I closed all my programs and my RAM is idling at 2.5 gigs. That seems like a lot to me. I have the internet and my web cam just opened with 2 other lazy programs and I'm at 3 gigs. I'm building another computer so maybe I need to stick 8 gigs of Ram in it?
You need to find out what is sucking up all that ram usage ,,, :)
Windows 7 will preload applications that you typically use into RAM. You need to focus on AVAILABLE memory within Task Manager. My box with 3.5GB of recognized ram says 700MB free...but 2400MB available.
If the RAM is there, might as well use it. If a heavy RAM application comes along, Windows will instantly free that cached RAM and let the application use it.
You have nothing to be concerned with.
Click on Show Processes from All Users, it should be there
check up your startup programs that are running when you start up and disable any that you don't need.
I've found Process Explorer to be more accurate than task manager when it comes to reporting memory usage, and it may help you track down the offending program(s) easier.
What's being used should be the difference between Total in Task Manager and Available. For example, my box currently says
Total. 3571
Cached 2455
Avail: 2420
Free: 19
Thus, I would say 3571-2420 = 1151MB is in use. That's not bad running Windows 7, connected to VPN, running an IM, running Firefox, running Outlook
If you looked at 19MB free...you would think my machine needs RAM and it needs more NOW to do anything. But in actuality, I got 2.4GB available to the OS and I can launch dozens of more applications and they will all just run fine.
If you want a quick and easy view of system memory available / used / free / etc, use resmon - click the memory tab, and it gives you a nice graph. As pparks1 has said, the important number is *available*, not free.
I am also idling at 2.5 gig.....
I have 8 gig ram, and 5.5 is available.
I see this thread is a little old, so is this normal with all current updates?
Thankyou.
note: I am using windows resource monitor for the stats.
This is normal. Windows 7 will try to utilize as much RAM as it can. Much of it is cached applications so they start and launch faster. However, this cached RAM is available to use for any application that needs it. So, if you are going to launch something that does require a lot of RAM, the cache is immediately cleared and the RAM is made available.
If you have the RAM in your machine, why not use it? It's much faster than any hard drive.
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