RAM - whats the average usage?

Question

Hi, I have an Inspiron 1501 with a dual core processor, vista home premium etc - the RAM is constantly sitting at around 70-80% usage is this normal?    What can I do to lower it? Thanks

Fing · Answer

That's MS's way of making us need more Ram. Sounds about normal for Vista. I haven't figured out much as to what services can be disabled without killing it yet, but turning off the sidebar and a bunch of the other eyecandy seems to help a touch.

robertc123 · Answer

How much ram do you have? I have 2 gigs and the memory usage is normally 37-43 percent.

dgsg · Answer

ram. Its 'prefetch' function will keep memory in use as it sees fit. It also works better without multiple partitions. Here is a link to some Vista 'tweak' tips. As always, use at your own risk! http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=34&threadid=1999401&enterthread=y

gwarr · Answer

How much memory do you have?  1 GB?    I currently have 1.5 GB, and it typically uses between 383 MB-591 MB (without Aero Glass).   There are indeed a number of services and programs that you can stop.  i.e. the Sidebar, etc.  However, most of the services that are running are quite helpful and speed up the system, make it more reliable, easier to use etc.  It would probably just be easier for you to buy more RAM, since now a days it's quite inexpensive (Buying directly from Dell is expensive).   i.e. you could purchase it from newegg.com, as long as you find out what kind of memory you need.   If you're up to it, you could always type services in the start menu and press enter, and go through each service that is running and read the description to see if you really need it.  i.e. Tablet PC Input Service is only really useful if you actually have one.

MaximusHQ · Answer

Seems high. How much system ram do you have and do you have integrated video graphics as that will steal memory from the system. Is the 70-80% after booting up and not loading any thing? You didn't say how much ram you have, but I will take a guess. It seems like you might have 1gb of system ram and an integrated video card that takes at least 128mb of that and windows vista will take maybe 350mb-400mb or so and if you have a lot of startup programs running and possibly a pre-loaded security suite that gobbles up more ram than it's share then I can easily see it going to 70-80%. You will have to determine what is causing the usage and look into limiting startup programs and if you have one of those bloated security suites that came preloaded then there are alternatives. You can also ditch some preloaded software especially aol if that came installed. Vista does use more ram than winxp as one would expect it to. You can also adjust windows appearance and performance settings to high performance, but then vista starts looking pretty ugly or just add more ram to the system.

Message Edited by MaximusHQ on 02-25-2007 11:31 PM

pcgeek11 · Answer

I concur with robertc123 I also have two GB and it runs about 39% - 40% usage. When doing nothing but background services running. I have not diabled any services that are default.   pcgeek11

Rounder1984 · Answer

Wow that's surprising! When I received my new Inspiron about two weeks ago, I formatted right away, and installed Vista Ultimate, and it uses around 23-28 upon no really doing anything.  And so far multitasking like crazy, the highest I've seen was 58% (which is still phenominal!) And I have 2GB 557Mhz RAM.

Windows General

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