8gb memory only 1gb free at idle

keeno70 · 17 Nov 2009 at 00:23

hello i have just c hecked in task manager with my machine on idle and it has just over 1 gb of free memory and 6gb cached is this normal i tryed turning off paging file but still the same whats the crack???

mdjmcnally · 17 Nov 2009 at 00:40

Is it Vista by any chance and possibly the prefetch data filling the RAM.

PhillyDee · 17 Nov 2009 at 01:11

You will notice:

Total
Cached
Available
Free

I bet they dont add up to 8Gb total.

Its just Superfetch on Vista / Win7. Its normal, its storing stuff in your ram as it tries to anticipate what you will be using (Based on past usage data). Unless your PC is sluggish, not responding etc, then there is no reason to worry. This is one of the major reasons why people called Vista a resource hog.

keeno70 · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:23

cheers it does not add up to 8gb,, but i have now turned off all the virtual memory ( the right way this time ) and my computer is miles faster opening programs and on start up it is nearly instant,, thanks for the response,,

Admiral Huddy · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:32

Even with 8gb of memory, disabling the page file isn't a good idea. Some applications may try to access it including some windows apps. If you have a second drive, then it may be best to re-locate the PF to the second HDD rather then disabling it altogether.

bledd · 17 Nov 2009 at 10:38

Admiral Huddy said:
Even with 8gb of memory, disabling the page file isn't a good idea. Some applications may try to access it including some windows apps. If you have a second drive, then it may be best to re-locate the PF to the second HDD rather then disabling it altogether.

Yup