Is it better to let the RAM expand itself or control it with software?

[Rafael Mestdag]

I've got 4GB or RAM(2 2GB sticks) and I've always wondered about this and on the internet I haven't found a conclusive answer on this subject: which is best, to let the RAM expand naturally as you use it or to control it using a software like 'MemoryCleaner'?

I've seen articles defending both sides so I haven't got proof of what's best. What do you think/believe/know on this matter?

 

[jitpublisher]

Memory expanding or extending programs are a complete scam. No modern OS needs "help" managing memory allocation.
You either have enough memory to run your applications, or you don't and then your OS will start using the swap file.

 

[Poprin]

I've got 4GB or RAM(2 2GB sticks) and I've always wondered about this and on the internet I haven't found a conclusive answer on this subject: which is best, to let the RAM expand naturally as you use it or to control it using a software like 'MemoryCleaner'?

I've seen articles defending both sides so I haven't got proof of what's best. What do you think/believe/know on this matter?

Any article defending the use of a memory management program on the top of your operating system is the rambling of a crazy person. Or someone trying to sell you a completely useless piece of software.

 

[Poprin]

To expand on this... Basically your operating system at it's core is designed to manage the flow and processing of data. It will naturally load and unload things into RAM as you use the machine in order to improve the performance of applications that you are running. People believe that if they look in task manager and they don't have much free RAM then this is an issue. The opposite of this is true, the operating system will utilize as much RAM as it can to reduce the use of the swap file. If you 'free up' RAM all you are doing is reducing the performance of your machine. The only useful indicator that you require more RAM is if your RAM utilisation is frequently high and you notice a lot of disk activity resulting in a slow down of performance. This is when your machine is having to wait on resources as it accesses the swap file for data that really should be in RAM. Windows will always use a swap file regardless of the amount of RAM you have, however if it is unable to load data in advance of the processing requests then you will notice a significant decrease in performance.

Unfortunately their is no magic piece of software that will make an inadequate amount of RAM adequate. So 4gb of RAM is adequate in many situations, judging by the fact that you have been researching this it would suggest your PC usage now warrants more RAM. Unfortunately the only way to fix this is to buy more RAM!

 

[Rafael Mestdag]

Even when I had 8GB of ram I still used a Memory Management program, believing that every single time the RAM got filled even by say, 10%, I immediately would empty it out. Now, and for a while at least, I'm going to use my PC without any Memory Management software and see what happens, if what you guys are saying is true, then my PC should get faster(unless it has a memory leak).

 

[Poprin]

Even when I had 8GB of ram I still used a Memory Management program, believing that every single time the RAM got filled even by say, 10%, I immediately would empty it out. Now, and for a while at least, I'm going to use my PC without any Memory Management software and see what happens, if what you guys are saying is true, then my PC should get faster(unless it has a memory leak).

There is no better way than to test yourself, but yes as your RAM starts to fill this is the operating system loading information into RAM that it has determined will be required. Therefore if it's already there, then it would make sense that it would access that information faster than if it needed to load it from a data storage device such as a hard disk.

The only time when clearing down RAM could be useful is if exactly as you say you have an application with a memory leak, but you would usually identify this problem as it would often cause memory full errors from within windows or a system crash. As a memory leak usually results in virtual memory becoming full (addressed) also causing exceptions within windows. However in this situation a reboot would do a better job of clearing the memory and then you would need to identify the offending program!

Every day is a school day when it comes to computers and I would welcome anyone to correct me if I'm wrong, or prove me wrong. I did study computer science 12 years ago and I've drank quite a lot since then

 

[jitpublisher]

I agree 100% Poprin. The ONLY way to fix not enough memory, is to add more memory. The way to make programs faster, is to load them into memory. If you unload them from memory, then your PC must go back to the hard drive to get them again, quite simply, how does that do anything to improve performance? If you dont enough memory, the only answer is you add more.