Too much memory on standby.....

If you are too much concerned about standby memory, you can empty it with RamMap from Microsoft.

One time it was useful for me was when copying files to my usb hdd. The copy was taking long as the transfer rate was around 2 MB/sec and right after emptying the standby list, it jumped to 30MB/sec which would be the normal rate.

Hope this helps.

sorry about the zombie revival of this thread.

I to am encountering several computers of similar builds experiencing lag while others are not. Those with lag, have excessive standby memory in use. 12+ gb of available 16gb.

Question to those who have posted perviously with the same issue...
How many of you had google chrome installed?

The computers with issues have google chrome installed. The more it is used, the faster the lag problem becomes apparent. One computer took till last week to show symptoms after having been installed after the IE bleeding heart problem last year. After google chrome was uninstalled, the lag and excessive standby ram allocation dissapeared.

A high value of standby memory is a good thing and there really is no such thing as too much. The normal state of available memory is on the standby list. There is no need or benefit in having a large amount of free memory. The optimum value is zero.

Yes, I do understand how everyone in this thread has explained how ram is allocated. I get that much. What i dont understand is how lag and large amounts of standby memory tend to go hand in hand. The issue seems to be firmly divided between people who say there is an issue and people who say that it is a non-issue.

There are 25 computers split between office staff upstairs, sales, service and parts.
4 computers upstairs- never had google chrome, have never had lag issues
4 sales computers-used google chrome temporarily until lag issues presented themselves
8 parts staff-users who have google chrome open during the day experience lag-2 of those users only have it open when being used, closed otherwise and do not experience lag issues with 16gb ram...standby memory hovers in the 4-5gb mark.
7 service computers-only one uses chrome on a daily basis for access to one companies warranty claims, reported severe lag to the point of affecting keystrokes in entry fields. I equate it to using a pentium 1 with win95, where you had to wait a sec to see what you typed.
2 rental computers-never had google chrome, never had lag issues, my computer also runs a small database and openfire IM server.

What can i use to to test for my lag issues?

When i look through performance, the only issues that are apparent is standby memory is large compared to computers with no lag issues.

We have here 2 conditions:
1. A high value for standby memory.
2. Performance lag.

It has been assumed that the former is the cause of the latter. But I don't see any real evidence that this is the case, or even that this is a memory problem at all.

Having a high value for standby memory is by no means unusual. Even on my 4 GB system I often see it over 50% of RAM and on this forum I have often seen it higher, particularly on systems with large amounts of memory. I see this as a perfectly normal situation on systems that are not under high memory pressure. Many computers have performance issues so statistically you would expect that a high proportion would also have high standby memory.

Standby memory is also used in Linux and Mac OS, the principal difference being the terms used.

Standby memory is nothing new, being a part of the NT platform from it's release in 1993. But even then I don't think it was new. NT owes much to VMS, a popular OS of the 1970's and 1980's, and both largely developed by David Cutler. There are many similarities between them.

But Vista was the first version of Windows where standby memory was shown in a system utility. For the first time it showed that most of available memory wasn't free, as as was assumed to be the normal case, but something called standby. It was and is often seen as some kind of aberration instead of what it really is.

Standby memory serves a dual role. It is available for use at any time by any process. It is in no way reserved. At the same time it contains application and system code and data and acts as a kind of cache. Windows will quite properly convert free memory to standby whenever it gets the opportunity.

When diagnosing a problem it is important to keep an open mind. It is a mistake to prematurely jump to conclusions that are not supported by the facts.

not sure yall understand the purpose of RAM. your RAM is process of the system. CPU controls the RAM, RAM makes your programs work and the disk drive is where the ram gets it files from. it what allows you to watch a movie and play a video game at the same time. why would you want to fill your "processor" with pre mapping of youtube videos when you want to watch a movie and play a game. also every time my computer hangs up, lags or stutters cause a video game and cached memory are fighting over RAM and stressing the system this cant be good.


your going to a grocery store to get 10 items, your basket randomly fills with random stuff, none of which the ten items your looking for. " but basket space not uses is wasted basket space" sure, but i only want the ten items. your logic is illogical.


RAMmap is good for getting rid of standby, you would think you would be able to limit how much is used in cached standby memory.


standby memory is used memory, its used pre mapping internet sites, useful if all you do is surf the internet. standby isnt avaialble memory, its has to dump whatever it is being used for so what ever program needs the ram now. but in reality the program needed the RAM 3 seconds ago when it was still being used by standby. standby memory is putting unneeded stress on your system as your computer has an unnessicary memory conflict.