Using heaps of ram

whs said:

I just took IE to stand for a browser - any browser. It was not supposed to be IE specific.

Thanks for clarifying that!

~Maxx~

whs said:

Maxxwire, Check the cache in the morning after system start and then again at night before shutdown - you will already see a considerable difference in cache size (provided you have done many different things during the day).

I did as you suggested and there is some difference in the amount of RAM cached in Win 7 x64 with 8 GB of RAM. I was using my Vista x86 laptop also yesterday and it caches within a few MB of its entire 3 GB of RAM and I am wondering if the reason that the amount of RAM cashed in Win 7 is smaller might be because it has 266% more RAM on board to begin with?

~Maxx~
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I run 8GB as well.

But for some reason, mine doesn't usually have anything free.

Typically around 2GB in use @ idle, the rest cached & showing 0 free is normal for mine.

I use a great deal of Video encoding tools though, so that may be why.
Then again, around 62-65 running processes at idle is normal for me too.

Wishmaster said:

I run 8GB as well.

But for some reason, mine doesn't usually have anything free.

Typically around 2GB in use @ idle, the rest cached & showing 0 free is normal for mine.

Wishmaster- I have just added your 'Super-DuperFetch' to the top of my Win 7 wish list!

~Maxx~
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Here are a few quoted from this article about Superfetch...

" If you open Task Manager (in Windows 7), it'll tell you Total, Cached, Available, and Free. The problems arise from the "Cached" figure, since this figure is generally substantially higher than the "Free" figure.

When people look at the Task Manager, and they see the figure for "Cached" compared to the number of "Free", people assume that only very little of their memory is available for the applications they are about to launch. What they forget is that the Cache filled by SuperFetch and the standard caching mechanism runs on a lower priority; in other words, memory requests by applications will always supersede SuperFetch.

In other words, whatever you see in the "Cached" figure is actually accessible to applications.

SuperFetch does not impact your every day computing experience in a negative way. SuperFetch makes often-used applications load fast - it doesn't make other applications load any slower. As such, turning it off, as some guides advise you to do, can only result in a slowdown, not a speed up."

~Maxx~
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Those are good points Max, and I must say I agree.

This is the big reason why I think leaving Superfetch On, (Even with SSDs) is a excellent idea.

True SSDs are fast, but nowhere near as fast as RAM, so Superfetch is still very useful no matter what setup someone may have.

It can only help :)