RAM has almost doubled upon boot

[jasong1968]

Hi all. Using W7 64-bit Ult. (not SP1). Have an Intel duo core i7 960 3.20 GHz, and an ASUS P6T MB with 20 (twenty) GB of Crucial RAM.

Everything seems to be fine, but I noticed the other day that upon boot, my TM is reporting almost double the RAM usage than it used to when I boot. It's been a while snce I last checked so I dont have a time frame, but it hasn't been, say, several months or anything. It used to be around 740 MB, now it's at 1.32 GB. And I don't understand how that is possible. One of the reasons it is (well, was) low is I have Aero turned off. No major changes have been made; haven't installed or updated anything, and I have made no hw changes. This is what I have done so far:

Checked mscongig for any apps launching with Win - nothing there
Also checked the reg (Current vers > run) - nothing there
Checked services.msc, and although there are a bunch of services set to auto (or course), I didn't see anything unusual
A couple of times in the past on this forum, I have been told to do a sfc/scannow from an elevated cmd prompt for other things. Tried that; nothing found
Don't see any services in the TM that look suspicious nor unusual
Did a Spybot scan and a Malwarebytes scan (updated first). Spybot found a cookie; that was it

The one thing I did notice is one of my two csrss.exe images is now at 17,000k, whereas it used to be at about 6,000k/ Not sure if that's of any concern. Still doesn't make up for the difference...I don't think.

Another thing I don't understand: if I add up all of the memory being used from the processes tab, I get approx 151,000k. Well, that's about .144 GB. So why the descrpency between that and what the performance tab says, which again is 1.32 GB?

Any ideas will be appreciated - thanks!

 

[logicearth]

You should stop worring about it. You have so much freakin RAM that 1-2 GB of use is nothing. Using RAM does not decrease performance, it makes it better. Heck even at 1-2 GB usuage you are just wasting all that money you spent to get that RAM.

 

[jasong1968]

You should stop worring about it.

Well, that's really for me to decide.

Heck even at 1-2 GB usuage you are just wasting all that money you spent to get that RAM.

Wasting money? When my project is loaded, RAM usage is at 19.2 GB

Thank you for the response.

Anyone with any ideas here? Thanks.

 

[jasong1968]

bump

 

[jasong1968]

bump again

 

[Brds7t7]

Probably completely unrelated but a few days ago I updated to the latest flash player. Since then, whenever I go on a site which uses flash it's using a huge amount of RAM. A lot more than before.

 

[Victor S]

Only the Shadow knows. But this might help.
Measuring memory usage in Windows 7 | BrandonLive

 

[cluberti]

Agreed - we'd need to see a screenie (at least) from resource monitor on the "Memory" tab. There are all different kinds of reservations and charges that can be placed against virtual memory (which may or may not translate into physical memory usage).

 

[jasong1968]

Took a look at that link - thanks.

Don't really get it, tho.

Here is a s.shot of the RM:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4998/rm2l.jpg

And the ram usage went up again yesterday. Now it's 1.5 GB.

I have to figure out what is going on.

I have many ms visual c++ entries in my ctrl panel:

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/6070/cp1a.jpg

Not sure why I have so many, but I do. Is this perhaps causing a problem?

Thanks again!

 

[Layback Bear]

IMHO nothing is causing a problem because you don't have a problem. A little up and down in ram usage is normal.

 

[jasong1968]

IMHO nothing is causing a problem because you don't have a problem. A little up and down in ram usage is normal.

Are you sure you are posting in the correct thread?

My RAM usage is not going a little up and down.

Anyone with any ideas here?

Thank you.

 

[cluberti]

I am confused - your first screenshot shows approximately 22.25GB free. Note the C++ runtimes themselves are installed to allow programs compiled against specific versions of those runtimes to have that specific version installed, and would not have anything really to do with the problem (other than denoting you probably have a large # of programs that use C++ installed) .

 

[Victor S]

Here is a s.shot of the RM:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4998/rm2l.jpg

Easy to come up with the wrong answer adding up the process columns.
This tells you how the "In Use" memory is actually calculated:
Investigate memory usage with Windows 7 Resource Monitor | TechRepublic
It was news to me too, but I was puzzled by your RM screenshot.
My processes actually added up to real close to the "In use" figure when I brought up RM, so I looked around to satisfy my curiousity. I first thought you had hidden processes and I wanted to find out about that.
Interesting and informative article, but you could just cut to the chase by finding "In Use" in it.
Then you still have to figure out why those memory components have changed for you.
Good luck!

 

[Layback Bear]

I read the proper trend. IMHO 1.3 gigs be used out of 20 gigs is normal. I'm a 1.4 gigs with no problems.

 

[M1GU31]

It's fine you got 20gbs and not even using a quarter of the ram.What's the problem?Windows caches programs to help them load faster and that's why it's using more and frees up space when you need it.If it's not slowing down or anything then why mess with it since there's nothing wrong with the ram usage and that usage is normal,I got 4gbs of ram and use 1.69gbs when having multiple tabs open in google chrome along with some online clients and such and my computer is not slowing down at all and it clears it's when windows ask for more memory and dumps out the files sitting in the ram to make room for the application/applications.

 

[jasong1968]

So, apparently, after trying differing amounts of ram - the more ram you have, the more your ram usage is upon boot. Doesn't make sense to me, but.....

 

[cluberti]

No, it makes sense - Windows is designed (by default) to try and "learn" how you best use the machine, and pre-cache as much of that behavior that comes from the hard disk into RAM before you need it (it does a lot of this activity right after you log in, and if you leave the computer idle for a time, all in the background). If you give it 4GB of RAM, it'll try to cache 3-3.5GB of data (unless you actually need the RAM for something else, of course). If you give it 32GB of RAM, it'll try to cache almost all of that eventually (assuming you cause that much disk activity - apparently I do). It's the way the OS works, unless you have an disk (SSD or hybrid) that scores fast enough on the WEI disk tests. Unless you're running into issues, it's not something you should really be worried about.

If you are having issues, however, we would want to help you troubleshoot those.

 

[jasong1968]

If you are having issues, however, we would want to help you troubleshoot those.

Well, I appreciate that, Mr. Cat herder

It's just that I compose with a sequencer, and have alot of samples loaded, and I try to get every last bit of resources out of my machine. But as I am finding, my template that took 15.1 GB RAM when I had 16 GB RAM, now takes 15.1 GB RAM with 24 GB installed. It has remained unchaged, even tho the RAM usage is now higher when I boot. So, I guess it is not how much RAM is used upon boot, but how the RAM is handled by the OS as you load apps.

Thanks!

 

[cluberti]

Indeed!

 

[Layback Bear]

Some how Windows7 watches things that you and your programs do and are doing and controls the ram. It changes often. It does it quiet well. We are not going to out smart Window 7 when it comes to ram. Happy computing.