[SOLVED] Windows 10 not using all Memory

[jazbebies]

Hi,

I have 96GB Ram and have windows 10 installed on my nvme drive and for storage a 4TB mechanical 7200rpm hard drive.

The problem i have is let's say for example i have a 50GB file on the nvme drive and moved it over to the storage drive, i then see a window displaying the transfer. it shows the file is moving fast at 1.3GB a sec. just under half way through this slows down to around 130mb a sec. i understand the computer is using the Ram as a buffer because the storage hard drive is slow but what i don't understand is why it always only uses 16.3GB of the Ram? surely if there is a lot more Ram then why not use it?

I have tried fiddling with disabling page file but no luck.. any ideas?

Thank you

 

[kanewolf]

Hi,

I have 96GB Ram and have windows 10 installed on my nvme drive and for storage a 4TB mechanical 7200rpm hard drive.

The problem i have is let's say for example i have a 50GB file on the nvme drive and moved it over to the storage drive, i then see a window displaying the transfer. it shows the file is moving fast at 1.3GB a sec. just under half way through this slows down to around 130mb a sec. i understand the computer is using the Ram as a buffer because the storage hard drive is slow but what i don't understand is why it always only uses 16.3GB of the Ram? surely if there is a lot more Ram then why not use it?

I have tried fiddling with disabling page file but no luck.. any ideas?

Thank you

Even it it put the whole file in RAM, the write rate to the HDD will still be 130MB/s. The time won't change significantly and Windows will still say "copying" until it is written to disk.

 

[Mr.Spock]

you're confusing System RAM with RAM cache on the drive. The HDD will write at 130MB/s once its DDR cache is exhausted.

StoreMI may help if you have that capability.

 

[Colif]

i understand the computer is using the Ram as a buffer because the storage hard drive is slow but what i don't understand is why it always only uses 16.3GB of the Ram? surely if there is a lot more Ram then why not use it?

Maybe because its not common for people to have 96gb of ram in their machines and windows Home & Maybe Pro have limitations built in to reduce amount of ram they use. even if its there. I assume enterprise wouldn't have such limitations. As more people need more than 16gb of ram to run programs they use, it will change.

Win 10 already convinces programs they have access to way more memory than you have, but much of it is virtual, and only exists provided all processes don't ask for several exabytes of memory at once. Most processes are fine with illusion. There must be a limitation on the tfr process with regards to physical ram. No idea how algorithm works.

I have 32gb of ram, PC never uses page file. My page file is 5gb, which doesn't make a lot of sense if you look at how page file sizes are meant to work

you should look into ram drives since you have so much. It won't accelerate tfr rate to hdd but it would use that ram.

is the large file compressed? as that might help speed and might increase ram usage. I can't find anything about a hard limit.

 

[USAFRet]

i understand the computer is using the Ram as a buffer because the storage hard drive is slow but what i don't understand is why it always only uses 16.3GB of the Ram?

Because it has no need to.
Putting the whole file in RAM won't speed up the process any, and just makes that RAM unusable for anything else that might need it.

Computers, and the people who design them, are a lot smarter than people think.
If it was beneficial to do that, it would probably do that.

 

[jazbebies]

Even it it put the whole file in RAM, the write rate to the HDD will still be 130MB/s. The time won't change significantly and Windows will still say "copying" until it is written to disk.

Hi, Yes i understand that but believe it or not the nvme c: drive is in constant use and can slow down considerably when transferring files across, that's why i thought the ram could take over the work from it.

you're confusing System RAM with RAM cache on the drive. The HDD will write at 130MB/s once its DDR cache is exhausted.

StoreMI may help if you have that capability.

Hi, In task manager it states system memory (Ram) used 16.3GB when only transferring large files across to the storage hard drive. i don't think the hard drive has cache anywhere near that size if that's what you meant? Thanks for the StoreMl suggestion for AMD which is similar to Intel Optane which can speed somethings up.

Maybe because its not common for people to have 96gb of ram in their machines and windows Home & Maybe Pro have limitations built in to reduce amount of ram they use. even if its there. I assume enterprise wouldn't have such limitations. As more people need more than 16gb of ram to run programs they use, it will change.

Win 10 already convinces programs they have access to way more memory than you have, but much of it is virtual, and only exists provided all processes don't ask for several exabytes of memory at once. Most processes are fine with illusion. There must be a limitation on the tfr process with regards to physical ram. No idea how algorithm works.

I have 32gb of ram, PC never uses page file. My page file is 5gb, which doesn't make a lot of sense if you look at how page file sizes are meant to work

you should look into ram drives since you have so much. It won't accelerate tfr rate to hdd but it would use that ram.

is the large file compressed? as that might help speed and might increase ram usage. I can't find anything about a hard limit.

Hi, I have tried Enterprise but still the same result unfortunately. Also the file is not compressed but as you mentioned it i recall sometime time ago extracting a large 120GB compressed file with Winrar and it used over 50GB of the Ram! i have never seen it go that high before unless i created a ram drive of course as you also mentioned. it would be nice if you could manually force windows 10 to use ram how you like it to but i guess there are reasons why it operates as it does for the moment.

Because it has no need to.
Putting the whole file in RAM won't speed up the process any, and just makes that RAM unusable for anything else that might need it.

Computers, and the people who design them, are a lot smarter than people think.
If it was beneficial to do that, it would probably do that.

Hi, I know what you mean but most of the time the Ram is unused so you would think Windows would noticed this after a while and think hmmm a good portion of it rarely gets no action so let's start using more of it, but it seems like it's limited in certain situations where it just will not go above that 16.3GB unless doing things like extracting / gaming etc.. as i said above it's mainly to free up my c: drive usage so it can do other things.

 

[Colif]

What other things is ssd going to do? its just storage, most actions in PC happen in virtual memory which is a mix of Page file + ram, although all processes are told they can have an exabyte of memory even if you don't have it. Normally works fine unless you get a memory leak.

So at least you know windows can use up to 50gb of ram if its expanding things, it obviously doesn't need it for most things as even though ram is fast, its not as fast as the memory on the CPU. ram is 1st place PC will look for data if its not on CPU, next stage is ssd/nvme.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi, I know what you mean but most of the time the Ram is unused so you would think Windows would noticed this after a while and think hmmm a good portion of it rarely gets no action so let's start using more of it, but it seems like it's limited in certain situations where it just will not go above that 16.3GB unless doing things like extracting / gaming etc.. as i said above it's mainly to free up my c: drive usage so it can do other things.

Copying from the C drive to the other drive...you can still use the C drive for other things, at the same time.

 

[jazbebies]

What other things is ssd going to do? its just storage, most actions in PC happen in virtual memory which is a mix of Page file + ram, although all processes are told they can have an exabyte of memory even if you don't have it. Normally works fine unless you get a memory leak.

So at least you know windows can use up to 50gb of ram if its expanding things, it obviously doesn't need it for most things as even though ram is fast, its not as fast as the memory on the CPU. ram is 1st place PC will look for data if its not on CPU, next stage is ssd/nvme.

Yes it does seem to use more memory for some processes but it just didn't make sense at the time. I have been experimenting with my small 10gbit network and noticed how the nvme can get saturated when transferring very large files and leaving me limited my end. it's not my number 1 priority right now but i imagined the operating system would have worked differently if there were resources like lots of Ram free and ready to use. besides i do not have the funds for additional drives right now to combat that issue. Overall i was surprised how strict Windows 10 is in general with regular file transfers and how it manages them but i Thank you for your time and explanation how it works as it's still a very complex piece of software.

Copying from the C drive to the other drive...you can still use the C drive for other things, at the same time.

True, I guess i wanted the most from the computer and didn't want to see things go to waste so to speak. I was expecting too much for what i had and things don't always go as you think but it's very interesting listening to other people's views. Thank you for your time.

 

[USAFRet]

More RAM that what your use and software needs is just wasted RAM (and money).

 

[kanewolf]

More RAM that what your use and software needs is just wasted RAM (and money).

If you have "surplus" RAM installed, you should consider making it a RAM disk. Some of the things that are currently using your SSD, might be able to use a RAM disk instead.

 

[jazbebies]

More RAM that what your use and software needs is just wasted RAM (and money).

I will definitely use most of the memory with things like vmware etc.. but i agree it's a waste of money for most people who do not use anywhere near a quarter let alone all of it.

If you have "surplus" RAM installed, you should consider making it a RAM disk. Some of the things that are currently using your SSD, might be able to use a RAM disk instead.

I have been experimenting with Ram disks and i get approx 12GB/s read and write which is much quicker than my nvme and something i will be using in the future for specific in demand programs and files.



I choose Colif as best answer as they covered quite a bit in detail overall which really helped. Thank you to all who responded!