how can I tell if I need more RAM?

[substance12]

is there a way to look at the task manager and calculate if my system could stand to use more ram? I take it I would look at the "physical memory (k)" and see how much I have available during heavy use. Often times I always see a good amount in "available"... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from more ram does it?

what are other ways of looking at your system spec to see if you could really benefit from more ram?

 

[imported_Kensai]

How much RAM do you have now and what programs do you use?

 

[oog]

run the performance monitor (perfmon from the start | run prompt) and add a monitor for available mbytes. use your computer normally and if you drop to about 10mb free, you probably could use more memory.

 

[substance12]

2x256 pc2100.
some combination of mirc, bt, trillian, nero, winamp, mpclassic, explorer, winfast pvr (sometimes on record)

 

[SlitheryDee]

What do you do with your computer? It's easy to tell if you play some newer games. You'll see noticeable hitches in gameplay accompanied by HD activity. In this case installing more memory would reduce the number of times your computer has to get data from the HD.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: substance12
is there a way to look at the task manager and calculate if my system could stand to use more ram? I take it I would look at the "physical memory (k)" and see how much I have available during heavy use. Often times I always see a good amount in "available"... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from more ram does it?

what are other ways of looking at your system spec to see if you could really benefit from more ram?

Look at "Commit Charge" in Task Manager/Performance -- this is how much RAM your programs are asking for. The "Peak" value here is the maximum amount of RAM your computer has needed since its last reboot -- if this value is higher than the amount of physical RAM you have, then you were hitting the swapfile at some point. The "Physical Memory" numbers can be misleading because of the way Windows swaps things out to disk (although if you have very little physical RAM free, then you're probably hitting the swapfile as well).

 

[dbailey]

with memory prices so low right now you might as well slap 2 512's in your pc. "Everyone's doing it"

 

[T9D]

If it says there is plenty available and you arent going over that then no you dont need more. Although 1 gig of ram is awesome and then you dont need to worry about. Just depends on what you do on your PC and if it goes over 512 now or not. If you never do then you're fine.

 

[substance12]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: substance12
is there a way to look at the task manager and calculate if my system could stand to use more ram? I take it I would look at the "physical memory (k)" and see how much I have available during heavy use. Often times I always see a good amount in "available"... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from more ram does it?

what are other ways of looking at your system spec to see if you could really benefit from more ram?

Look at "Commit Charge" in Task Manager/Performance -- this is how much RAM your programs are asking for. The "Peak" value here is the maximum amount of RAM your computer has needed since its last reboot -- if this value is higher than the amount of physical RAM you have, then you were hitting the swapfile at some point. The "Physical Memory" numbers can be misleading because of the way Windows swaps things out to disk (although if you have very little physical RAM free, then you're probably hitting the swapfile as well).

right now it says:

Total: 412784
limit: 1801300
peak: 577680

i guess i'm hitting the swap file then?

 

[duragezic]

Unless you got cash to spend, 512mb is adequate for your uses. I ran with 512mb for a long time only to finally upgrade to 1GB since I was getting quite a bit of swapping in newer games. So HL2/Source, Act of War, etc... run a lot better now. But I've noticed next to NO difference in Windows by going from 512mb to 1GB.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: substance12

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: substance12
is there a way to look at the task manager and calculate if my system could stand to use more ram? I take it I would look at the "physical memory (k)" and see how much I have available during heavy use. Often times I always see a good amount in "available"... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from more ram does it?

what are other ways of looking at your system spec to see if you could really benefit from more ram?

Look at "Commit Charge" in Task Manager/Performance -- this is how much RAM your programs are asking for. The "Peak" value here is the maximum amount of RAM your computer has needed since its last reboot -- if this value is higher than the amount of physical RAM you have, then you were hitting the swapfile at some point. The "Physical Memory" numbers can be misleading because of the way Windows swaps things out to disk (although if you have very little physical RAM free, then you're probably hitting the swapfile as well).

right now it says:

Total: 412784
limit: 1801300
peak: 577680

i guess i'm hitting the swap file then?

If you have 512MB, then yes, theoretically you were (at some point) slightly over the amount of RAM you actually have. If you have 1GB already, then you're nowhere near hitting the swapfile.

 

[substance12]

because I am hitting the swap at some point... there would be some benefit to upgrading to 1G. Correct? But probably only "slightly"?

 

[imported_g33k]

Originally posted by: Matthias99

Originally posted by: substance12
is there a way to look at the task manager and calculate if my system could stand to use more ram? I take it I would look at the "physical memory (k)" and see how much I have available during heavy use. Often times I always see a good amount in "available"... but that doesn't mean I wouldn't benefit from more ram does it?

what are other ways of looking at your system spec to see if you could really benefit from more ram?

Look at "Commit Charge" in Task Manager/Performance -- this is how much RAM your programs are asking for. The "Peak" value here is the maximum amount of RAM your computer has needed since its last reboot -- if this value is higher than the amount of physical RAM you have, then you were hitting the swapfile at some point. The "Physical Memory" numbers can be misleading because of the way Windows swaps things out to disk (although if you have very little physical RAM free, then you're probably hitting the swapfile as well).

I learned something useful there thanks.

 

[stevty2889]

Yep, since you are going slightly over the amount of physical ram, you are using the swap file some. If you are getting some lag in your programs while it's using the swap file, then upping the ram should help. If you aren't getting any noticable lag, I wouldn't worry about it too much, but ram prices are really good right now, so it may be a good time to upgrade anyway..

 

[Davegod]

OK, so if I have a Win2k games server and with 2 servers running it looks like this, how much memory do I have to play with? I don thave a problem with pagefile usage, lots of things only need to be in the pagefile (even the gameservers in question use ~160mb pagefile, but Peak Mem Usage column shows ~90mb).

 

[stevty2889]

In that scenario, your peak is 680mb, so you are using about a 180mb page file. Peak - Total = page file usage.

 

[Davegod]

isnt the pagefule usage 494mb?

 

[stevty2889]

I know the chart says PF usage, but it's actualy total memory usage, physical memory + page file together.

 

[substance12]

Originally posted by: stevty2889
I know the chart says PF usage, but it's actualy total memory usage, physical memory + page file together.

that is so misleading... why do they call it PF usage then? Seems more accurate to call it "total memory usage".

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: substance12

Originally posted by: stevty2889
I know the chart says PF usage, but it's actualy total memory usage, physical memory + page file together.

that is so misleading... why do they call it PF usage then? Seems more accurate to call it "total memory usage".

It is misleading, and is not a good name for that chart. It does make sense if you know more about how the memory allocation schemes in Windows work.

Basically, *all* memory is 'paged', even if it's not currently part of the pagefile (or there is no pagefile!). What that meter (and the 'Commit Charge' numbers) track is how much memory is being handled by the virtual memory (paging) system. This way the numbers include both pages in RAM and pages that are currently out of RAM, and don't double-count mapped address spaces.

 

[biostud]

If you often seem to be waiting for the harddisc until you can do what you want, you need more memory.

 

[bocamojo]

Go download TinyResMeter. It's a nice little freeware program that comes up in a little GUI window and displays CPU utilization, memory utilization, page file utilization, etc. in real time. Can be very useful in getting a visual on what your system is doing.