How Much Ram Does Vista Use?

[Bryan Smith]

My Current PC is a powered by a P4, socket 478, 3.4Ghz, Asus P4P800-E
motherboard with 1 gig (2 x 512) PC3200 ram.
No matter what I did, Vista seemed to want to use 60%+ of my ram.
So, I upgraded from 1 gig (2 x 512meg sticks) to 2 gig (2 x 1gig)
Silly Vista seem uses 50-60% at idle.
If I had zillion gigs of ram in my box, would Vista always take 1/2 of
it?
Just how much ram does Vista take?
I am just amazed just much horsepower Vista takes.

 

[PaulB]

VISTA has an entirely different memory management system than previous
Windows. It's job is to use as much memory as it can to make the system run
better (less disk access, etc.). It will relinquish all that is needed if a
new process is call, etc.
Why would you want memory in your computer that is never used?

 

[HeyBub]

My Current PC is a powered by a P4, socket 478, 3.4Ghz, Asus P4P800-E
motherboard with 1 gig (2 x 512) PC3200 ram.
No matter what I did, Vista seemed to want to use 60%+ of my ram.
So, I upgraded from 1 gig (2 x 512meg sticks) to 2 gig (2 x 1gig)
Silly Vista seem uses 50-60% at idle.

If I had zillion gigs of ram in my box, would Vista always take 1/2 of
it?

Only if you were using the 64-bit version. The 32-bit model can use only a
bit above 3Gb.

Just how much ram does Vista take?

As much as it needs plus as much as it thinks it might need (up to the
limits above).

I am just amazed just much horsepower Vista takes.

I can tell you're easily impressed.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My Current PC is a powered by a P4, socket 478, 3.4Ghz, Asus P4P800-E
motherboard with 1 gig (2 x 512) PC3200 ram.
No matter what I did, Vista seemed to want to use 60%+ of my ram.
So, I upgraded from 1 gig (2 x 512meg sticks) to 2 gig (2 x 1gig)
Silly Vista seem uses 50-60% at idle.
If I had zillion gigs of ram in my box, would Vista always take 1/2 of
it?
Just how much ram does Vista take?
I am just amazed just much horsepower Vista takes.

Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a
counterproductive desire. Vista, like previous versions of Windows, is
designed to use all, or nearly all, of your memory, all the time, and
that's good not bad. Free memory is wasted memory. You paid for it all
and shouldn't want to see any of it wasted.

Windows works hard to find a use for all the memory you have all the
time. For example if your apps don't need some of it, it will use that
part for caching, then give it back when your apps later need it. In
this way Windows keeps all your memory working for you all the time.