This isn't really a problem, just a question. I've got an Athlon 3200+ and a gig of ram. I've often got a handful of background apps up, but they never slow things down. When I start loading more and heavier background apps temporarily (for just a few days maybe, then I get rid of them again), even when I'm not using any heavy programs while they're loaded, the system slows down quite a bit. My cpu at these times is typically less 30% usage, and my ram will still have a good 512 megs free. I was always under the impression that things would pretty much run without a bump or pause unless either cpu or ram got to near 100% usage, since I guess they then start outsourcing their overflow work to other, slower places in my computer. It's not hurting yet, I was just curious as to how these things work... and yes, I've been Googling these things, but I'm just not quite satisfied. Anyway, I like hearing it from people I'm addressing. Thanks for any info!
Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
Why does heavy ram usage cause slowness, even though its not full yet?
- Thread starter Stiltzkin
- Start date
That's not exactly true. Your PC could be utilizing the hard disk for something other than swapping to the pagefile and things would slow down. Also, if you have Cool n' Quient running, you might see a momentary slowdown when your CPU switches from low speed power saving mode to full speed.
When you say you have 512 MB free RAM at the time, where are you getting your numbers from? If you check the performance tab in Task Manager, you can see a couple different numbers under the Commit Charge category. The "Total" number is how much memory is in use at the time, and the "Peak" is the peak usage. If your peak is closer to the amount of installed RAM (or over it) then you are definitely swapping out to disk.
When you say you have 512 MB free RAM at the time, where are you getting your numbers from? If you check the performance tab in Task Manager, you can see a couple different numbers under the Commit Charge category. The "Total" number is how much memory is in use at the time, and the "Peak" is the peak usage. If your peak is closer to the amount of installed RAM (or over it) then you are definitely swapping out to disk.
how heavy are the background apps?
are any of the apps having to access HDD, or other i/o stuff?
what about your L1 and L2 cache, the more apps you have, the more chance of cache misses...
and a LOT more reasons that I can't think of immediately...
--------------------
Procrastinate Now!
are any of the apps having to access HDD, or other i/o stuff?
what about your L1 and L2 cache, the more apps you have, the more chance of cache misses...
and a LOT more reasons that I can't think of immediately...
--------------------
Procrastinate Now!
XP has all kinds of services running in the background all the time like indexing, Wireless networing, messaging, Auto Update, Firewall, etc.
Some programs like virus scanners, and spyware blocking, and especially firewalls, and Norton software can really slow a computer down.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
Some programs like virus scanners, and spyware blocking, and especially firewalls, and Norton software can really slow a computer down.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
- Thread starter
- #6
Firstly, I monitor my RAM with Cacheman.
I have a handful of services disabled to keep them from hogging anything, all the major unnecessary ones I think. My "heavy" background apps are usually things that should only be heavy when I'm actively using them, like Alcohol 120%, but maybe they are doing work and just stop before I look at the memory report or cpu usage. Also, I do have Norton Systemworks and ZoneAlarm in the background, so they could be doing the same thing. Even with all my crap, I just didn't think it would kill stuff that much at times, but I suppose it's not as simple as I was thinking.
What is a cache miss? I know little about cache memory. If I'm correct, the faster, smaller, L1 cache is in the cpu and receives data from the registers, which it decides whether or not can be handled inside the cpu. If not, it sends it to the L2 cache, larger and slower, the purpose of which is a buffer before the ram. I'm very hazy on this... please correct me. Thank you!
I have a handful of services disabled to keep them from hogging anything, all the major unnecessary ones I think. My "heavy" background apps are usually things that should only be heavy when I'm actively using them, like Alcohol 120%, but maybe they are doing work and just stop before I look at the memory report or cpu usage. Also, I do have Norton Systemworks and ZoneAlarm in the background, so they could be doing the same thing. Even with all my crap, I just didn't think it would kill stuff that much at times, but I suppose it's not as simple as I was thinking.
What is a cache miss? I know little about cache memory. If I'm correct, the faster, smaller, L1 cache is in the cpu and receives data from the registers, which it decides whether or not can be handled inside the cpu. If not, it sends it to the L2 cache, larger and slower, the purpose of which is a buffer before the ram. I'm very hazy on this... please correct me. Thank you!
- Thread starter
- #8
Ah, that makes sense. I doubt that's causing the majority of my slowness, but that's a good point and I'm sure it's contributing... I did a lot of research, but this thread is the most help. I'll just have to accept the fact that i can't have a million background apps at one time, no matter how little ram they take when inactive 
Thanks a lot!
Thanks a lot!- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Question
- Locked
- Question