i don't get this... (free ram only 24mb!!!)

[mattbiernat]

I've installed 2x2GB of ram.
My Computer properties reports 4GB installed - okay.
Windows Taks Manager reports the following under Physical Memory:
a) Total: 3061mb - okay this makes sense; 32os memory limitation.
b) Cached: 2162mb - what is this?
c) Free: 28mb - what is this? Why is my free memory only 28mb???

[Marin85]

Hm, according to that I have only 9 MB free memory, so I don´t see why you are complaining Now, seriously, what you see in TaskManager is the OS memory counter, and those things (like cached, free and available memory) have somewhat different meanings from what we use in everyday computer language. They also have something to do with memory pages. The free amount of memory I guess you are interested in is just the difference between available memory (i.e. 3 GB in your case) and physical memory usage (the green bar).

Cheers

Marin

[mattbiernat]

ok that sounds just about right, yet i am still wondering what do those numbers really mean.

[Marin85]

Total memory is just the total available memory. Cached is the amount of that part of system memory Vista is using to preload files that you might use (based on previous usage) (that´s why opening an application or file for a second time is faster), it is dynamic as the OS can reallocate some of this memory to new tasks if necessary. Add the amount of system memory used by applications and OS itself as well as the amount of system memory used by the gpu to all that and the difference up to the total available memory is your free memory (those 24 MB).

Cheers

Marin

[Marin85]

I have to correct myself about the importance of the free memory indicator. If it reaches 0 for longer time, Vista may become less responsive and the page file activity notably increases, so having this indicator constantly at 0 is not great at all - just another reason for buying more and more RAM for Vista even if physical memory usage is just the half of all available memory