MSI afterburner and tray readouts - pagefile # doesn't make sense

[tgfyhre]

I currently have my pagefile set to 3072MB for initial and maximum. I've been having lots of pagefiling issues due to my low amount of memory (3GB) on my 32bit system. I've already built a new Windows 10 64-bit system but until it's up and running I'm still using my Windows 7 PC for a while.

Anyways I'm running MSI Afterburner to monitor my temps. I like it because it gives me tray temps for my video card as well as fan speed, CPU temps, CPU load, and memory usage. But I'm confused by what MSI afterburner is showing me for memory usage. I have a choice of displaying a bar indicator or a number in the tray. For the memory and pagefile, I have the bars being displayed. But the bars don't make sense. According to MSI afterburner, my pagefile usage hit 4882MB last evening, and later it was at 4337MB! How can that be if it's set to 3072? And the bars for both memory and pagefile aren't even halfway up the gauge, even when my memory is maxed out. If I hover over the memory bar in the tray right now, it's saying RAM usage: 2428MB, yet the bar is only a little bit filled. The pagefile bar is a bit higher up but it says 2847MB currently. So shouldn't that be close to the top of the bar since the pagefile is almost maxed out currently? Very confused.

 

[LMiller7]

I don't use MSI Afterburner so I have to make some guesses. I believe the pagefile bar isn't showing pagefile usage at all but the commit charge. This is what the Pagefile gauge showed in XP so there is that precedent. Compare the numbers to what Task Manager shows for Commit.

I can't explain the memory usage numbers. Maybe if I could see a screenshot. A screenshot of Task Manager - Performance tab would allow comparisons. I know what the numbers in Task Manager mean.

Maybe somebody who uses MSI Afterburner could explain.

Edit: The commit charge is a difficult concept to understand and I will not attempt to explain it here. It doesn't help that many Internet articles get it wrong. It is not pagefile usage, RAM usage, or any combination of the two.

 

[tgfyhre]

Thanks for the reply. It does seem to be reflecting commit charge, as currently the tray icon is matching the commit charge in task manager. I have no idea what commit charge is, but I guess what's important is it's not accurately showing my pagefile usage so I guess I'll just disable that tray gauge as it means nothing to me. Task manager says 2835/6133, but my pagefile should be locked at 3072. So I guess it's totally different. MSI Afterburner is doing its users a disservice by labeling that gauge as pagefile since it's clearly not the pagefile.

As far as the RAM gauge, it's currently saying RAM usage: 1748MB, yet the bar is way down on the bottom - the more memory is used, the higher the bar climbs up the gauge, but since I only have 3GB of RAM, shouldn't 1,738MB be half-way up the gauge? Task manager currently says:

Physical Memory (MB):

Total - 3063
cached - 865
Available - 1313
Free - 475

Also, I can't seem to find any way to set MSI Afterburner to shut my system down if temps hit too high. I can do that with core temp. I liked the idea of only having one app monitoring all my temps and load, but it's not particularly useful if it can't shut down my system in an emergency like core temp can.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I use msi afterburner but only as a way to tweak the fan curve/ speed and of course oc the gpu when wanting too.
Which version are you using at current I'm on v4.2.0.7826

If you're worried about overheating I'd look at a better cpu cooler and adding more intake and exhaust case fans or stop overclocking the cpu/ gpu/ ram.

 

[tgfyhre]

I've got the latest version of MSI Afterburner. Actually I just built a new Windows 10 64bit PC. My old Windows 7 PC was just not up the tasks I use it for these days. It runs nice and cool so no heat worries, but I like the idea of having a safety net in case something fails while I'm out of the house. With coretemp I can set a max CPU temp before emergency shutdown. My old windows 7 PC has hit that a couple times so I know coretemp does the job. Like I said I love that I can monitor everything and have a nice tray readout for all my temps with MSI Afterburner, but it doesn't have the ability to shut down the PC in case of overheating which seems to be a silly omission since it can monitor temps.