Is my RAM running properly?

Question

Before upgrading:
I had 1GB RAM and average memory use was 500MB.

After upgrading:
I upgraded it to 2GB but the average memory use is 1050MB ( in fact I still run exactly the same software as before )

The question is why does it take more memory after upgrading and in sure that I'm running the same things as before...

Answer 1

The overall MEMORY includes RAM and VIRTUAL memory

so the system treats RAM as part of Virtual memory(disk paging file)

After adding RAM you should check and adjust if necessary the

Virtual memory settings of your pc.

for xp.....

Control Panel

Performance

System

Advanced

performance

Advanced



sometimes with low memory these settings get tweeked



generally speaking the system uses a paging file 1.5x the RAM installed



sometimes people set the upper and lower values the same to FIX the size

of the paging file(preventing growing and shrinking) this makes the system slightly

quicker and stops defragmentation of the paging file. This may have a negative

effect if the RAM is now larger than the paging file.



some applications LOOK at the RAM(or maybe the VIRTUAL memory) size

and decide how much to Chew off so to speak. So just increasing your RAM

just gives em more to chew(sometimes slowing them down).

In other words those apps may have been respectful and not taken too much before

but now they are hungry and want some extra.



most graphics cards share system memory, and RAM can be allocated

to graphics chips in the BIOS. I just mention this as you may want to know that.

Graphics cards cannot grab memory, you have to give it to them.



anyway hope that helps.

Answer 2

RAM gets used for different things. If you have on-board graphics (laptops have this for example) then the RAM controller might use the same amount of memory from both sticks for graphics.



However, I think you'll probably find that the operating system is *reserving* large amounts of RAM. This isn't counted as free RAM although it won't all be being used at the start. Reserved memory is used for caching indexes for files (to decrease the amount of time required to find a file or get a list of files in a directory) as well as storing OS specific information.



If you're using Windows, then you'll find that more memory may be used to store DLLs in memory, even when the programs using them have been closed. This is standard procedure and is again used to improve performance, it's why it might take 15 seconds to load a program, but only 1-2 to load the same program again. Plus, with extra RAM the OS won't be relying on swap (swap file in Windows, swap partition in *nix systems) storage so much, so while your RAM usage may have gone up, the swap usage will have dropped accordingly.

Answer 3

When a computer runs programs in its memory, it does not use all of it (normally 50% only). If that 50% is not enough then it uses the paging file (it is an invisible file in your C: drive) as an extension to your computer's memory. But since you upgraded your memory then it can now use more of it and the rest is again thrown into your paging file. Computers prioritize RAM to run and hold programs because it is much faster compared to a paging file.

Answer 4

Vista ( even the undemanding version) desires a minimum of a million GB of RAM to run right. on the very minimum, i decide to recommend 2 GB and that's if the gadget is basically used for surfing, digital mail, writing papers and a few photos. extra RAM particularly much continuously leads to extra acceptable overall performance.

Answer 5

Windows always tries to use less ram then you have. If you are using 1200MB of programs, about half of that will be in the ram, the other half will be in your page file.



Unless you've messed around witht he paging file settings, then it is using the ram properly

Answer 6

If you haven't installed more software etc, I wouldn't worry its just the OS caching more stuff in RAM to speed your system up a bit.

Answer 7

it means the ram is being used instead of the computer storing everything in a page file which is good page files suck