Question about memory usage

[Guest]

My first computer had 256MB of memory, and about half of it was in use all
the time. When I bought a new computer it had 512MB of memory, and it
turned out that eventually half of that memory was in use.

Now I have a brand new computer with 1GB of memory, and sure enough, about
550MB is in use all the time.

Can you think of any reason why this might be? All sorts of paranoid
thoughts are going through my mind.

Norm Strong

 

[Cooler Dude]

My first computer had 256MB of memory, and about half of it was
in use all the time. When I bought a new computer it had 512MB
of memory, and it turned out that eventually half of that
memory was in use.
Now I have a brand new computer with 1GB of memory, and sure
enough, about 550MB is in use all the time.

Can you think of any reason why this might be? All sorts of
paranoid thoughts are going through my mind.

Norm Strong

I found this article on memory and page file usage very
informative:-
http://aumha.org:80/win5/a/xpvm.htm

See the section "Why is there so little Free RAM?"

 

[Poprivet]

My first computer had 256MB of memory, and about half of it was in
use all the time. When I bought a new computer it had 512MB of
memory, and it turned out that eventually half of that memory was in
use.
Now I have a brand new computer with 1GB of memory, and sure enough,
about 550MB is in use all the time.

Can you think of any reason why this might be? All sorts of paranoid
thoughts are going through my mind.

Norm Strong

Relax, everything is fine. Here's a blurb from a web page about that:

Why is there so little Free RAM?
Windows will always try to find some use for all of RAM - even a trivial
one. If nothing else it will retain code of programs in RAM after they exit,
in case they are needed again. Anything left over will be used to cache
further files - just in case they are needed. But these uses will be dropped
instantly should some other use come along. Thus there should rarely be any
significant amount of RAM 'free'. That term is a misnomer - it ought to be
'RAM for which Windows can currently find no possible use'. The adage is:
'Free RAM is wasted RAM'. Programs that purport to 'manage' or 'free up' RAM
are pandering to a delusion that only such 'Free' RAM is available for fresh
uses. That is not true, and these programs often result in reduced
performance and may result in run-away growth of the page file.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Relax, everything is fine. Here's a blurb from a web page about that:

That's not just *a* web page about it, it's the *definitive* web page about
it, as far as I'm concerned. And giving credit where credit is due, it's
"Virtual Memory in Windows XP" by the late MVP Alex Nichol, at
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php