Memory management stress testing: Lol, I love 7

So, I decided to open a bazillion processes with 7 to see how it would perform with a bunch of apps open, as in more instances of apps and individual apps than I, or almost anyone would ever need to have open.

I think the image speaks for itself. My PC has 2 gb of ram, part of which is shared with the video card for graphics.

Of course it slowed down a bit at first with 42 windows open(plus 7 tabs in opera, including more resource hogging cites like Cnet, facebook, and youtube(playing a video muted)), but I was still able to watch a DVD quality movie without drops in framerate. What amazed me more though is that when I went to the bathroom and returned, rather than continue to run slowly, my computer actually sped up to near how it was performing with only 5 windows open.

I tried doing this with vista once, and I couldn't bear the performance past 12 or so windows. This is some seriously improved memory management.

I agree that memory management is much improved in Seven. But just so you know, your test is not really valid. Had you given Vista a moment as you did seven, then you probably would have seen an improvement in performance there also as all of the programs that you are not using could/would be moved to the swap/page file until you made them active again. Seven may be faster at doing that. Really the only programs that needed to be in memory were the video (Opera) and the DVD player, by what you posted. Having 12 or 42 windows open doesn't make that many programs active in memory. That's what the swap/page file is for.

Gary

The thing that first tipped me off to Seven's handling of memory was google earth. In vista I could play around for 30-40 minutes and then it would just stop functioning. Look at the ram usage-85+%. Close earth and it would drop back to normal and I could open earth and play again for 30-40 mins. First time I tried earth in seven beta, I crusied around for over an hour and my ram was still at about 40%. This was when I was running only 32 bit systems and had 4GB of Ram. Haven't tried that yet with x64 and 8GB, but should be interesting.

Gary

You should not have the pagfile(s) disabled!!! Even with 8GB of RAM, you are usually hurting performance and overall stability. RAM CAN swap/page, but those tasks won't be time-critical, and in the meantime - you'll be wasting MORE RAM! One way or another, data WILL be retrieved off the HDD; the PF will help streamline the entire process.

Of course, there is no reason for JAI-NORMUS PFs...1.5x is quite absurd.
BUT-
512MB+512MB NOT!= 1GB (not exactly anyway - it's my understanding that this wastes some of the purpose of a dual PF) <- and in my opinion this is very small (TOO SMALL).

Memory management - if anything - is FAR more complex these days. Hungry programs, different platforms (x64 vs x86),
and flat-out different forms of implementing memory in an app at any given time. Leave some room for apps that can't manage large chunks of RAM - just in case.

These are not the days of XP...Windows will max-out those RAM modules all by itself...and it SHOULD be making your experience nearly transparent; everything should be FAST (if not instant). Seeing your free memory reach " 0 " is a very GOOD thing, and loading a first-time-use app of approx 1GB+ will not be any slower...with a large enough PF - maybe faster. This is the ONLY real test of Windows 7 - but I can assure you, there will always be room for improvements - it's Microsoft! No matter how much they start to get something right - efficiency is sacrificed to some degree. If that means a little tweak here or there can do something - OK, but we should try and stay pretty close to the standard these days. NO to NO PAGEFILES!!! LOL

Oww, now i dont know what side to take :S:S:S

Enzo.

So, your telling me that 4GB of ram is sufficient enough to run W7 without pagefile and its likely it wont crash?

Enzo.