Vista Memory Utilization - Superfetch?

[synapse88]

so i have a clean install of vista home premium, Q6600 proc, 3GB of memory (2GB of DDR800 and 1GB of DDR667). i have most visual options turned off, including aero.

when i boot into windows I only have 1-1.2GB of memory free (out of 3GB) when i go to processes, scvshost is using like 70MB, and everything else is 15MB or less. at first i'm wondering where all my memory is cause it not showing up in my task manager. After a while my available memory drains down to 3-5 10MB?!?!?!

then i find this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

so are you guys fans of superfetch? do you leave it on? i'm not sure i'm a fan of only having .01% of my system memory free, though i guess its ok as long as superfetch gives up the ram when i need it for a game or something. maybe i'll plug in a big ol usb drive and see if that helps...

 

[nerp]

Old habits die hard, don't they? XP and Vista are totally different in terms of memory management. There is no reason at all to be concerned about superfetch using your free memory. This is normal. Just like XP eliminated many conventions we got used to with w95/98, Vista requires getting used to some changes as well.

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: synapse88
so i have a clean install of vista home premium, Q6600 proc, 3GB of memory (2GB of DDR800 and 1GB of DDR667). i have most visual options turned off, including aero.

when i boot into windows I only have 1-1.2GB of memory free (out of 3GB) when i go to processes, scvshost is using like 70MB, and everything else is 15MB or less. at first i'm wondering where all my memory is cause it not showing up in my task manager. After a while my available memory drains down to 3-5 10MB?!?!?!

then i find this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

so are you guys fans of superfetch? do you leave it on? i'm not sure i'm a fan of only having .01% of my system memory free, though i guess its ok as long as superfetch gives up the ram when i need it for a game or something. maybe i'll plug in a big ol usb drive and see if that helps...

Yes, it is SF, and it is a good thing. There is no negative, as in absolutely *zero* negative performance hit to having that memory used as cache vs. having it be zeroed out.

Even in XP, all of your memory would eventually be used as cache. Not very well used, but it was never really left to be completely 100% free. Vista is just a little more honest as to what free memory and cached memory really are.

 

[emfiend]

Originally posted by: synapse88
so i have a clean install of vista home premium, Q6600 proc, 3GB of memory (2GB of DDR800 and 1GB of DDR667). i have most visual options turned off, including aero.

when i boot into windows I only have 1-1.2GB of memory free (out of 3GB) when i go to processes, scvshost is using like 70MB, and everything else is 15MB or less. at first i'm wondering where all my memory is cause it not showing up in my task manager. After a while my available memory drains down to 3-5 10MB?!?!?!

then i find this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

so are you guys fans of superfetch? do you leave it on? i'm not sure i'm a fan of only having .01% of my system memory free, though i guess its ok as long as superfetch gives up the ram when i need it for a game or something. maybe i'll plug in a big ol usb drive and see if that helps...

With the way superfetch works and all that money you spent for your memory, you should be screaming "<b>Yeah! Only 10MB free!</b>". Isn't the point of having all that memory so it gets used?

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: synapse88
so are you guys fans of superfetch? do you leave it on?

Yup!

I'm a SuperFetch/ReadyBoost/ReadyDrive fanboi and, yes, I leave it on!

It's the #1 biggest reason to upgrade to Vista, IMHO!

ANY OS can offer aesthetics & security (with enough addons) - SuperFetch is unique...

 

[synapse88]

Originally posted by: emfiend

With the way superfetch works and all that money you spent for your memory, you should be screaming "<b>Yeah! Only 10MB free!</b>". Isn't the point of having all that memory so it gets used?

Sure, as long as Superfetch releases it quickly when I need it for something else.

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: synapse88
then i find this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

...maybe i'll plug in a big ol usb drive and see if that helps...

Interesting article I guess, in its day, but...

The underpinnings of Vista have changed a LOT in the last 18 months, especially since Service Pack 1 went public, which has a whole new kernel, yada, yada, yada.

Task Manager doesn't tell you much! It's a hold-over from the Win9x days. Resource Monitor is MUCH better!

HERE'S A SNAPPY from last night (different discussion)...

If you want to see WHAT your computer is doing use Resource Monitor!

LoL!

Task manager is like soooooo ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz...

Sometimes, I turn on streaming music or talk radio (Michael Savage is good) and watch Resource Monitor like a TV.

Lastly, by all means, plug in "a big ol usb drive" and dedicate it to a ReadyBoost drive!

ReadyBoost makes a big difference in laptops, where the drives tend to be low-power/low-performance devices!

ReadyBoost stops the "disk grinding" that ppl complain about with Vista! After boot-up, it takes about 5 minutes for SuperFetch to mirror/cache data to your ReadyBoost drive, then your HDs basically go dormant.

So, there are many benefits to SuperFetch, even for high-performance desktop machines!

 

[VinDSL]

Originally posted by: synapse88
Sure, as long as Superfetch releases it quickly when I need it for something else.

It does! It's purposely designed to stay out of the way...

SuperFetch is a low-priority I/O app - like search indexing, Windows Defender, disk defrag, startup apps, et cetera.

SuperFetch will NOT slow down your machine at all! Au contraire!

 

[Nothinman]

Sure, as long as Superfetch releases it quickly when I need it for something else.

SuperFetch doesn't release anything, that's the kernel's job and all of the stuff loaded by SuperFetch is treated like any other cached data. All SuperFetch does is monitor activity and make an educated guess about what to preload for you.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: synapse88

Originally posted by: emfiend

With the way superfetch works and all that money you spent for your memory, you should be screaming "<b>Yeah! Only 10MB free!</b>". Isn't the point of having all that memory so it gets used?

Sure, as long as Superfetch releases it quickly when I need it for something else.

Vista introduces memory priority into the windows memory manager. Superfetch pages are loaded with a lower priority then normal pages. If the system needs the cached data the memory priority is changed to its normal status. If not it says in the lower priority statsus. When the memory manager needs memory these lower memory pages are scavenged and used first.