Where has the RAM dissappeared to?

[juniper911]

Hi All

I have a 64 bit edition of Windows 7 with 4 GB of RAM. The system can detect the 4 GB but when I go the Performance tab in Task Manager 1.3GB is taken before anything is really installed or program/application running! Now when I go to the process tab and try to account where the RAM has gone the total values in the working memory column do not add up to 1.3GB

Where do you think it has gone? In Resource monitor 1MB has been reserved for the hardware. I have an ASUS motherboard and an NVDIA graphics card just to complete the picture. The mobo has a built in GPU but is not the primary and therefore should be not used and possibly disabled.

 

[jsteph]

I don't think the task manager's 'working set' memory values ever really amount to the total used--you might add the column 'peak working set', which is always higher.

But I'm not sure if 'peak' means that's memory that's allocated to the program but it's not currently using, or if it's just the most that was every allocated at one time since those stats were last reset (which is usually on reboot).

But 1.3 gig at idle is common for a Win7 machine.
--Jim

 

[juniper911]

Tbh that's the sort of answer I found googling around. Its just I'm sure with the previous hardware it was not that high whilst idle. Its not effecting me yet but its more knowing exactly what is taking it.

 

[tf1]

Win 7 uses memory far more efficiently than any previous version of Windows. Think: 'unused memory is wasted memory'. 'You purchased 4GB memory so let's use it to best affect.'

I have 8GB memory with Win7 x64 and in the Resource Monitor it reports:

Hardware Reserved: 1MB
In Use: 2470MB
Modified: 14MB
Standby: 5706MB
Free: 3MB

The Standby usage is what Win7 has preloaded from monitoring my normal usage ready for instant use on demand.

You should be overjoyed that there is no unused memory. Check out the Resource Monitor for the memory allocation.

Regards: Terry

 

[BadBigBen]

also to add to the confusion:

Hardware is mapped into the RAM area on a lot of mainboards, which does take away some of the RAM space to begin with...



Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[cdogg]

Ben,
The hardware "mapping" that you mention is a virtual allocation of address space (not memory space) performed by the BIOS when you first power on the computer. In a 32-bit environment, the total address space available is only 4GB. So there's not enough room to map 4GB of RAM plus other hardware components like the video card that require space as well. The video card is not using RAM. It's actually stealing virtual address space away from RAM.

Fortunately that's no longer the case in a 64-bit environment. You can see the difference just by going to System Properties. Regardless of how much RAM is in use, System Properties will still show you the full amount. In 32-bit Windows, it would show you something less than 4GB.

~cdogg
"All generalizations are false, including this one." - Mark Twain
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[BadBigBen]

Correct CDogg, you explained it better (a lot) than I could have...

still some mainboards place the hardware allocation space within the lower 4GB of memory, to be compatible with 32 bit OS's, some mainboards have a BIOS switch (menu setting), which negates this behavior but not all do...

at least that is what I had experienced so far, which of course may be wrong...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[dilettante]

Also consider that when running in 64-bit mode a lot of things that used to take 4 bytes before eat 8 bytes of RAM now. Pointers, the native "long integer" type, etc.

 

[DKHM2]

I think what you want to look at is the column called "Memory - Commit Size"

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/What-do-the-Task-Manager-memory-columns-mean

What happens if you add up that column? Do you find the missing memory?

 

[cdogg]

DKHM2,
The Commit column is just going to confuse you even more. The figure you see listed there includes physical memory reservations plus page file reservations (hence the term, virtual memory). So while it is true that the number is going to be higher, that difference is unrelated to the missing physical memory that the OP is after in this thread.

The problem is that neither Task Manager or Resource Monitor show how much memory is in use by drivers and the operating system itself. They are only itemizing running processes which happens to be just a small part of the picture. Once you develop a deeper understanding of memory management in Windows 7, it will begin to make more sense. That "missing" memory is not really missing, and that "free" memory doesn't have the same meaning that it did in previous versions of Windows. This article should help explain some of that in more detail:

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...ry-usage-with-windows-7-resource-monitor/3176

Carl

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms,
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