Low on ram during gaming?

4GB isn't too little, but you are apparently using too much.

Find the big offenders and kill those processes. Stop them from loading at boot using msconfig.

The big tip is you need to use yet another utility to make sure the game you really want to play is protected from all the other stuff that's running.

80 background applications is way too much imo.
Honestly there's no need for it you should be able to cut that down to 50 easily.
Pretty much what Twoboxer posted.

so you are saying i should skip the tuneup utilities?

and can you tell me more about 'boot using msconfig?

thanks.

80 proces is too much. max 33 proceses   thats the problem.

go to the control panel - add or remove progs - and remov all unnesesury programs

^ yea, disable some background programs through Msconfig.

Or, you can try IOBit's Gamebooster:
www.iobit.com/gamebooster.html

It frees up RAMs when playing games. It gets very good reviews, but, I still it cannot modify Msconfig's startup processes, though.

^+1 for the Gamebooster.

Tried that on my old skewl Inspiron 1520 (Ran Crysis Medium/High FTW?! xD - don't judge me i pushed 'Rambo' too far so many times >:3) and it actually helped. Of course, on my desktop - it makes no difference whatsoever xD

MSconfig is the way to go mate =), unless you want to manually open up each up and check off the settings from starting up with your PC...

btw i also use tuneup utilities, great app =). And 4GB should be fine. Course like malmental i use a 6GB minimum lol x)

First, what we're saying is your problem is not too little memory. Your problem is too many programs running. You are not only overloading memory, but also extending your boot times and having some impact on your cpu. (If that stuff isn't running, why is it in memory? If it is running, why do you want it to run and slow down what you ARE doing?)

Part of your problem can be resolved using msconfig. Click Start then Run then type "msconfig" in the box. Click on the "Startup" tab.

Investigate what each of the processes are and decide whether or not to let them run at Startup. To stop them from running, uncheck the box. They can be re-enabled whenever you like by checking the box again.

To find out what each process belongs to, simply Google the full name, no path (eg "lgdevagt.exe" turns out to be Logitech stuff).

The "Services" tab also shows stuff that's running, but changes here are not recommended for beginners. Far better to uninstall stuff you don't need.

IMO first thing's first, open performance monitoring (ctrl+shift+esc) and then open SC2 and load a level. Then alt tab out and check the monitoring window. Sort them by memory usage. Kill the offenders/take note of what they are. 80 processes is definitely a LOT. I have maybe 65 tops, and most of them use less than 1mb.

Also, a web browser can use up a lot of RAM... like 500mb or more.

that was a good place to start (msconfig). i know how to do that now and it knocked me down to about 50 instead of 80. that should help. i'll spend some time looking at software i can uninstall too.