VISTA eating way too much RAM!

[Guest]

I have 1 GB of RAM in my laptop. I remember that before installing Vista, XP
was eating Ram as much as Vista even when idle,around 525MB etc. And when
only a couple of programs are running it jumps upto 700-800MB!
So, how can I gt Vista to eat less RAM? Or rolling back to Windows XP will
be appropriate?

 

[Jeff]

Vista uses more ram for things like superfetch in order to try and speed up
your system.

May i ask what version of vista you are using?

Jeff

 

[DP]

I'll give you a quick answer and I know others will jump in with a longer
one.
It's SUPPOSED to do that. It's not slowing you down, is it?
If not, then don't worry about it.

 

[Guest]

Windows Vista Home Premium

Vista uses more ram for things like superfetch in order to try and speed up
your system.

May i ask what version of vista you are using?

Jeff

 

[Richard]

I have 1 GB of RAM in my laptop. I remember that before installing Vista,
XP was eating Ram as much as Vista even when idle,around 525MB etc. And
when only a couple of programs are running it jumps upto 700-800MB!
So, how can I gt Vista to eat less RAM? Or rolling back to Windows XP will
be appropriate?

Why do you not want vista to use your ram?

 

[Jeff]

If your using the Aero interface I believe that will use up more ram too.

Jeff

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Vista is designed to use gobs of RAM. If you applications slow down because
of too much paging to the disk, invest in more RAM for your laptop if you
have room to put more in. The cost of RAM is down these days and shouldn't
be that expensive. You should see an increase of performance with more RAM.

If not, maybe you could roll back to XP.

 

[Adam Albright]

I have 1 GB of RAM in my laptop. I remember that before installing Vista, XP
was eating Ram as much as Vista even when idle,around 525MB etc. And when
only a couple of programs are running it jumps upto 700-800MB!
So, how can I gt Vista to eat less RAM? Or rolling back to Windows XP will
be appropriate?

If you have 1 GB of RAM that is more than enough for 99% of ALL users.
The only exceptions is if your video card grabs some so you don't
really start out with 1 GB or if you're one of those strange game
nuts, then more RAM may help or if you use your computer as a server.
Otherwise you're buying into a line of bull if you've been told buy
more RAM.

Only worry about RAM IF your system starts to slow to a crawl and it
obvious is using Virtual Memory more than it should by your hard drive
trashing almost non stop.

Windows is designed to use a lot of RAM. It is also designed to give
it back to other applications as they need it. That usually works. So
it sounds like you're worrying about nothing.

 

[Steve Thackery]

Empty RAM is wasted RAM. Vista preloads it will all sorts of stuff it
"thinks" you'll need, thus - when you do need it - it responds instantly
instead of loading it from disk.

If an application needs the RAM, the preloaded content is discarded.

So, it's a good thing, and helps speed up your system.

Having said all that, Vista in general does NEED more RAM, but the 1G you've
got is fine.

Steve

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have 1 GB of RAM in my laptop. I remember that before installing Vista, XP
was eating Ram as much as Vista even when idle,around 525MB etc. And when
only a couple of programs are running it jumps upto 700-800MB!
So, how can I gt Vista to eat less RAM? Or rolling back to Windows XP will
be appropriate?

Wanting to minimize the amount of memory Windows uses is a
counterproductive desire. Windows Vista, like XP before it, 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.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Rocky77

Vista, just like most previous versions of Windows caches as much RAM as
possible for running processes. This does not mean that this RAM is not
available for a new process that you start. When you start a new program
that needs more RAM, the RAM will be released for that program.

The thing to remember is that RAM that is not being used is wasted RAM.