Insane Memory Usage In Windows 7

Software, Cloud and Development Software & Tools
1

hi!

this is regarding the sudden jump in memory usage in windows 7 ultimate-32bit running on my laptop-msi cr-400x.

i noticed the jump after i put in a 2gb ddr2 800mhz corsair module.

previously with the default 2gb ddr2 800mhz ram,the task manager showed 475mb–585mb of memory usage and after i upgraded to 4gb the usage has jumped to 695mb–1gb!

can’t determine what caused it.

the laptop is running smoothly.there is no lag.

details of the ram sticks-

1.msi default—2gb ddr2 800mhz -Elpida–timings:::5-5-5-18

2.corsair-------2gb ddr2 800mhz -Corsair-timings:::5-5-5-18

i have turned off a few services that i don’t need to either disabled or manual.

everything is exactly the same before i put in the corsair memory module–simply cant understand the jump in memory usage.

Also i would like to turn off search indexing but i want to have the option to search too.

but when i turn the search indexing service off i can’t use search at all.can anyone guide me??

please help!

thanks in advance.

2

Blame it on lazy coding. Apps will rarely try to free up memory after you’re done with them.
For me, Windows XP uses up 800MB of memory at times and we all know that the OS is perfectly capable of running without slowdowns on as low as 512MB RAM.

I doubt you can do anything about this as it’s partly meant to improve your overall experience (faster reloading of apps).
I guess you could try the various tools out there that can scrub out every last byte of free memory, but you will immediately notice a slowdown in Windows performance.

3

@OP:

Have you changed the pager file size = 1.5 x total hardware memory.

4

If you have 4GB y r u thinking so much, mine normal usage is 900 mb - 1200 mb.

Still u want to know, check processes from all users in task manager & see which process is eating ur memory

5

Disable paging, i keep mine disabled with 2GB ram!

6

Win 7 Ram usage increases as u increase the ram…

I have tried on 512Mb, 1Gb, 2Gb, 4Gb … As the ram increases the usage increases…

and nah its not lazy coding … its more efficient way to use the resources rather than keeping them idle thats what it means.

7

also it starts dedicating more memory for graphics.

just go to run and type in dxdiag. you’ll see the amount of ram that the system has dedicated for the graphics.it increases with the increase in the ram installed.

8

The ram is being used to cache programs which you may use, so they open faster. There is no point in keeping RAM empty. Windows 7 uses system memory in a much smarter way as compared to Windows XP. Even Vista has the same feature.

There is nothing wrong with your system. It is a Windows 7 design.

9

+1 @countrock

10

Grr we need a pune meet desperately now. Grrr. I want to play ps3 again :face_with_tongue:

11

+1 @countrock

12

+1 whats the use of looking at a lot of unused ram ?

13

always wanted to know if the page file needs to be kept on or off?

please enlighten me a bit about it–i see no difference with it being on or off.

14

better to leave it on, you never know of some wierd app that crashes/misbehaves due to lack of it…

or, for example, if there is a memory hog/leak in one app, it can bring down your other apps for lack of extra memory when needed…

15

It must be kept on always, since some programs like Nero will need more paging memory.

16

As the amount of physical RAM increases, the RAM allocation to the OS in increased to utilize the extra RAM to make it more stable and responsive.
If the same amount of RAM would have been used, what would be the benfit of the 4GB. Windows 7 utilizes it so be happy :slight_smile:

And don’t worry about RAM being used. Its there to be used and when needed the OS will automatically release it to the games.

For the page file, if you have just 4GB, leave it enabled. If u reach 8GB, u can disable it, but still there are coding problems in some programs due to which they need a page file irrespective of the RAM. If they don’t find it, they crash.
So, leave it enabled to be on the safe side :slight_smile:

17

You will not see a ‘performance change’ per say, with the PF on or off. It is dynamically used by the OS in conjunction with hardware memory as the staging point for applications. At times, some applications are coded to thrash to the PF — so you could face errors / instability of the PF is allocated to zero.

18

All of the above is true regarding the RAM usage. Windows Vista/7 use a certain percentage of the total RAM available, again depending on the number of applications you have installed. This improves the performance of your PC. Let it be. When using your computer, it is going to be as fast and as zippy as it was earlier.

Secondly, leave the pagefile enabled. You can lessen the amount, but leave it enabled.