Solved Free RAM

[fezbombmatt]

Im using 64bit Win7 with 8gb RAM, but the most of RAM that gets used is under 2GB almost garunteed.

Is it possible to increase my overall system performance by sacrificing some RAM to lets say increase the Superfetch cache so literally everything i use may be up and ready all the time

That would be awesome.

 

[Dude]

fezbombmatt, review this tutorial

:ar: Memory

 

[fezbombmatt]

Nice try Dude....

Nope thats not what i ment, my PC already uses by DEFAULT my entire memory.

I mean is there anything i can modify to benefit myself as i have alot of unused RAM.

Basically i have installed alot more RAM than i thought i would need, i have heard of people increasing the cache of Superfetch which is there in fact to optimize your PC.

Now first thought of if we could increase this surely that would only benefit the system?

Let me know your thoughts

 

[Dude]

This will show you how to change pagefile size

:ar: Change the size


I would recommend to let windows manage it

Look here for some other tips to optimize windows 7

:ar: optimize w7

 

[fezbombmatt]

The Pagefile only kicks in when the RAM is running low. Which is never in my case.

I am not in need of optimizing windows as its fine however..

I want to know whether i can tweak anything so some of my unused RAM could be put to better use rather than not being used at all.

 

[Dude]

Maybe a ram Disc

Here is a post with another link to view

http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...w-make-ram-drive-win7-64-a-2.html#post2323583

 

[LMiller7]

Windows 7 is very good at managing memory for best performance. I expect that you are seeing the 2 GB RAM usage in the memory usage graph in Task Manager. This is accurate but can be quite misleading if you don't understand how things work. The graph doesn't account for all memory usage, in particular it doesn't account for that used by Superfetch. All memory except that labeled as "Free" is in use.

To get a better idea of what is happening open the Resource Monitor and look at the memory tab. In particular notice the value for "Standby" memory. This memory contains system and application code and data but has not been accessed recently. It is available for the use of any application, just like free memory. But until that time it can be returned to the application that owned it. It is something like a cache. Standby memory also contains Superfetch data.

The graph doesn't show all memory usage because, particularly on system with 4 GB or less RAM, it would be nearly 100% most of the time. That wouldn't be very interesting or useful.

There really isn't anything you can do to force Windows to make better use of memory. Putting the pagefile on a RAMDisk, as some people have suggested, is a silly idea that will almost always impair performance. Disabling the pagefile or reducing it in size is also a bad idea. It is put forward by people who don't really understand how the pagefile works.

 

[LMiller7]

The Pagefile only kicks in when the RAM is running low. Which is never in my case.

Wrong. No operating system in living memory has ever worked that way.

The pagefile is not simply some kind of overflow area used only when RAM is short. It is used as a place to offload rarely used data leaving more of your fast memory for more important purposes. It will generally improve performance.

A RAMDisk was once a useful thing, back in the dark ages of DOS. But those days are long gone. Modern operating systems have a sophisticated system cache that provides most of the advantages of a RAMDisk with fewer problems. The OS can usually make better use of RAM than a RAMDisk.

 

[fezbombmatt]

So from what your saying my 'Free' RAM is 4GB. And creating a ramdisc would only give me the option to basically install certain applications to it. A total of 4GB.

That wouldnt be much use as i was thinking of a whole system boost.

Using all the free ram for that would just slow my system up anyway so thats out of the question tbh.

I guess my question is answered.

First time ive heard of ramdisc though. Glad i asked as thats kind of handy to know

 

[Dude]

Here is a good link on superfetch, I mentioned a ram disc as you seemed to want to try something different. I have been thinking about trying it out myself.

 

[fezbombmatt]

The Pagefile only kicks in when the RAM is running low. Which is never in my case.

Wrong. No operating system in living memory has ever worked that way.

The pagefile is not simply some kind of overflow area used only when RAM is short. It is used as a place to offload rarely used data leaving more of your fast memory for more important purposes. It will generally improve performance.

A RAMDisk was once a useful thing, back in the dark ages of DOS. But those days are long gone. Modern operating systems have a sophisticated system cache that provides most of the advantages of a RAMDisk with fewer problems. The OS can usually make better use of RAM than a RAMDisk.

Oh, im slightly confused as if i have plenty of free RAM, why would the pagefile kick in? Does windows set a limit of some kind that it wants to be 'active' if you like at a time?

If you had even more RAM installed say 16GB, wouldn't disabling it help things? Its 1 less thing for the HDD to do..

 

[Dude]

No disabling it wont help. Check out the superfetch link in my last post that I edited

 

[fezbombmatt]

That link was quite useful. I already had a basic understanding of it, turns out its a little more advanced of what i previously thought.

But still i would like to know why windows would NOT benefit from just having more RAM and not using the pagefile at all.

 

[Dude]

SuperFetch' second goal is to make applications launch faster. SuperFetch does this by pre-loading your most often used applications in your main memory, based on not only usage patterns, but also on when you use them. For instance, if you have the same routine every morning (Chrome - Mail - Miranda - blu), SuperFetch will pre-load these into memory in the morning. If your evening routine is different (for instance, it includes Word, Excel, and Super Awesome Garden Designer), SuperFetch will adapt, and load those in memory instead during the evening.


Pre-load being the key

 

[whs]

You never said for what functions you want to increase the performance.

Most operations are bottlenecked by the disk, that's where a SSD is a great help. Internet operations are obviously dependent on your internet speed - no RAM or SSD will help here. Number crunching like when you do video encoding depends on the muscle of the CPU and for games you depend on the GPU performance.

So if you were a bit more specific about your performance wishes, maybe we can find a solution (which may cost money).

 

[fezbombmatt]

Thats pretty much what i read from your link.

I was thinking if the Pagefile did not exist, and Windows never page'd any running files as there would ALWAYS be enough RAM available lets say, wouldn't that work better?

For Windows to never have to worry about how much resources its running at one time.

Superfetch does an amazing job at the end of the day though.

 

[fezbombmatt]

You never said for what functions you want to increase the performance.

Most operations are bottlenecked by the disk, that's where a SSD is a great help. Internet operations are obviously dependent on your internet speed - no RAM or SSD will help here. Number crunching like when you do video encoding depends on the muscle of the CPU and for games you depend on the GPU performance.

So if you were a bit more specific about your performance wishes, maybe we can find a solution (which may cost money).

Just in general performance for application loading times, im not requiring all this performance im just enquiring what is possible with extra RAM involved really.

 

[whs]

Forget the RAM, that won't help and for an efficient RAMdisk you need a lot more RAM. I suggest you get an SSD for the OS. A good 128GB model will cost a bit over $100 but it will make a world of difference.

Watch this - a little video I once made booting Windows 8 from an SSD - and that is in a virtual partition which is slower than in native installations.

Start Win8 in vBox1.wmv - YouTube

 

[fezbombmatt]

I couldnt settle for anything less than a Cherryville

Thats if i do consider a SSD

 

[Dude]

WHS is right, using an SSD would be a big performance increase for you.