physical Memory?

Hey all,

I have 3.2GB of RAM (4GB actually but Vista Home Premium recognizes it as 3.2GB) and 4096mb (min and max) of pagefile memory.

When I look at the Physical Memory section in the Task Manager, its always seems like I have no free memory at all and most of it is cached.

However, it also only indicates that 31% of Physical Memory is being used.

What is the problem? Thanks

Hey all,

I have 3.2GB of RAM (4GB actually but Vista Home Premium recognizes it as 3.2GB) and 4096mb (min and max) of pagefile memory.

When I look at the Physical Memory section in the Task Manager, its always seems like I have no free memory at all and most of it is cached.

However, it also only indicates that 31% of Physical Memory is being used.

What is the problem? Thanks

ktwq

it only recongnizes 3.2 gigs cuz you probably have a 32bit OS.

to get your computer to use and show 4 gigs you need a 64bit OS

Yes, but that is not the point.

The question is why does it seem like most of my physical memory is cached although I set pagefile size to 4096mb?

And also why the percentage of physical memory used and the actual value stated in task manager not tally?

Hey all,

I have 3.2GB of RAM (4GB actually but Vista Home Premium recognizes it as 3.2GB) and 4096mb (min and max) of pagefile memory.

When I look at the Physical Memory section in the Task Manager, its always seems like I have no free memory at all and most of it is cached.

However, it also only indicates that 31% of Physical Memory is being used.

What is the problem? Thanks

ktwq

Same here but I have 3gb of ram and shows 64 - 0 and the rest is cached without even loading any games. Not to sure if its effecting performance or not... but I'd really like to know about this too.

ktwq

Check this thread, has a few more replys and it seesm to be he norm... but not sure.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=596512&highlight=Cached+Physical+Memory

The thread is right, Vista tends to take up most of the un-used ram as a cache, and it'll then just reduce that cache as programs request memory.

With mine I sit at 0 free memory andaround 2.7 gig cached, and then whenI open programs the cache size reduce to allow for the new programs.

You aren't losing any usable memory that way.

Obviously, Total is your Max MB load. Cache is what's being used, and Free is what's not being used (I'm sure you know this). What you don't know is that Vista uses a feature called "SuperFetch" which forces your computer to eat up "Free" memory on a background thread with the programs and features you use the most. It is trying to be efficient. It does this, so when you load those "Frequently used programs and features," they load faster and run more efficiently. The downside is when you're playing a game on-line and something needs to be loaded, it crams it into the free memory (which the system drops things not needed at the time and makes room). However, once it's done loading, that memory becomes free again, so SuperFetch starts eating memory again so your computer can be more efficient. This adversely can affect your system by causing it to become sluggish while it feeds. It's doing a good thing, but at the time time, in somce circumstances, it can be a bad thing. Your usage percentage (i.e., "memory load 28%) can be affected by programs running in the background. A downside to buying a computer is you get a whole bunch of garbage slammed into your computer when you buy it (offers, services, etc.). Click start and in the "start search" box at the bottom, type msconfig Click the "start up" tab, and start clicking everything OFF. These are ALL PRELOADING applications, that when your computer starts, these things are started up, too. All I have running on start up is the Symantec Security Technologies, which is Norton's. You need NOTHING else on this list loaded (some cable providers have a program that needs to run in order for your cable modem to work. TimeWarner, Comcast, Insight, etc., don't use these). All that stuff you can load yourself for when you want to use it. Whenever you install something, do NOT use quick launch option, as this will cause the program to load on start-up. You should only have things running that you WANT running. Everything else can be loaded manually. Next, open your task manager by CTRL + ALT + DELETE, and close everything but explorer.exe, csrss.exe, dwm.exe, and, IExplorer.exe (because it will close this webpage). If you have any anti-virus programs running, leave them open (Norton = Symantec). This should help you out considerably. Make sure you're always up-to-date on anti-virus defenitions, defrag often (preferably while sleeping), and run disk cleanup often. Also, if you tend to download or install a lot of things, go to your Control Panel and delete things you don't use (be careful not to uninstall things necessary). One other thing is you can disable a lot of useless things Windows implements, such as animations for openning and closing windows (not the OS, just openning programs, etc. A "window.") To do this, (vista) click START, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Performance Information and Tools, and at the Left side of the screen, click "Adjust Visual Effects." The only thing I have enabled is "use visual styles on windows and buttons," because without it, Windows looks very generic and bland (Like, Windows '95). One more thing while there, click the "Advanced" tab, then click "Change" under Virtual Memory. Make sure "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is checked, and also make sure "System Managed Size" is clicked, too (should be greyed out if Auto manage is checked). I hope this all helps. If this doesn't help you, still, then sounds like you have some form of Mal-ware that your AV is not picking up. Sometimes, a good system reformatting is in order.RiftZM2003

Obviously, Total is your Max MB load. Cache is what's being used, and Free is what's not being used (I'm sure you know this). What you don't know is that Vista uses a feature called "SuperFetch" which forces your computer to eat up "Free" memory on a background thread with the programs and features you use the most. It is trying to be efficient. It does this, so when you load those "Frequently used programs and features," they load faster and run more efficiently. The downside is when you're playing a game on-line and something needs to be loaded, it crams it into the free memory (which the system drops things not needed at the time and makes room). However, once it's done loading, that memory becomes free again, so SuperFetch starts eating memory again so your computer can be more efficient. This adversely can affect your system by causing it to become sluggish while it feeds. It's doing a good thing, but at the time time, in somce circumstances, it can be a bad thing. Your usage percentage (i.e., "memory load 28%) can be affected by programs running in the background. A downside to buying a computer is you get a whole bunch of garbage slammed into your computer when you buy it (offers, services, etc.). Click start and in the "start search" box at the bottom, type msconfig Click the "start up" tab, and start clicking everything OFF. These are ALL PRELOADING applications, that when your computer starts, these things are started up, too. All I have running on start up is the Symantec Security Technologies, which is Norton's. You need NOTHING else on this list loaded (some cable providers have a program that needs to run in order for your cable modem to work. TimeWarner, Comcast, Insight, etc., don't use these). All that stuff you can load yourself for when you want to use it. Whenever you install something, do NOT use quick launch option, as this will cause the program to load on start-up. You should only have things running that you WANT running. Everything else can be loaded manually. Next, open your task manager by CTRL + ALT + DELETE, and close everything but explorer.exe, csrss.exe, dwm.exe, and, IExplorer.exe (because it will close this webpage). If you have any anti-virus programs running, leave them open (Norton = Symantec). This should help you out considerably. Make sure you're always up-to-date on anti-virus defenitions, defrag often (preferably while sleeping), and run disk cleanup often. Also, if you tend to download or install a lot of things, go to your Control Panel and delete things you don't use (be careful not to uninstall things necessary). One other thing is you can disable a lot of useless things Windows implements, such as animations for openning and closing windows (not the OS, just openning programs, etc. A "window.") To do this, (vista) click START, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Performance Information and Tools, and at the Left side of the screen, click "Adjust Visual Effects." The only thing I have enabled is "use visual styles on windows and buttons," because without it, Windows looks very generic and bland (Like, Windows '95). One more thing while there, click the "Advanced" tab, then click "Change" under Virtual Memory. Make sure "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is checked, and also make sure "System Managed Size" is clicked, too (should be greyed out if Auto manage is checked). I hope this all helps. If this doesn't help you, still, then sounds like you have some form of Mal-ware that your AV is not picking up. Sometimes, a good system reformatting is in order.RiftZM2003

[QUOTE="RiftZM2003"]Obviously, Total is your Max MB load. Cache is what's being used, and Free is what's not being used (I'm sure you know this). What you don't know is that Vista uses a feature called "SuperFetch" which forces your computer to eat up "Free" memory on a background thread with the programs and features you use the most. It is trying to be efficient. It does this, so when you load those "Frequently used programs and features," they load faster and run more efficiently. The downside is when you're playing a game on-line and something needs to be loaded, it crams it into the free memory (which the system drops things not needed at the time and makes room). However, once it's done loading, that memory becomes free again, so SuperFetch starts eating memory again so your computer can be more efficient. This adversely can affect your system by causing it to become sluggish while it feeds. It's doing a good thing, but at the time time, in somce circumstances, it can be a bad thing. Your usage percentage (i.e., "memory load 28%) can be affected by programs running in the background. A downside to buying a computer is you get a whole bunch of garbage slammed into your computer when you buy it (offers, services, etc.). Click start and in the "start search" box at the bottom, type msconfig Click the "start up" tab, and start clicking everything OFF. These are ALL PRELOADING applications, that when your computer starts, these things are started up, too. All I have running on start up is the Symantec Security Technologies, which is Norton's. You need NOTHING else on this list loaded (some cable providers have a program that needs to run in order for your cable modem to work. TimeWarner, Comcast, Insight, etc., don't use these). All that stuff you can load yourself for when you want to use it. Whenever you install something, do NOT use quick launch option, as this will cause the program to load on start-up. You should only have things running that you WANT running. Everything else can be loaded manually. Next, open your task manager by CTRL + ALT + DELETE, and close everything but explorer.exe, csrss.exe, dwm.exe, and, IExplorer.exe (because it will close this webpage). If you have any anti-virus programs running, leave them open (Norton = Symantec). This should help you out considerably. Make sure you're always up-to-date on anti-virus defenitions, defrag often (preferably while sleeping), and run disk cleanup often. Also, if you tend to download or install a lot of things, go to your Control Panel and delete things you don't use (be careful not to uninstall things necessary). One other thing is you can disable a lot of useless things Windows implements, such as animations for openning and closing windows (not the OS, just openning programs, etc. A "window.") To do this, (vista) click START, Control Panel, System and Maintenance, Performance Information and Tools, and at the Left side of the screen, click "Adjust Visual Effects." The only thing I have enabled is "use visual styles on windows and buttons," because without it, Windows looks very generic and bland (Like, Windows '95). One more thing while there, click the "Advanced" tab, then click "Change" under Virtual Memory. Make sure "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is checked, and also make sure "System Managed Size" is clicked, too (should be greyed out if Auto manage is checked). I hope this all helps. If this doesn't help you, still, then sounds like you have some form of Mal-ware that your AV is not picking up. Sometimes, a good system reformatting is in order.brownwhale