Windows 7 memory usage

Ive been having an issue for about a month now, basically Windows 7 keep using more than 2gb-2.5gb ram (out of 4) while idle, usually after 2-3 days of running. Although i dont really have an issue with that, my main problem is that i cant really tell where that ram is being used.

Adding the memory usage of each program in task manager (memory private working set) barely sums up to more than 1gb, so, where is that other missing gb gone ?

Any help before i go crazy would be appreciated

 

The other bit might be what superfetch has been using; Windows will steadily increase its RAM usage over several days for whatever reason, but fixes itself easily with a restart.

 

Windows caching things in anticipation of them being needed, aka SuperFetch. Perfectly normal. It will instantly free up any of this memory if another app needs it. Vista and Win 7 have a different memory managment model that uses the principle that unused memory is wasted memory.

Gary

Not unless there is some memory leak. What you are describing is most assuredly not a normal situation.

Gary

 

Win7 & Vista use memory much more efficiently than XP, & as said above, uses the principal that unused memory is wasted memory. You will always find you have enough memory to run your applications as memory is released as soon as it is needed. I usually run Win7 at least a week before reboots, & I find if anything it feels slower after a reboot that when it has been running a while, as all my usually opened applications are already loaded in memory. I found it took a while to get used to this when I first used Vista... you just need to accept that Windows is managing your memory well.

 

The main reason i consider this a problem is because lets say after 5 days, the idle usage is around 2.5gb. Lets say im playing a game and i want to minimize to browse a web page etc (i do that often), ive noticed a lot of delay a few times and some hdd activity which seems to be the pagefile.

So, im assuming that has to do with the ram and that's the reason why it bothers me since it takes like 10 secs to minimize the game instead of the usual 1 (instant).

And its annoying if i want to minimize the game to answer a skype call since usually people hand up till the game actually minimizes.

 

wth? my system has been up for 3.5w and my idle usage is 1.5gb so there is definitely something wrong if you're idling at 2.5GB.

 

Yeap that's how it used to be for a long time, this started about a month ago, didn't really care that much since I thought it was windows doing, but after the annoyance with the game minimizing taking that long its getting a bit irritating to put up with now. Still have no idea why the processes usage doesn't reflect with the ram used though, its really odd.

 

By default, unlike XP and Vista, Windows 7's task manager shows a process's private memory, not its total memory usage. You can change that by going to View -> Select Columns and choosing Working Set instead of Private Working Set.

 

Yea been checking that as well, the only one that seems to be high after a few days is dwm.exe which goes up to 250-300mbs. Rest are seem normal.

Basically i used process explorer to monitor the usage, still nothing abnormal to explain the 2.5gb ram used..

Edit: Another "odd" thing is that i rarely install new programs, usually the ones i use (especially the ones that are open 24/7) are the ones that i started using years ago, which is basically HWMonitor, rainmeter, fraps, xfire, and avira. The only difference is that i update them if updates are available. Im pretty sure those are not the ones causing the issue though (in case lets say the newer version had a bug) since when closing all of them usually means -100mb ram.

 

I also once had a problem with my Windows 7 using that amount of RAM like you.
I checked Resource Monitor or whatever its called and it said that it was the "system" using it.

I fixed it by formatting and re-installing Windows 7 :\

 

System uses only 68k on my system. The only thing i can link this problem is with the new ATI drivers 10.3 and 10.4, not sure if display drivers can affect a system this way though. Since it doesnt seem to be an application issue or else i would be able to see it in the task manager.

Installed 10.6a last night and im trying to check if it makes any difference. So far am at 1.42gb usage so im waiting to see if it will increase the next 1-2 days.

 

If the video driver uses system ram to supliment video ram it can make a huge difference. The drivers are supposed to release the unused ram back to the system but if the drivers don't that could well be your issue...........

 

Yea and i think that might be the issue although im not sure if theres a way to test it out except from rolling back 2-3 versions.

The odd thing about it is that, lets say you have 2 games, A and B. There are sometimes, after finish playing game A i open game B, and a "frame" of game A appears before the game B launches, which is VERY odd

On the other hand, do graphic cards have to do anything with ram ? 3870x2 in my case.

 

try cleanmem

 

Formatted the laptop a few days ago since i couldn't wait for the new release of ati drivers to set it out. So i just restored an older image with acronis, everything seems to be in order now Will test the program is anything similar happens again though, thanks.

 

If you look at the Performance tab of the Task Manager, there's a box where it shows Physical memory usage:



Note how on mine it says there's only about 3GB free, and about 3GB cached? That means that I can use up to 6GB of RAM instantly with a new program, even though it says I only have 3GB "free". The number you really want to look at for "free" memory is the "Available" number.

 

Never looked at that (i did actually but never paid attention to it ), while i had that issue page file seemed to cause a lot of hdd activity, im assuming when cache memory is being released it doesnt affect page file right ?