How much RAM does your Vista use?

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GrimR7529

n00b
Joined
Sep 10, 2008
Messages
8
Hi All,

I'm running a pretty basic setup of Vista Ultimate and wanted to know what the general usage of RAM is with the OS.

I have 4gb and after loading it uses about 1.6gb to 1.8gb. There are no real background apps loading at the time either.

Is that normal and similar for others.
 
I'm running Vista Home Premium with 4gigs installed. O/S recognizes 3 gigs and with nothing much running in the background, Vista uses about 1.5gigs
 
"Utilize" would be the better choice of words :)

You spent hard earned $$ on that RAM! You don't want it to go un-used, do you?

Superfetch analyzes your computer usage and preloads frequently accessed blocks of data into RAM. It will use (IIRC) up to 50% of your available un-used memory.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/performance.aspx

Windows SuperFetch

A new memory management technology in Windows Vista, Windows SuperFetch, helps keep the computer consistently responsive to your programs by making better use of the computer's RAM. Windows SuperFetch prioritizes the programs you're currently using over background tasks and adapts to the way you work by tracking the programs you use most often and preloading these into memory. With SuperFetch, background tasks still run when the computer is idle. However, when the background task is finished, SuperFetch repopulates system memory with the data you were working with before the background task ran. Now, when you return to your desk, your programs will continue to run as efficiently as they did before you left.
Click to expand...


Technology like Superfetch is why Vista is so responsive compared to other OS's like WinXP.
 
when I have F@H running ..and the GPU F@H client running as well as notfred running in VirtualBox and then 6 or so tabs open in Firefox as well as being SSH'd into my smoothwall box and AntiVir running ..it uses all my memory
 
If Vista isn't using pretty much all of it, you haven't been using it much, or you simply don't have a lot of stuff happening with your PC. It's normal for Vista's Task Manager to report 0 or almost no free memory - it's how Vista works and reports the info, but rest assured it's all being put to very good use.

Anything less than all of it in use means you're just not actually using the computer hard enough, I'd say. ;)
 
Doesn't matter, it's a nonissue how much it 'uses' because the RAM can become free instantaneously when needed, your install is perfectly fine :)
 
On my current laptop, t60p w/4 gigs, Core2Duo/Centrino, OS sees 3.0 gigs of RAM, Aero theme, 256 meg FireGLv5100 graphics, NOD32 antivirus, it's been running all afternoon, just closed all apps..she settled to 902 megs.937 megs with Firefox 2 open posting this right now.
 
I have about 1.8GB usage after subtracting Firefox and F@H clients. Superfetch uses the rest.
 
calebb said:
"Utilize" would be the better choice of words :)
Click to expand...
Ding ding ding. Winner!

Someone on here had a great line in their sig. 'If you don't want to use your memory, take it out of your computer and sit it on your desk." Awesome.
 
Just Idling with IE7, it Utilizes about 675MB out of 2GB of RAM. That's with a couple of Windows sidebar widgets running. It makes me wonder how people are pulling in bigger numbers.
 
GrimR7529 said:
Hi All,

I'm running a pretty basic setup of Vista Ultimate and wanted to know what the general usage of RAM is with the OS.

I have 4gb and after loading it uses about 1.6gb to 1.8gb. There are no real background apps loading at the time either.

Is that normal and similar for others.
Click to expand...


Vista uses memory differently from XP. How much it will use at any one time depends on how much physical RAM you have and what your particular usage patterns are for any given time of day. Right now my 4 GB desktop is using 1.6GB, my 2GB laptop is using just over 800MB and my 1GB desktop is using just over 600MB.
 
Keiichi said:
Just Idling with IE7, it Utilizes about 675MB out of 2GB of RAM. That's with a couple of Windows sidebar widgets running. It makes me wonder how people are pulling in bigger numbers.
Click to expand...

The bigger numbers as you put it come from using the machine and using it rather extensively. If you load up every single application you have installed, and I mean all of 'em, at the same time, you'll end up populating the SuperFetch cache one time for each, and from that point on, Vista will start to preload the necessary files into RAM so the applications will load much faster and execute faster as well.

If you've got 4GB of RAM, and all you run daily is perhaps IE7, maybe Firefox, maybe Word or Wordpad, maybe Windows Media Player, and hardly anything else, the reason you'll see very little "hit" on the RAM counters is because if you add up all the memory necessary to use those applications, it'll probably work out to about 700MB which includes the OS files for Vista itself.

So, the more you use your machine, the more you do stuff, the more that Vista will take note and preload the stuff into RAM for you. Use it less, and SuperFetch dwindles off to use what you actually require.

Believe it or not, Vista is one damned "smart" OS that watches your patterns of usage and learns from it, day in, day out, nights too.
 
Joe Average said:
The bigger numbers as you put it come from using the machine and using it rather extensively. If you load up every single application you have installed, and I mean all of 'em, at the same time, you'll end up populating the SuperFetch cache one time for each, and from that point on, Vista will start to preload the necessary files into RAM so the applications will load much faster and execute faster as well.

If you've got 4GB of RAM, and all you run daily is perhaps IE7, maybe Firefox, maybe Word or Wordpad, maybe Windows Media Player, and hardly anything else, the reason you'll see very little "hit" on the RAM counters is because if you add up all the memory necessary to use those applications, it'll probably work out to about 700MB which includes the OS files for Vista itself.

So, the more you use your machine, the more you do stuff, the more that Vista will take note and preload the stuff into RAM for you. Use it less, and SuperFetch dwindles off to use what you actually require.

Believe it or not, Vista is one damned "smart" OS that watches your patterns of usage and learns from it, day in, day out, nights too.
Click to expand...

Superfetch memory usage is kept separate from normal memory usage in the Task Manager. I assume that the people in this thread are generally referring to normal memory usage only, since Superfetch would result in a nearly 100% memory usage at all times.
 
It's all registered the same on Task Manager. If you get entirely too serious about it and choose to break it down with Resource Manager, that's fine, but none of us needs to get that damned obsessive about this. SuperFetch has access to and will tend to use all available RAM (if people don't comprehend what I MEAN when I say that it's not my problem) to cache data.

The cached data can be "dumped" at a moment's notice as soon as the OS realizes a request for memory has been made that will draw upon some memory allocated to the SuperFetch cache, hence "all available RAM" means just that: the entire amount of RAM the machine has installed that's accessible to the OS at any given moment.

Entirely too much focus is placed on that "all available RAM" part - SuperFetch can use anything it has access to and frees it up in real-time as required.

What part of this is so difficult to grasp, folks? It caches everything you access, so if you access a small portion of what you've actually got installed, you get a small(er) amount of data cached. SuperFetch doesn't go off on its own just preloading every damned thing you have installed unless you actually use the software. That's the whole point.

If you don't use it, SuperFetch never "sees" it or the need to preload/cache it.

This ain't rocket science...
 
Joe Average said:
It's all registered the same on Task Manager.
Click to expand...

No, it isn't.

memoryrf4.jpg


System memory usage is displayed in the bar graph titled Memory and listed as a percentage in the status bar. Memory used by Superfetch is displayed under Cached.
 
Ok, so 3.07GB system "memory" used, with 1.9GB cached, and 26MB free... out of 4GB... explain that math, please, as you best understand it because 3GB + 1.9GB = 4.9GB so, something is very interesting.

Let's see how you explain it... and yep, I get it, just wondering if you do. ;)

And before you explain, open an Admin Command Prompt and type systeminfo and check the info presented for virtual memory because it won't match what Task Manager is showing either.

Windows... gotta love it. :D
 
Joe Average said:
Ok, so 3.07GB system "memory" used, with 1.9GB cached, and 26MB free... out of 4GB... explain that math, please, as you best understand it because 3GB + 1.9GB = 4.9GB so, something is very interesting.

Let's see how you explain it... and yep, I get it, just wondering if you do. ;)

And before you explain, open an Admin Command Prompt and type systeminfo and check the info presented for virtual memory because it won't match what Task Manager is showing either.

Windows... gotta love it. :D
Click to expand...


3GB used - 1.9GB cached = 1.1GB used for non superfetch purposes?

I'm not really sure, I don't usually look at that number -
 
The cached figure is SuperFetch's usage of system RAM for caching purposes. So my point is if what that poster says is true and the "system memory usage" of 3.07GB is accurate, meaning his system is actively using 3.07GB of chip RAM, then something is very wrong because SuperFetch is using 1.9GB of some RAM someplace - hence 3GB + 1.9GB = 4.9GB which of course isn't possible because he's only got 4GB of RAM (or 4094MB as shown). At first glance people will say the 1.9GB is taken from the system memory usage, and while accurate to some degree, it's not totally accurate because there is no accurate measurement you'll find.

There is no accurate way to know precisely what is using what in Vista, or any version of Windows, that's part of the "problem" when this stuff starts getting thrown around. There is no 100% accurate set of counters that will tell you or present you with the information you might want.

It's not even relevant in the big picture anyway.
 
Joe Average said:
The cached figure is SuperFetch's usage of system RAM for caching purposes. So my point is if what that poster says is true and the "system memory usage" of 3.07GB is accurate, meaning his system is actively using 3.07GB of chip RAM, then something is very wrong because SuperFetch is using 1.9GB of some RAM someplace - hence 3GB + 1.9GB = 4.9GB which of course isn't possible because he's only got 4GB of RAM (or 4094MB as shown). At first glance people will say the 1.9GB is taken from the system memory usage, and while accurate to some degree, it's not totally accurate because there is no accurate measurement you'll find.

There is no accurate way to know precisely what is using what in Vista, or any version of Windows, that's part of the "problem" when this stuff starts getting thrown around. There is no 100% accurate set of counters that will tell you or present you with the information you might want.

It's not even relevant in the big picture anyway.
Click to expand...

I dunno... tasklist has always been pretty accurate for me

Code: 
C:\Users\calebb>tasklist

Image Name                     PID Session Name        Session#    Mem Usage
========================= ======== ================ =========== ============
System Idle Process              0 Services                   0         24 K
System                           4 Services                   0     30,304 K
smss.exe                       524 Services                   0        728 K
csrss.exe                      596 Services                   0      5,960 K
wininit.exe                    648 Services                   0      3,980 K
csrss.exe                      660 Console                    1     19,036 K
services.exe                   692 Services                   0      8,676 K
lsass.exe                      724 Services                   0      4,244 K
lsm.exe                        732 Services                   0      5,808 K
svchost.exe                    876 Services                   0      7,628 K
nvvsvc.exe                     920 Services                   0      3,564 K
svchost.exe                    948 Services                   0      9,220 K
svchost.exe                   1004 Services                   0     35,460 K
svchost.exe                   1036 Services                   0     12,604 K
svchost.exe                   1076 Services                   0    102,632 K
svchost.exe                   1096 Services                   0     56,540 K
winlogon.exe                  1144 Console                    1      5,540 K
audiodg.exe                   1200 Services                   0     14,688 K
svchost.exe                   1228 Services                   0     10,648 K
SLsvc.exe                     1268 Services                   0      8,420 K
svchost.exe                   1312 Services                   0     17,032 K
svchost.exe                   1444 Services                   0     25,308 K
WLTRYSVC.EXE                  1600 Services                   0      2,564 K
BCMWLTRY.EXE                  1612 Services                   0     19,860 K
spoolsv.exe                   1724 Services                   0     12,816 K
svchost.exe                   1764 Services                   0     20,836 K
rundll32.exe                  2012 Console                    1      7,668 K
mDNSResponder.exe             1432 Services                   0      4,612 K
svchost.exe                   1460 Services                   0      3,540 K
mdm.exe                       1904 Services                   0      4,592 K
sqlservr.exe                   744 Services                   0      7,488 K
nod32krn.exe                  2100 Services                   0     33,776 K
svchost.exe                   2132 Services                   0      5,292 K
sqlbrowser.exe                2156 Services                   0      3,212 K
sqlwriter.exe                 2180 Services                   0      6,400 K
svchost.exe                   2224 Services                   0      6,852 K
svchost.exe                   2256 Services                   0      3,296 K
WMPControllerService.exe      2296 Services                   0      5,640 K
SearchIndexer.exe             2372 Services                   0     90,004 K
taskeng.exe                   3312 Services                   0      7,180 K
svchost.exe                    556 Services                   0      3,252 K
WMPControllerServer.exe        292 Console                    1     11,468 K
wmplayer.exe                  2536 Console                    1    119,956 K
dwm.exe                       4056 Console                    1    135,680 K
taskeng.exe                    584 Console                    1     16,340 K
explorer.exe                   216 Console                    1    122,152 K
WLTRAY.EXE                    1088 Console                    1     18,784 K
OEM02Mon.exe                   300 Console                    1      4,552 K
WMPRemoteTray.exe              420 Console                    1      4,032 K
TSVNCache.exe                 2036 Console                    1     11,372 K
Apoint.exe                    3724 Console                    1      5,852 K
nod32kui.exe                  3196 Console                    1      9,784 K
Acrotray.exe                  3156 Console                    1     13,196 K
wmdSync.exe                   2472 Console                    1      7,196 K
rundll32.exe                  1752 Console                    1      5,828 K
rundll32.exe                  2764 Console                    1      3,872 K
sidebar.exe                   3544 Console                    1     50,136 K
daemon.exe                    3816 Console                    1     11,508 K
GoogleUpdate.exe              1340 Console                    1      3,088 K
OUTLOOK.EXE                   4020 Console                    1    319,544 K
MSASCui.exe                   1260 Console                    1     15,092 K
ApMsgFwd.exe                  4904 Console                    1      3,284 K
taskeng.exe                   5028 Services                   0      7,364 K
hidfind.exe                   5704 Console                    1      3,480 K
FNPLicensingService.exe       4444 Services                   0      7,764 K
ApntEx.exe                    4596 Console                    1      4,340 K
sidebar.exe                   4636 Console                    1     47,988 K
usnsvc.exe                    4436 Services                   0      3,624 K
ssmsee.exe                    5528 Console                    1    134,876 K
msnmsgr.exe                   3188 Console                    1     76,592 K
svchost.exe                   3372 Services                   0      7,260 K
devenv.exe                    7156 Console                    1    238,900 K
ABEIM.vshost.exe              7320 Console                    1     14,672 K
firefox.exe                   4052 Console                    1    229,228 K
vncviewer.exe                 7776 Console                    1     11,580 K
EXCEL.EXE                     7296 Console                    1     38,016 K
OSE.EXE                       6364 Services                   0      8,616 K
explorer.exe                  5256 Console                    1     27,528 K
cmd.exe                       6304 Console                    1      2,192 K
tasklist.exe                  5408 Console                    1      4,716 K
WmiPrvSE.exe                  3880 Services                   0      5,896 K

C:\Users\calebb>
 
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