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Most Windows 7 PCs Max Out Memory

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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9158258/Most_Windows_7_PCs_max_out_memory
Very interesting!

Microsoft is so full of it if they think anyone would use this piece of crap!

Most Windows 7 PCs max out their memory, resulting in performance bottlenecks, a researcher said today.

On average, 86% of Windows 7 machines in the XPnet pool are regularly consuming 90%-95% of their available RAM, resulting in slow-downs as the systems were forced to increasingly turn to disk-based virtual memory to handle tasks.

The 86% mark for Windows 7 is more than twice the average number of Windows XP machines that run at the memory "saturation" point

The low-memory condition of most Windows 7 PCs is even more notable considering the amount of RAM in Windows 7 systems: According to XPnet's polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer. (Machines running Windows Vista contain an average of 2.7GB.)

WTF?!?!

Is 8GB now required to get acceptable bottleneck free performance from Windows?

WTF is Microsoft thinking?

Screw this, I'm sticking with XP!
 
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I haven't messed with 7 yet, but I'm interested for someone who's running it to post on mem usage/footprint. There's a possibility that win 7 needs some memory leak fixes.

Right now, I'm in XP, have TWO instances of AutoCAD running, outlook & ie... I'm only using up 1.7GB of physical memory.
 

DrPepper

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This is user related not a problem with windows. I've seen a few pc's running win7 with hundreds of programs running in the background. Running steam firefox msn etc win7 on my pc uses up 1.5gb of ram.

Also this is the same kind of FUD that came with win vista and I'm sick of it by now. There were no problems with vista and 7 and it's time people let xp die.
 

brandonwh64

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im calling absolute bull shit.
 
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I fail to see what's wrong with Windows7 making better use of the RAM available. Those high memory use percentages for Windows7 quite likely don't take into account most of that is SuperFetch which actually speeds up your computer.
 
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Um, fail? I did everything short of starting a game. I must only have 1.3GB of RAM. :roll:
 

newtekie1

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http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/02/behind-the-windows-7-memory-usage-scaremongering.ars

In defence of the study; It was accurate, however the data was/is just misinterpreted.

If I look at my main rig right now, with 8GB of RAM, I have 0MB Free. That is the number that the study focuses on. And part of this goes back to ignorance of the way Windows handles memory. It used to be completely acceptable to take the amount of free RAM, and assume anything that wasn't free was being used. However, that changed with Vista, and of course Windows 7 is the same. This was a major issue for why Vista got a bad rap as being a memory hog. So for my main rig, the study would have included me in that groupd of people with maxed out memory. When the proper way to look at memory useage is to look at how much memory is actually inuse, this excludes the memory being used for superfetching.
 
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Um, fail? I did everything short of starting a game. I must only have 1.3GB of RAM. :roll:
http://img.techpowerup.org/100224/ram.png

Look at the "free" memory. Says it's only 104MB. That's because the "Available" is used for SuperFetch but becomes free as soon as it is needed, so Windows 7 doesn't show it as being used on the graph.

The program used to get the results posted in the OP, clearly sums cahced and non-cached (available) to get that high memory use percentage.
 

newtekie1

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Look at the "free" memory. Says it's only 104MB. That's because the "Available" is used for SuperFetch but becomes free as soon as it is needed, so Windows 7 doesn't show it as being used on the graph.

The program used to get the results posted in the OP, clearly sums cahced and non-cached (available) to get that high memory use percentage.

Correct, and while the article in the OP says that the low amount of free memory would cause hard drive swapping to start to occure, the exact opposite is ture. Superfetching is designed to help eliminate the wait caused by needing to access the hard drive to load a program, and the cached memory space can instantly be dumped without the need to swap it to the hard drive first.
 
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Yeah I nearly s&*t myself when I noticed a similar reading in task manager. I use 4 gigs and I had NO programs running whatsoever. Task manager said I had about 40 mb free and for a moment i thought it was some kind of epic fail. Of course there was something like three gigabytes under "cached" , but still....
 

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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9158258/Most_Windows_7_PCs_max_out_memory
Very interesting!

Microsoft is so full of it if they think anyone would use this piece of crap!



WTF?!?!

Is 8GB now required to get acceptable bottleneck free performance from Windows?

WTF is Microsoft thinking?

Screw this, I'm sticking with XP!

Did you happen to notice this at the top of the story?:shadedshu

"Computerworld - Editor's note: The person quoted in this story as "Craig Barth" is actually Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributor. Kennedy, who presented himself as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, no longer works at InfoWorld. Given that he disguised his identity to Computerworld and a number of other publications, the credibility of Kennedy's statements is called into question. Rather than simply remove stories in which he is quoted, we have left them online so readers can weigh his data and conclusions for themselves."

More info, here.
 
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From the article:
The person quoted in this story as "Craig Barth" is actually Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributor. Kennedy, who presented himself as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, no longer works at InfoWorld.

If he can make wild claims like those without even the most basic study of how Windows7 manages memory, it doesn't suprise me he no longer works there. :slap:

EDIT: lol, got beaten to that post by 95viper
 
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95Viper

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Sorry there, KieX.:)
______________________________________________________________________________________


I just get P.O.ed at all the Windows bashing, everytime a da*n new one comes out. I think considering all the lines of code, all the multitude of hardware and software, MS does a pretty good job of what they do and have to work with. And they have done a decent job with memory management and usage. It ain't perfect, but it is better than it was and will be better in the next iteration.

If you (in general) prefer XP, Vista or whatever, use it.

My rant, my opinion.
Gotta let the dog out, she has to sh*t.
 

Frick

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Meh, I have "only" 2GB, and it works perfectly.
 
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Like ive always said,why put 4gb of ram in your pc if you dont want windows to use it.May as well just put a 512mb stick in it if it bothers you.
 
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I use 4Gb of RAM and a 8GB flash drive for readyboost to get the best performance, moved my swap file to a seperate drive I have never ran out of memory even when editing my HD movies. actually the programs refuse to use the memory as they are still stuck at 32 bit.

So their study is shit, Windows 7 has great memory handling considering the plethoura of pinatas the average pedro runs on a PC. Plus superfetch makes applications launch uber fast even after a month of continuous uptime.
 

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I'm beginning to think this is a troll thread.
 

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I'm beginning to think this is a troll thread.

I don't know, it is easy for the less informed to read that article and it be totally believable(with the exception of the warning at the beginning about the person hiding his identity). Though the software/study does exist, so his identity doesn't really matter to the contents of the article. This is especially true if you have already believe most of the hype about Vista's poor performance and resource usage.

I think this is more of an issue of believing and freaking out about everything you read on the internet...
 

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@ Eric - I'd definitely stay with XP until you've got a better specification to handle Windows 7 in the way you want. You could run 7 now but you might as well wait until you get a new machine.

The article isn't very good as the other comments have basically stated.
 
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Wow I thought this was an old outdated argument. Everyone Knows since windows vista that an OS should be designed to use all your RAM to have a more elegant experience while using your computer but then generously gives it back if an application needs it.

I currently have 68MB Free and I'm mad that its not 0MB. I can only imagine how much smoother things got with 8GM RAM or more. Makes the RAM upgrade worth while don't you think.
 

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I thought bull until I checked:


6 GiB installed, Call of Pripyat is running minimized (1.3 GiB) and WMP 12 is playing music (~40 MiB). Only 30 MiB is "free." Almost 3.5 GiB is claimed by Windows but not put to use.

Should Windows be a greedy bastard taking all the memory it can lay its hands on? No. for that reason, the article has some merit. "Maxes out memory" stretches the truth a bit, however, for the sake of headlines.


SuperFetch is most likely somewhere between the 2.6 GiB used and the 3.5 GiB cached (approximately 1 GiB RAM used for SuperFetch). That still doesn't explain the 3.5 GiB "available."
 
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newtekie1

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Should Windows be a greedy bastard taking all the memory it can lay its hands on? No.

Anyone that knows how the newer versions of Windows handles memory, would know the correct answer to that question is actually Yes. Superfetch filling up every last bit of unused memory is a good thing, and has nothing but a positive effect on performance.
 
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