missing ram

from WinCustomize Forums
ok, i dont know whats going on here, but ive got a custom built computer with 512mb ram module installed. but for some reason, even after running a memory freeer program, i end up with only 350mb free. i go into task manager, and i add up all the processes memory usage, and comes to around 40mb. where has my other 120mb gone? anyone know?
31,136 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Getting 350 MB free is good if your OS is Windows XP. It can take up to 256 MB just to run Windows.
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If your Video uses "Shared" memory, that means it draws from your overall physical memory. So if you have 128mb of video memory and you don't have a physical Video Card plugged in (another term would be on-board video) that's where it's at. It's very common nowadays because it keeps the machine price down.

In some cases you may have both. Recently Sony released a new driver for my system that lets me boost the Video Card's 128mb up to 256mb by using some shared memory.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
nah, its a standard agp card, the MTB hasnt got on-board video (i know this because it lacks the slot for the monitor). ill just have to manage with what ive got until i can get enough cash for and extra gig or ram. should do for gaming

edit: had a name change, im haxxor incase anyone gets confused
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
350 mb free is pretty good for a 512 mb system.

The reason the different processes only add up to about 40 mb is that there are hidden windows core processes that aren't displayed which take up probably 100 mb in itself; also, that list doesnt include all of the dll's which are loaded with windows, which also take up memory space.

so normal idle free ram should be around 250-350 mb depending on what you have installed.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So you can see that at 350 MB free you are doing pretty good. I have 1024 MB ram, turned computer on 2 hours ago, have only been surfing web and checking email. According to task manager I have 633 MB free.
Reinstall of XP 6 weeks ago, so all the Dell stuff gone, so have just XP, McAfee suite and customization apps loading at start up.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Check Winguides.com and TweakXP.com for memory/core tweaks to get more efficient work out of your 512. I like the idea of keeping a gig of memory going, be sure to get matching sticks, ie., same speed (266/333/400-pc2100/pc2700/pc3200) and it helps to get the same brand. Happy tweaking!
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I find a program called RAM def to be quite useful in recovering some used RAM. It can be used manually, or can sit in the sys tray to recover Ram when it drops below a set level. Can be found at following link
Link
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use Bysoft Free Ram. Get it below:
Link

It works well. Happy skinning!!
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
just to put in my two cents, i think ram "freeing" programs, while they do what they say, they don't help the performance of your computer. while it may look nice and feel good to see a higher amount of memory available, that's about the only benefit you'll get. fundamentally, unused RAM is wasted RAM. unless you're down to your last 10-15% of memory available, you aren't going to notice much of an increase in performance. RAM is used because it is much much faster in transferring information than any hard drive. thus you'd prefer to be using more RAM than your paging file (hard disk used as memory). so clearing your memory is self-defeating.
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Absolutely, cal0140. But...if you are going to use a ram "freeing" program, which I do, use one that is not so intrusive or one that has a footprint not worth using. BySoft's is not intrusive, is small and it is user configurable. With today's PCs having a memory total of 512 and higher, there really seems no need for a ram-freeing app. These apps sometimes make the user feel better. People don't realize that using OSs like XP, the memory used often exceeds what they might think it should be using. I run gaggles of startup programs, you know the usual security software, the skinning software and naturally the XP OS. My idle mem total is 386 give or take a mb. Knowing this, I installed another 512 stick just to make myself feel better about crashing because of not having enough memory. You don't NEED that much, unless you can somehow run Red Hat and Xp at the SAME time. The main reason I use this app is to make sure that, even though I told my OS to unload dlls, those dlls that stick around are unloaded and there's no orphans running around in my banks.

The settings that are default in BySoft, just for example, are set to clear memory when I am down to 51 mb free. As you see, it doesn't even do anything except tell me how much is free, cuz I really don't see how I would use that much memory (970 mb!!) at one time, unless I am using my little old box for a server which it is not ready for.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
im into computer gaming a lot of internet gaming (mainly Counter Strike : Source) or just general HL2, so i want as much ram as possible for faster load times and to be able to set everything to max graphics and not have to wait 5 mins to load to the next section/level.
running memory de-fraggers and freeing programs help me to get that little bit extra for when i get in game, and usually i end up with 150-200mb free at startup (even when ive disabled all un-nesseccary start-up and boot services), so its just good to have more free ram at hand.
just ordered an extra gig of ram, so shouldnt need to worry about ram with 1.5gb of it