Memory Usage (RAM)

[Cody Hibbard]

Why is my computer using up right around 2.00 gbs of Memory, just idling? And also, how could i lower it? I've already used task manager and closed all background processes i dont need, and did a disk cleanup/defrag a month or 2 ago. Should i do it again, or what? All the info given is appreciated! Thanks!

Computer Specs: (If needed)
-Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5450
-Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.20 GHz
-Memory(RAM): 4.00 GB (DDR3)
-PSU: Dynex 520-Watt ATX Power Supply

 

[chesteracorgi]

Using 2 GB of RAM at idle may be normal for your OS & hardware. Even if you turn off all inessential programs and processes, you still will have overhead for the OS (which includes processing for the display, the keyboard, mouse, and disk operations, inter alia.) It is not possible to provide a more detailed answer without specifics about the OS and programs that are running.

If your system has need of more RAM, and you don't add physical RAM it will perform a caching operation to disk, which will slow operations, but will allow you to run programs that extend beyond your physical RAM.

 

[DonQuixoteMC]

Like chesteracorgi said, it's hard to diagnose the situation without specifics, but I also had half of my RAM used up idling with my Vista desktop (2GB out of 4GB).

I managed to trim that down by fiddling with MSConfig.exe, as there were a lot of resource hogs that I couldn't address as well through Task Manager alone. Just go through the list of startup programs and services in MSConfig and check each questionable item with a Google search or something. It's not concrete, but I got a good idea of what I needed and what I didn't.
(I would recommend using that utility cautiously though, as there are no safeguards to prevent you from stopping essential programs or services from starting or running.)

And while I'm no reigning authority on the matter, I would say going through your Performance Monitor (With Task manager) could also yield some interesting results. Just a thought.
Best of luck!

DonQuixoteMC