What is using so much of my RAM in Windows 7?

[ChorniyVolk]

So I just had it going, and 4+ GB of my 6 was being used. I restarted (was changing my page file) and right now after starting up fresh, I'm using 1.3GB, but my processes only total up to about 300MB if that. Any way I can check what's hogging up RAM apart from the Task Manager?

 

[lxskllr]

It's caching data for future use. It's supposed to do that.

 

[ChorniyVolk]

What sort of future use? Can I clear it if, say, I start playing a game or something?

I'll gladly wait an extra 1 seconds when opening folders and files than have 2/3rds of my RAM in use.

 

[lxskllr]

What sort of future use? Can I clear it if, say, I start playing a game or something?

It'll clear it automatically. It's likely your game is partially loaded if you play it frequently. It does that to speed up application loading times.

 

[ChorniyVolk]

Nope, haven't played any games at all. I did mess around a bit opening a ton of videos all at once because I wanted to test the i7 920, maybe that's why. Still, 4GB? Damn!

So what you're saying is that it'll clear the cache as soon as an application needs to the RAM? Will having my RAM constantly in higher than 50% use not lead to any negative side effects?

 

[Cattykit]

Search prefetch and superfetch in google.

Why would you want to have gigabytes of RAM sitting there doing nothing? It's better to be used.

 

[lxskllr]

Will having my RAM constantly in higher than 50% use not lead to any negative side effects?

Nope, it'll just make your computer faster. I currently have 695mb free of 8gb. That's actually on the high side. It's usually under 100mb free, and frequently in the lower 10s.

 

[ChorniyVolk]

Hah, awesome. Alright then, thanks for the help.