physical memory usage?

[mamaw00t]

i just opened up asusprobe and with no other applications running, it says that Physical Memory Usage is 28%. is it normal for it to be that high when the computer is just idle?

edit// actually i forgot to mention that avg free edition virus scan is on. is it possible that it can use that much system resources when its not performing a scan?

 

[Sqube]

What other background programs do you have running?

Also, I know that Windows automatically uses a fair chunk of your system memory off the bat. Someone who knows more than myself will hopefully be along.

 

[mamaw00t]

im running windows xp home if that matters.

no other programs are running in the background.

 

[KoolDrew]

Yes it is normal.

 

[Sqube]

You're not running any programs, but Windows itself is always running a bunch.

Start --> Run --> "taskmgr" and then click on the "Processes" tab to see what I'm talking about. If you've got a bunch of miscellaneous stuff and/or spyware running on your machine, it would make perfect sense that a lot of your memory is being eaten up.

 

[mamaw00t]

i have no spyware or anything. i just built this computer not even 2 days ago. i have installed nothing but virus scan, microsoft office, doom3, and world of warcraft.

 

[KoolDrew]

Windows using your memory is a good thing. Why does everyone try to limit the amoutn of memory being used?

Basically Windows will always try to find some use for all of RAM. If there is RAM available for other uses code will retain in memory of previously closed applications for faster perofrmance if needed again. RAM that is left over will be used to cache other files too. The code in RAM will help performance so in fact any RAM that is free is wasted RAM.

 

[ribbon13]

I need to take a screen shot.

In 7-zip, i witnessed The Sims 2 eating 1428mb of physical ram and over 600mb paged

 

[PurdueRy]

now that seems a bit crazy...I have played that game and it never used up close to all my ram

 

[V00D00]

the sims fo life yo

 

[KoolDrew]

In 7-zip, i witnessed The Sims 2 eating 1428mb of physical ram and over 600mb paged

Isn't 7-zip a file compression utility?

 

[ribbon13]

ooops I meant 7-max