Memory

[Benbow]

I have windows 7 64 bit on my 64bit machine and have 2x2 gb memory installed. If I increased this to 2x4gb would this improve my pc's performance. I don't use it for gaming.

 

[zigzag3143]

I have windows 7 and have 2x2 gb memory installed. If I increased this to 2x4gb would this improve my pc's performance. I don't use it for gaming.

Yes but be sure they are matched ram or your performance cold even go down

 

[whs]

It may improve a little depending on what you do. If you have e.g. very demanding graphics application or do a lot of video editing work, it will certainly help. But for the daily bread and butter apps it will most likely do nothing.
Check in Resource Monitor > Memory tab how your RAM is used now and how many hard page faults you have. That will give you an idea.

 

[Orbital Shark]

The biggest thing you'll notice is HD access. Files & application will take a considerably shorter time to open/run.

 

[whs]

The biggest thing you'll notice is HD access. Files & application will take a considerably shorter time to open/run.

Is that an effect of the caching? Because the HD does not churn any faster.

 

[Benbow]

My resource monitor, with my pc doing very little except using firefox, tells me that I am currently using "85% used physical memory". Is this normal or should I be considering increasing my memory? I use Skype and quite often have this running plus Family Tree Maker plus Firefox running Ancestry + other things.

 

[whs]

The 85%, is that the sum of "In Use" and "Modified"? (on the colored bar) - If that is the case, that would be unusual and would need further investigation.

 

[Solarstarshines]

Running 8 gigs of ram is cool if you plan on useing it but if you have 4 gigs you really wont see too much if adding 4 more unless you are doing video or photo apps etc

 

[Benbow]

3516mb in use. Why would this be?

 

[Benbow]

I noticed that I had skype and Family Tree Manager running in the task bar. I have turned both of these off but it hasn't made much difference - now. 3367

 

[whs]

3516mb in use. Why would this be?

If that is the green bar, that is a lot. It should be 1 to 1.5 GIGs. Do you have a lot of startup programs? If yes, disable them for a moment (not the AV program though) and see what happens.

 

[Benbow]

If the startup folder I need is the "startup" in the "start" menu, it is empty!

 

[mjf]

I have a similar setup to you with 2x2GB and task manager shows with Firefox and system background stuff:
Total : 4095
Cached : 1974
Available : 3106
Free : 1245

What appears on the memory usage graph is Total - Available = approx 1GB
This is also what appears on the gadget gauge.

So it depends what you are reading. If my usage is 80%+ for extended periods then I think I have a problem.
I use memory intensive apps like photoshop and find 4GB is fine. I think it depends how many apps you want to run at the same time.

 

[Benbow]

This kind of problem is new to me. Mine is as follows -
Available 652mb
Cached 634mb
Total 4095mb
Installed 4096
Free 12mb

I think that I must have a problem but I haven't a clue where to start.

 

[mjf]

This kind of problem is new to me. Mine is as follows -
Available 652mb
Cached 634mb
Total 4095mb
Installed 4096
Free 12mb

I think that I must have a problem but I haven't a clue where to start.

Are these figures from Task Manager? Looks like a problem.
Try running Windows built in memory check first.

Press Start - Type "memory" no quotes
select "Windows Memory Diagnostic"
tell it to test now - your PC will restart & a memory test will happen.
It will take some time and a 2 pass progress bar will show.

 

[LiquidSnak]

First, can you post a snip of resource monitor on the memory tab?

 

[whs]

If the startup folder I need is the "startup" in the "start" menu, it is empty!

Type msconfig into the start/search field and hit Enter. Then click on the startup tab. Then you see your startup programs and can disable them. Then reboot.

 

[mjf]

First, can you post a snip of resource monitor on the memory tab?

Let's ask someone else to confuse him further with another piece of advice to try first!!!
If he hasn't got a memory problem then the next logical step is to then find what's consuming the memory resources.

 

[LiquidSnak]

Let's start with the complicated things that take the most time then Your show, mate.

 

[zigzag3143]

This kind of problem is new to me. Mine is as follows -
Available 652mb
Cached 634mb
Total 4095mb
Installed 4096
Free 12mb

I think that I must have a problem but I haven't a clue where to start.

This isnt a problem at all. You are running 64 bit and minimum for that is 2 gigs. You have 652 avail, 634 cached. Thats basically 1.3 not used. the other 700 megs (4gigs- 2 for the system-1.3 basically free) is probably being used by the video card.

Is there another reason you think you have a problem?

Ken