So, according to my math (adding up the values shown in the task manager), I should only be using about 15% of my total memory. However, the system is reporting about 60% usage. Earlier, while installing a game, this shot up to 95-97%, when my math told me I should only have been using about 30%. I've tried clearing the memory cache and that made no difference. Where else could the problem lie?
TIA.
How much memory does your video card have?
512MB
But none of that should be used by normal processes.
Really? Why?
And regardless, why would this affect my main memory usage?
Are you looking at all user's processes and adding those up or just your own users?
There are a few things that will suck up your memory while booting up, the largest is your vid card, followed by some of the drivers that get loaded. If you have a 2 gig vid card, 2 gigs of your system memory get “stolen”. Its just a fact of life that's the way PC hardware works, the video memory is mirrored in the system memory, and while ugly, and hackish, it is the way things are done.
Think of it as the system draws on a whiteboard the same size and shape as your vid card has, but your vid card has to look at this whiteboard from outside the room, and copy the picture to its own whiteboard for you to see.
The next thing to take a look at is the following 3 views of the task manager. Note that on startup (from a fresh cold boot) I have almost 4 gig of memory in use, this is the single panel screen shot.
Now be sure to look at the second set of screen shots, note the button circled in red, click it to get the stuff that is “non user space” stuff, you should see LOCAL, SYSTEM, and NETWORK , with possibly some others.
The other thing to be aware of SI (1000x) units, vs "PC" units (1024x).
If you can show us the same 3 screen shots, we can get a better understanding of what is going on in your system.
-charlesAttachment 37810
Last edited by charles3; 20 Nov 2009 at 03:58. Reason: uploaded better shots
Thanks for your replies. Here are the screenshots. As you can see, this problem is occurring with an uptime of three days, so it's not just when booting up. I always have the "show processes from all users" box checked. These are the values that I added up.
Last edited by jvincent08; 20 Nov 2009 at 09:16. Reason: Added third screenshot
jvincent08,
You need to remove some programs from startup, Go to Start > Run, and type msconfig. Uncheck all entries except for your anti-virus, spyware detector, and personal firewall if you have one.
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