Inefficient use of memory?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Robert Miles
  • Start date Start date
R

Robert Miles

I'm getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU
Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I'm running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here's similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.
 
Windows tries to use all memory, using otherwise unused memory in the cache.
You have 86 programs running, where I have 29.

--
..
--
Robert Miles said:
I'm getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad
CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I'm running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here's similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.
Click to expand...
 
CrucialHoax said:
I agree. That is -a lot- of running processes. 20 - 40 is normal.
Anything over that is debilitating.
Click to expand...


How can I tell which of them do anything that I want to keep
running? I recognize the purpose of a few of them, but much
less than all of them.

Robert Miles
 
Windows tries to use all memory, using otherwise unused memory in the
cache. You have 86 programs running, where I have 29.

--
.
--
Robert Miles said:
I'm getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad
CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I'm running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here's similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2
Dual Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

What does the cache do that won't let it give up memory quickly
to programs that I just started?

Robert Miles
 
Search the Internet, find the file and right click it and choose properties,
the folder that it is in, or open the file in notepad and look for text in
the file.
 
Windows tries to use all memory, using otherwise unused memory in the
cache. You have 86 programs running, where I have 29.

--
.
--
Robert Miles said:
I'm getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad
CPU Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I'm running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here's similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2
Dual Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I just found one of them shown by Resource Monitor, but not
Windows Task Manager, as using a lot of the 2 GB on the
32-bit machine:

svchost.exe (SDRSVC)
6112 PID
700 MB committed
1.4 MB working set
720 KB sharable
696 KB private

A Bing search shows that SDRSVC is related to the Microsoft
Windows Backup Service, which I ran on that computer a few
hours ago; this suggests that a reboot, then re-running Resource
Monitor is likely to be useful.

http://sdrsvc.svchost-exe.net/

Reboot finished; that item has disappeared from the Resource
Monitor list but 44% of the physical memory is still in use.

One item on the resource Monitor list now using 96 MB;
nothing else using as much.

TeaTimer.exe 96 MB committed

Also, on one of my 64-bit 8 GB but otherwise similar machines,
WinMail.exe is shown as using 32 MB by Windows Task Manager,
but as having 2.5 GB committed by Resource Monitor.

That's the machine where I'm entering this, so I'll have to report
the result of shutting down Windows Mail in a separate message.

Robert Miles
 
Ive just profiled an application and found the c free() routine used to deallocate memory takes a staggering 100 times as long on WIndows 7 as it did on XP. I am measuring 2.1 ms for each free. My app is spending most of its time freeing memory as it was typically badly written using thousands of small memory blocks. The free routine used to be so fast it allowed programmers to get away with this. Im trying to find out if this is caused by some extra checking that can be turned off. Did you get to the bottom of your problem?



Robert Miles wrote:

Inefficient use of memory?
27-Dec-09

I am getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU
Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I am running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here is similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.

Previous Posts In This Thread:

Inefficient use of memory?
I am getting what looks like inefficient use of the memory
on two of my computers.

On one, with 8 GB, Windows Task Manager -> Performance
currently reports:

Physical Memory Usage History constant at 4.90 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 8190
Cached 5572
Free 43

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 975
Paged 717
Nonpaged 258

System

Handles 28213
Threads 962
Processes 86
Up Time 8:44:25
Page File 7893 M / 16455M

Processes: 86 CPU Usage 81% Physical Memory: 58%

I run BOINC most of the time, which normally keeps the CPU
usage at 100%.

Often, the Free Physical Memory value drops close to 0, usually
whenever the physical memory usage is much over 50% mostly
from programs running in 32-bit mode.

64-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects active

12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU
Q9650 @ 3.00GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor: 6.00 MB cache
12/27/2009 8:51:07 AM Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni


When I am running Windows Task Manager -> Processes, the total
Private Working Set memory for all images usually adds up to
considerably less than the percentage of physical memory in use
as shown at the bottom.

What's happening to the rest of physical memory, and why is it
very slow to become usable when I try to start some other program
such as Windows Mail or Internet Explorer 8?


For comparison, here is similar data from my other computer with
this problem, with only 2 GB:

Physical Memory Usage History about 1.10 GB

Physical Memory (MB)

Total 1917
Cached 1210
Free 0

Kernal Memory (MB)

Total 525
Paged 369
Nonpaged 156

System

Headers 305965
Threads 936
Processes 87
Up Time 160:02:42
Page File 2220M / 4739M

Processes: 88 CPU Usage: 11% Physical Memory 57%

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2
usually runs BOINC 6.10.18 with about a dozen projects
active, but now running Back Up Files for the weekly backup.

12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 2 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual
Core Processor 3600+ [x86 Family 15 Model 107 Stepping 1]
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor: 512.00 KB cache
12/27/2009 6:11:15 PM Processor features: fpu tsc sse sse2 pni 3dnow mmx

Both Machines also run Norton Internet Security 2010, which
does not seem to offer a way to suspend it to keep it from
interfering with normal use of the computer.

Not much else running most of the time, but Xmarks for IE
v1.1.3 is usually taking up at least 110 MB of memory on
each machine.

Windows tries to use all memory, using otherwise unused memory in the cache.
Windows tries to use all memory, using otherwise unused memory in the cache.
You have 86 programs running, where I have 29.

--
...
--

I agree. That is -a lot- of running processes. 20 - 40 is normal.
I agree. That is -a lot- of running processes. 20 - 40 is normal.
Anything over that is debilitating.


--
CrucialHoax

How can I tell which of them do anything that I want to keeprunning?
How can I tell which of them do anything that I want to keep
running? I recognize the purpose of a few of them, but much
less than all of them.

Robert Miles

Search the Internet, find the file and right click it and choose
Search the Internet, find the file and right click it and choose properties,
the folder that it is in, or open the file in notepad and look for text in
the file.

--
...
--

Start search > msconfig > hit enter > browse to the start-up tab and seewhat
Start search > msconfig > hit enter > browse to the start-up tab and see
what is running.


--
CrucialHoax


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