High RAM usage?

[higgins]

Hi all!

As I've come to use CPU meter gadget, I noticed that the RAM usage of Windows 7 is extremely high. I mean, I used to run XP with 1GB or RAM and then upgraded it to 2GB and barring some high-intensity work, it was IMO never lacking anything... but running 7 I think I've never seen the RAM usage under 75% from my current 4GB! It's quite common to have 80% usage even when the computer isn't particularly doing anything. I use almost exactly the same software than I used to with my 2GB XP. What's eating up my RAM? Is this high usage normal?

Thanks!

 

[Jonathan_King]

Hello,

What anti-virus are you using?

Could you please post a screenshot of the Performance tab, of Task Manager, sorted by memory usage?

Thanks,
~JK

 

[higgins]

I use AVG free edition.

On the shots...
"Regular processes" totals 646 228 K, "all users processes" that are visible on the shot total 907 556 K.

As seen, the computer uses 69-70% of its 4GB memory.

 

[antt]

Have a look in the performance tab of the task manager, check out the stat under 'Physical Memory' that says 'Available:'
This is a more accurate reflection of your available RAM. Windows 7 (and Vista) include a technology called SuperFetch, which caches data from your hard drive to RAM to make computer use faster. It is quite ingenious how it does it, as it takes into account the programs you use during certain times of the day and week and loads them before you ask for it. This means that it is instantly there instead of having to load straight from the hard drive, which is much slower.

But don't worry, if a program needs a lot of memory, Windows 7 will dump enough cache to load the program instantly. The 'Available:' stat is the amount of memory free + memory cached, as the cached memory can be dumped immediately.

This behaviour is normal and nothing to worry about.

 

[higgins]

Ah, the huge memory load is normal (and good) then. Thanks!

 

[jr26]

It looks like your just running a lot of stuff at once. You can see (6) google chrome processes alone then throw in itunes and skype etc etc. One thing kind of curious though is on the second screenshot it looks odd that msn messenger and svhost are both using 100k+.

EDIT:

MY fault svhost running that high is normal. Still not sure on messenger though.

 

[higgins]

It looks like your just running a lot of stuff at once. You can see (6) google chrome processes alone then throw in itunes and skype etc etc.

Six browser tabs, Skype and a music player is a LOT? :shock:

One thing kind of curious though is on the second screenshot it looks odd that msn messenger and svhost are both using 100k+.

Not normal?