Programs loaded into RAM -- what effect on performance if only ~40% of total RAM used

[johnml]

I don't know the answer to this question, though I thought I understood computers pretty well.

Let's say I load Google Drive on my computer (in addition to OneDrive), let's say GDrive takes about 100 MB of RAM. If I am not writing into that directory, it uses no processor or disk usage (in Task Manager), and I have 8GB RAM, of which only 40% is used (in task manager).

Is this program slowing down my computer at all?

*Note - I know it will slow it down on start-up, I just mean while it's running in the background when the computer's already on.

Finally, what if 75% of my RAM was used, would then it be slowed down? The computer still has *some* RAM free, so why might it slow down?

Sincerely thanks so much

 

[gbb0330]

computer will slow down if it decides to use the virtual memory instead of RAM. virtual memory is located on your HDD and its much slower than RAM.
the decision to use the virtual memory is made by windows or the application, you have very little control over it. to review you virtual memory settings go to control panel -> system -> advanced system settings -> performance settings -> advanced tab -> virtual memory -> change.

default setting is windows managed, which allocates the same amount of virtual memory as RAM, so with 8 GB of RAM you have 8 GB of virtual memory.
with only 8 GB of RAM your PC will use the virtual memory a lot.

 

[Tradesman1]

If I read you question right, then no not really, it just sits there, but it does take up DRAM, which makes less available - having it in start,basicall puts a squib of the program code in memory so when you go to use the program it may well fully open a half second faster than if it didn't preload the code in start up. I try and get rid of things like that in start up, never know when you might open something that will want to use the DRAM it can...it can also have negative affects on running benchmarks