4gm of ram installed but only 1.3 - 1.5 free

[coolmanhee]

I have a windows 7 64 bit computer but there is only 1.3gb of my 4gb of ram free. I know that windows takes some memory up for it self as well but 3.5gb!!! That is crazy. I am noticing a little lag while gaming as well. If it helps I have the r9 270 gpu. My ram is ddr 3 1333mhz 2x2gb


Hope someone can help xD



*** side note when I open windows task manager it says total 4023mb***

 

[Lasplaner]

pffft. I have a computer running win 64 bit and has 4gb of ram in it. I can understand the lag if it is a bottleneck from your cpu, and your memory. Using up that much ram is completley normal, especially in multitasking. Don't actually worry; as far as i know, it doesn't affect preformance that much, but if it does, considering upgrading.

 

[atheus]

Well, a computer using 2.7 GB of ram is completely not mind-blowing. I have 16GB of RAM and my system is using 5.1GB right now with nothing but chrome, outlook, skype, and media player open. The system will soak up more memory as the available pool gets larger.

If you really want to know what's sucking up your RAM, take a look at your task manager (ctrl+shift+esc) list of processes. It tells you how much each program is using (though some of it gets hard to read or is obscured by some sort of container process).

The only thing you can do to improve your circumstances is upgrade to 8GB+ (which is ideal for gaming), which would cost between $25-50 depending how you go about it, or you can take a look in your system tray and/or open the run dialog and type in "msconfig" and take a look in the "Boot" tab to see if there are any unnecessary programs starting up when you boot.

 

[coolmanhee]

No but.the thing is I used to have like 2.3-2.7 gb free. And now at start up when I first log in and even when there is nothing running in the background I get only 1.3 gigabytes of free space my CPU is Intel i3 550

How much free space do you have?

 

[atheus]

I mentioned I have 16, and that I'm using 5.1, so that leaves 10.9 free. That would only be relevant if I had 4GB of RAM like you, though, and was running similar applications.

Take a look through the suggestions i mentioned before. If something is sitting in memory, that's the way to find it and get rid of it. It also never hurts to take a look in your program manager and uninstall anything that's not useful. It wouldn't necessarily be anything memory resident, but then again if you find some fishy software it very well could be.

 

[Tradesman1]

Clean up start up of unneeded items

 

[Tom Tancredi]

No but.the thing is I used to have like 2.3-2.7 gb free. And now at start up when I first log in and even when there is nothing running in the background I get only 1.3 gigabytes of free space my CPU is Intel i3 550

How much free space do you have?

Actually you have ALOT running, like drawing the icons, loading the fonts so you can see the date or the 'letters' of the shortcuts on your desktop, the antivirus, god-knows of any of the many services and other things running potentially in the background checking for updates (like Java) the majority of people really haven't a clue to look for.

But yes EASILY 4GB is NOT enough RAM and hasn't been. As that is a REAAAAAALLLY OLD PC (i3 550!!) you would BEST be served with replacing it totally, which would give you the performance you need without 'wasting' on upgrade parts since a brand new PC runs only $249 (that includes laptops!).

If your talking any gaming here is a awesome deal http://www.cowboom.com/product/1540232?sdtid=7946711&utm_campaign=LS&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_source=lw9MynSeamY&siteID=lw9MynSeamY-0MpJxVftcfaMI0lCtkWsCQ Lenovo Y50 15.6" (1920x1080) Touchscreen Gaming Laptop: Intel Core i7-4700HQ, 8GB/1TB + 8GB SSD, GTX 860M 2GB $507.99

Now you could just upgrade the RAM but your looking about $100 or more for 2x4GB sticks.. but that would be a improvement for your gaming as compared to the awesome deal which isn't that much really considering what you get.

 

[coolmanhee]

I mentioned I have 16, and that I'm using 5.1, so that leaves 10.9 free. That would only be relevant if I had 4GB of RAM like you, though, and was running similar applications.

Take a look through the suggestions i mentioned before. If something is sitting in memory, that's the way to find it and get rid of it. It also never hurts to take a look in your program manager and uninstall anything that's not useful. It wouldn't necessarily be anything memory resident, but then again if you find some fishy software it very well could be.

no but what i dont understand is how all of a sudden im getting like 1.3 to even 833mb of free space! it is weird cause i usually get like 1.75 to like 2.88

 

[Tom Tancredi]

"free space" is NOT the same as RAM. Free space is relative to 'storing Data' on the Hard Drive (installing games, saving a picture, etc.).
RAM is the amount of memory your computer is using to 'think' on the things you want it to think about. So think it like at work. you get one project across your desk, but then the phone rings, someone sends a IM, someone uploads new data file to be reviewed, someone is standing at your desk, and numerous emails come in that you need to read and MAYBE respond to. So If the person on the phone is speaking, can you talk to the person in the doorway at the same time as tapping out email responses AND answering IMs?

That is the multitasking we ask a computer to do every moment of the day, and trying to ask it to 'remember' how to do each 'thing' seperatly, demands more and more 'RAM'. But like the example you 'run out' of memory when trying to think how to SPEAK to what the person on the phone is saying, what the email is about, what that person in the doorway is bugging you about, AND what that IM was flashing you about all at the same time.

BUT in computers, back in the day, when you ran out of RAM your computer would just error out OUT OF MEMORY and 'crash', just as you would crash in the office and 'screw up' because you can't handle all those things at one time. In Real Life you would get a Personal Assistant to help sort these things out, and the more busy you are the more PAs you have, same with the Windows as it gets the 'Cache" disk space to 'pretend' to be RAM so it doesn't forget EACH thing your asking these days. BUT that doesn't REPLACE the RAM, just as your PAs don't replace YOU being at work. So is the same issue with your computer, you still need 'some' RAM to swap in and out what the computer is 'focused' on doing that second (Cache is temporary just like a Post it Note, just a reminder, but doesn't actually do more than that). So that amount of available RAM changes with your demands and needs.

As said the ONLY solution would be to increase the RAM, but your talking very costly, and most likely won't really help as that is a very very OLD machine. It be more cost effective (aka you want the computer to work more then the next couple months right?) to instead invest in a newer computer because how 'cheap' they are these days which will last you a good 3-5 years from TODAY, rather then just a few months when something ELSE dies on the computer (remember they ONLY warranty the actual hardware-the physical stuff you touch- for 3 YEARS, after then you have to expect like old tires it will suddenly BLOW).

 

[coolmanhee]

"free space" is NOT the same as RAM. Free space is relative to 'storing Data' on the Hard Drive (installing games, saving a picture, etc.).
RAM is the amount of memory your computer is using to 'think' on the things you want it to think about. So think it like at work. you get one project across your desk, but then the phone rings, someone sends a IM, someone uploads new data file to be reviewed, someone is standing at your desk, and numerous emails come in that you need to read and MAYBE respond to. So If the person on the phone is speaking, can you talk to the person in the doorway at the same time as tapping out email responses AND answering IMs?

That is the multitasking we ask a computer to do every moment of the day, and trying to ask it to 'remember' how to do each 'thing' seperatly, demands more and more 'RAM'. But like the example you 'run out' of memory when trying to think how to SPEAK to what the person on the phone is saying, what the email is about, what that person in the doorway is bugging you about, AND what that IM was flashing you about all at the same time.

BUT in computers, back in the day, when you ran out of RAM your computer would just error out OUT OF MEMORY and 'crash', just as you would crash in the office and 'screw up' because you can't handle all those things at one time. In Real Life you would get a Personal Assistant to help sort these things out, and the more busy you are the more PAs you have, same with the Windows as it gets the 'Cache" disk space to 'pretend' to be RAM so it doesn't forget EACH thing your asking these days. BUT that doesn't REPLACE the RAM, just as your PAs don't replace YOU being at work. So is the same issue with your computer, you still need 'some' RAM to swap in and out what the computer is 'focused' on doing that second (Cache is temporary just like a Post it Note, just a reminder, but doesn't actually do more than that). So that amount of available RAM changes with your demands and needs.

As said the ONLY solution would be to increase the RAM, but your talking very costly, and most likely won't really help as that is a very very OLD machine. It be more cost effective (aka you want the computer to work more then the next couple months right?) to instead invest in a newer computer because how 'cheap' they are these days which will last you a good 3-5 years from TODAY, rather then just a few months when something ELSE dies on the computer (remember they ONLY warranty the actual hardware-the physical stuff you touch- for 3 YEARS, after then you have to expect like old tires it will suddenly BLOW).

did you even read my forum..? you spent 3 paragraphs talking about ram and HDD. I know what a HDD and who the hell has only 1.3gm of free space on a HDD?? dude i have like 1TB, my problem is my ram is super low for no reason. a few days ago it was working just fine, and now my games are lagging due to the low ram...