Vista 64/32 bit - RAM consumption

[Triton67]

upgraded and installed Vista Home Premium x64, used the 32bit version since january.

Got Logitech G15 keyboard and I often watch the performance tab (cpu/mem usage):

With 32bit I often had 23% ram usage....moving to x64 I now see 46% ram usage !?

edit /// this is with 2GB ram. (sig shows 4GB, but yet not installed the 2nd kit)

 

[Yellowbeard]

Take a look at the task manager (assuming Vista allows this) and take a look at your running processes. Also, is your install still bare or do you have a lot of stuff running? In general Vista is going to consume more memory than XP, all other things equal. However, I don't know if it should be 2x , 23% vs 46%.

 

[cmdrdredd]

32-bit could only access so much of your physical memory. 64-bit can have full access to 4GB. If what you describe is the % of physical memory used, then that is what is happening.

edit: just noticed you hadn't installed all 4GB yet. With Vista it's not a problem to have alot of memory used up because it actually helps performance with superfetch.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Isn't Vista supposed to be very quick at dumping unneeded data out of the cache? I have not read up on Superfetch.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard
Isn't Vista supposed to be very quick at dumping unneeded data out of the cache? I have not read up on Superfetch.

Superfetch loads your most used programs into memory and when you want access to them it opens from RAM not HDD. If an app needs that memory space then it opens up that space.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard
Isn't Vista supposed to be very quick at dumping unneeded data out of the cache? I have not read up on Superfetch.

Superfetch loads your most used programs into memory and when you want access to them it opens from RAM not HDD. If an app needs that memory space then it opens up that space.

Right, but isn't it supposed to be VERY quick at doing this? Much quicker than XP was with the same type of operation? The reason I ask is, if Superfetch is not VERY quick then I don't see it being all that useful.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard
Isn't Vista supposed to be very quick at dumping unneeded data out of the cache? I have not read up on Superfetch.

Superfetch loads your most used programs into memory and when you want access to them it opens from RAM not HDD. If an app needs that memory space then it opens up that space.

Right, but isn't it supposed to be VERY quick at doing this? Much quicker than XP was with the same type of operation? The reason I ask is, if Superfetch is not VERY quick then I don't see it being all that useful.

it's seamless. Anyway it basically sucks up all your available memory on purpose. Vista isn't supposed to leave free memory sitting around.

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Yellowbeard
Isn't Vista supposed to be very quick at dumping unneeded data out of the cache? I have not read up on Superfetch.

Superfetch loads your most used programs into memory and when you want access to them it opens from RAM not HDD. If an app needs that memory space then it opens up that space.

Right, but isn't it supposed to be VERY quick at doing this? Much quicker than XP was with the same type of operation? The reason I ask is, if Superfetch is not VERY quick then I don't see it being all that useful.

it's seamless. Anyway it basically sucks up all your available memory on purpose. Vista isn't supposed to leave free memory sitting around.

Exactly. Vista follows the motto: "Unused RAM is wasted RAM".

For instance: When I had 2GB of RAM with Vista 64, it'd suck up approximately 48%. This was with no programs running, after a fresh boot.

Now, I have 4GB, and memory usage after a fresh boot is about 40% So that means that Vista automatically reconfigured Superfetch to cache apps on memory even more aggressively.

However, Vista is smart enough to dump the memory when necessary, ie, when you load a memory hogging app like a game.

I love Superfetch, and it's amazing how snappy Vista can feel. The only drawback in my opinion is that the bigger your cache, the more it takes to load up from HDD to the RAM. With 4GB, my cache is so large I get constant HDD thrashing for about 5 minutes after a fresh boot, with my HDD led being solid red for that time. After that, it stops.

 

[JustaGeek]

Or... the Logitech 64-bit driver doesn't show it properly...

BTW, I use the same G15 keyboard.