Near-Max RAM Use: No Problem, Right?

[(PeteCresswell)]

I just dropped another 2 gigs of RAM into a problem PC.

Net result seems tb that the suspect apps are just using more of
the stuff.

But RAM use does not seem tb getting maxed out, or even exceeding
90%.

Can I eliminate RAM as a problem as long as usage is not at or
near 100%?. i.e. does RAM only become a problem when usage is
hitting 100% or near to it? Or does high-but-not-max RAM use
somehow slow things down?

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I just dropped another 2 gigs of RAM into a problem PC.

Net result seems tb that the suspect apps are just using more of
the stuff.

But RAM use does not seem tb getting maxed out, or even exceeding
90%.

Can I eliminate RAM as a problem as long as usage is not at or
near 100%?. i.e. does RAM only become a problem when usage is
hitting 100% or near to it? Or does high-but-not-max RAM use
somehow slow things down?

RAM usage is only a problem if the Hard Faults/sec rate gets high (i.e.
around 100 or more). That means the process is going to virtual memory
for pages, and that there isn't enough physical RAM to contain the apps.

Yousuf Khan

 

[BillW50]

In

RAM usage is only a problem if the Hard Faults/sec rate gets high
(i.e. around 100 or more). That means the process is going to virtual
memory for pages, and that there isn't enough physical RAM to contain
the apps.

Forgive me if I skipped following the thread correctly and I might have
missed something... Anyway I have experimented a lot with XP SP2 with no
swapfile. And I haven't noticed any problems until you have about 200MB
still free. And somewhere around 150MB free (which it can go from 200MB
to 150MB free in seconds) you are now in deep trouble. As Windows starts
to freeze for seconds or so and it doesn't take long before Windows
totally freezes up. If you catch it soon enough, you can close some
applications or even terminating them to save Windows from totally
freezing up. And if you make it passed this point and get the free RAM
above 200MB, Windows should be running well again.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I just dropped another 2 gigs of RAM into a problem PC.

Net result seems tb that the suspect apps are just using more of
the stuff.

But RAM use does not seem tb getting maxed out, or even exceeding
90%.

Can I eliminate RAM as a problem as long as usage is not at or
near 100%?. i.e. does RAM only become a problem when usage is
hitting 100% or near to it? Or does high-but-not-max RAM use
somehow slow things down?

As a general rule, you should have little or no available RAM.
Available RAM is wasted RAM. You paid for all of it and shouldn't want
to see any of it wasted. Windows works hard to keep all your RAM
working for you all the time, for example using it for cache if your
apps don't need it, then taking it back again if your apps need it
later. This is *good*, not bad.

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP