Wasted memory

[rooster246]

I just bought 512MB RAM to add to my existing 512 so I would have 1 GB cuz I'm going to do some video editing. However, when I check the physical RAM being used it is never above 210 MB. It appears to split usage with my Virtual Memory, they usually are similar values. I thought Windows 2000 would use ALL my very fast RAM first and then spill over to the slower Virtual Memory. I feel like I'm wasting all my physical RAM over 300 MB. Is extra RAM simply a waste cuz Win200 won't use it?

 

[rooster246]

Well, I was able to push my physical RAM usage up to about 470 MB used by scanning in and manipulating some large photos. It became very slow. So I expect the extra 512 I bought will help when I'm trying to cut and paste video scenes. However, it still seems strange when my PC is sitting idle that it splits the memory usage between physical RAM and Virtual Memory. If it needs a total of 300 MB to run, why not use all of it out of physical RAM instead of splitting 150 with physical RAM and Virtual memory? -Rooster

 

[jimp56]

here's a good read:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555223

i have heard some people say you can set the swapfile to the minimum allowed size (20MB?) and "force" windows to use more ram than swapfile, but i am not aware of the ramifications of doing this.

 

[rooster246]

Thanks for the post Jimp, good KB link. I like CoolMon to monitor my system resources:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,23831,00.asp

-Rooster