Unexplainable very high memory usage

A picture is worth a thousand words: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/669/memoryo.png

As you can see from the screenshots I have 4 GB of ram. My current opened processes use approximately 500 MB of that.

Inexplicably, though, the memory in use is 1303 GB. What's using 700 MB?!?!

Additionally, why is my "Modified" memory always so high? Note that in that particular screenshot it's actually low, it fluctuates between 400 and 800 MB. I've never seen it lower than 400 MB. Do note that modified memory is not available to other programs (unlike the standby memory, which will be overwritten if necessary).

This leaves me with only 2 GB of ram free for my games, which routinely run oom. 1 GB is magically unavailable. What's using it ?!

logicearth said:

You memory usage is perfectly fine. Windows Vista and 7 have a lot more efficient memory managers then Windows XP. And no, you are not left with only 2 GB of free memory. At the tip of a hat almost the entire block of memory can be cleared and given away to those memory hungry applications.

No it is not cleared.

int megabytes = 0;
while (malloc(1024 * 1024)) ++megabytes;
printf("%d mb", megabytes);

Result was 2212 megabytes, so, like I said, the memory in use and Modified are not available.

You are confusing with the blue bar (the standby memory); that one is overwritten. But only that one.

logicearth said:

No, everything is cleared. Every background task is cleared when more and more and more memory is allocated to those processes. But you have to understand one thing. 32bit applications have a max ceiling of 2 to 3 GB. While 64 bit application can go up to 7 to 8 TB.

It depends how they were compiled; if they are large address aware 32 bit applications can reach 3 GB (4 GB if the OS is x64 like mine). Anyway it's irrelevant, like I said the memory in use and modified is not released when the system is full of memory, I just tried just to make sure.

Do I need to post a screenshot as proof?

I would "clean up" the PC a little Go to Start > Run, and type msconfig, Uncheck all entries except for your anti-virus software, spyware detector, and personal fire wall if you have one.

If you're;re an experienced user........Go to Start > Run and type services.msc. Look over the list and stop or disable things you know you don't need

The “missing” stuff could be drivers, and such, the snapshot your posting looks like a regular 4gig system to me.Win7 will suck up as much as possible, can you easily add some more memory?


Take a look at what was covered in these 2 threads,
35-60% of my memory is MIA.. help me find it!
svchost.exe consuming ~200MB RAM
and see if any of that stuff helps, if not , post the results in your thread, and we can see what else there is to try.

I read the posts and wanted to add my two cents. I have 6GB of ram, a fresh install of Win7 x64, and the screenshot shows what happens after leaving my PC on for a couple days. (3782+MB being used by modified memory ATM).

http://wow.deconstruct.me/images/ExcessiveMemory.jpg

Any ideas on this?

Bump.

I'm having the same problem all of a sudden. Getting a little tired of losing 3 GB of system memory.

Win7, 64-bit. 4GB RAM.



Thanks!

Nick