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Thread ID: 86953	2008-02-03 00:55:00	Chacheing (spelled right????) and Physical Memory	zac13x4 (12783)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
636590	2008-02-03 00:55:00	Hello On my Vista laptop i have 3 gb (3069mb) of RAM. Doing a liitle arithmetic i figured out that my laptop had used 1.30gb of available memory, and 275mb has been used in the memory cache. In task manager it says that about 2gb of ram is reserved for caching and i only have currently while i type this 19mb of Free Physical Memory left. I understand that when there is no free physical memory then the RAM modules start to copy older stuff in the Ram modules to the hard drive (Virtual RAM). But it doesn't make sense. only used 275mb of 2gb cached memory, the other 1gb of RAM don't know where it's gone, and only have 19 mb of physical memory left. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE???? and What is PHYSICAL MEMORY????? What is the other anonymous 1gb of RAM doing? PHysical Memory (MB) Total 3069 Cached 2096 Free 18 Physical Memory: 43% This is really iritating me Thanks	zac13x4 (12783)
636591	2008-02-03 01:02:00	Physical Memory is the actual RAM installed in your computer. That is the physical modules of RAM actually inside, not the virtual memory pool that the OS creates.	beeswax34 (63)
636592	2008-02-03 01:11:00	OK, well then what does the FREE RAM do?	zac13x4 (12783)
636593	2008-02-03 01:18:00	Wait for you to load a program or something, then it wont be free.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
636594	2008-02-03 01:24:00	So before the laptop even boots up there is 2gb of cached Ram and 1 gb of Free Ram that gets used by Vista and the programmes you open? Also, the cached Ram says 2gb, it goes up and down with the amoun of free memory . So therefore the memory cache is full of 2gb of data?	zac13x4 (12783)
636595	2008-02-03 12:16:00	This will be referring to disk cache and the space is not reserved as such - it will shrink as memory needs grow. Since disk access is very slow recently read information is stored in memory in case it is read again soon afterwards. The operating system will try to do this as much as possible, which is why there is very little free memory. As soon as a program requests more memory some of the disk cache will be dropped to make room.	TGoddard (7263)
636596	2008-02-03 23:19:00	OK I'm starting to understand now. I read an article about Vista's Superfetch where it places all frequently used applications etc in RAM. When there's no more RAM, the RAM starts copying older files onto the HDD (pagefile). I'm using a Dell and it says I currently have 1.7GB of RAM Free in the DELL Support Center. But yet 2GB is being used as cache and the other is being used by the laptop currently. 1.24 gb being used at this moment. 1.7 gb free according to dell support center. If I run a large Application like a game that requires minimum of 1 gb RAM, will the RAM Modules make space for the game data in RAM or will RAM copy the to be deleted files to HDD. Also, as mentioned above 1.24 gb being used currently. I'm running Vista home premium which requires minimum of 1gb. Is the remainder 240mb being used by applications that are in cached memory?????????? In task manager when I open a program like media player the cached memory goes down eg 2000mb to 1800mb. Ig i open all the all the applications and programmes in cached memory will cached memory go to 0? If someone manages to answer all of the questions answered I will be very happy. Vista makes no F**king sense!!! Thank You	zac13x4 (12783)
636597	2008-02-04 10:19:00	All of the memory is available - the OS just uses it to speed up other things while it would otherwise be unused . All of the cached data is also present on disk so it can simply be dropped from memory to make room when required . All modern operating systems work this way . This is the equivalent on my Linux box, showing a similar division of the memory in to application data, buffers and caches: . net . nz/~tim/files/memory . png" target="_blank">goddard . net . nz	TGoddard (7263)
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