Computer recognizes 8GB of ram, but only uses 30% of it?

Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Intel Q9550
ATI radeon 5770
P5QPL-AM ASUS motherboard
OCZ 8GB (2x 4GB) Platinum series RAM. pc2-6400 DDR2, 240 pin, non ecc, unbuffered

I have installed 8GB ram into my computer. Both my BIOS and system properties state I can use all 8GB of it. However- even when I put my computer under huge strain, I've never seen it go higher that 30-31%. It idles on about %20, so that means when I put strain on it, it only ever goes up by %10! I have not set a limit in msconfig either.
It's frustrating me why my computer isn't using all my ram. If anybody has any suggestions, let me know!

Here's an example: I open photoshop with a huge canvas (A0), and went crazy with a large brush. I've allowed PS to use %75 of my memory. PS lags heavily, yet my ram will not budge higher than 30-31%. Here is a screenshot of it. The ram is the steady blue line.



I would be extremely thankful if anybody could share any thoughts/information. Thanks :)

Is the photoshop a 32 bit or 64 bit application? If it's 32 bit that could be why.

I have 8GB of RAM and rarely see it go above about 30% even when using my recording studio program (Sonar) and large music files - and I've using the 64 bit version of Sonar.

It's the 64 bit version. I guess I wouldn't be too concerned if Photoshop wasn't lagging. It's just that I would assume Photoshop would utilize the remaining 60-70% of RAM instead of slowing down and only using 20-30% of it :/

However- even when I put my computer under huge strain, I've never seen it go higher that 30-31%. It idles on about %20

Windows7 will aromatically allocate the requested amount of memory that a program will use. There is nothing abnormal with that, so no need to worry


Test your RAM if you think that it has defects
RAM - Test with Memtest86+

I think you can manually set the memory usage in the Performance section. See the performance preferences part on this page.

Perfecting Images in Photoshop CS5 > Setting Preferences

Ah, okay then. So it's perfectly normal to idle around 15-20%, and go up to only 30% under strain?
While that is great news, I'm still curious as to why Photoshop continues to lag when I have a free 5700+ MB ram to use.

I think you can manually set the memory usage in the Performance section. See the performance preferences part on this page.

I checked that out. I set my memory usage in PS to use 75% of it, which is about 6GB. However, as I've said, Photoshop continues to lag with large canvases/brushes, and never uses more then approx. 2500 MB ram.
That's my main concern. I assign a potention 6GB for photoshop to use, yet as shown in the pic, it never goes over 2500mb. I believe if there was a way to let photoshop REALLY use 6GB, it would stop lagging and run smoothly ^^' is this correct or am i misguided?

Read this excellent article on optimizing PS.

Optimize Photoshop performance | CS4, CS5 | Windows 7, Vista, XP

Hi there
In any OS REAL RAM usage is a very difficult parameter to determine.

Th OS will allocate paging and swap files and there is often very little relationship to the actual RAM used at any one time compared to the amount of available RAM in the system.

All you can say is that in normal circumstances more REAL RAM will mean you can run more CONCURRENT applications before serious paging occurs.

Most typical applications such as MS Office etc don't even reallt tax a 1 GB machine.

If you load up say a few Virtual machines then the 8 GB will be gobbled up in no time at all --Virtual Machines just EAT RAM like there's no tomorrow.

To understand how memory allication works you need a basic tutorial on Operating Systems 101.

At the base level they all tend to be fairly similar in managing Virtual Memory, scheduling tasks, handling I/O etc.

The GUI part is where the OS's start differing a LOT from each other.

Cheers
jimbo