Help me understand this....

RWBRWB Icrontian
edited November 2004 in Science & Tech
OK I just installed 1.5GB of memory, no problems on the hardware end, not anymore, took 45 minutes to install it since my PC woudln't even turn on, but it works great now.

So I am trying to figure out what all this stuff means on the Task manager... in Windows 2000 it was Memory Usage, not Page File... Could someone lay it out for me?

Comments

  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited November 2004
    Those windows can be custom configured to display different options. The pagefile is XP (and Win2K) replacement for what was known as virtual memory. Remember Win98?

    The pagefile is a file area WinXP puts on the hard drive to swap data to if there isn't enough memory. It "pages" information to the file. With 1.5 GB of memory you should set min and max to 1.5 GB.

    There are many discussions about the optimum settings but you cannot get rid of the pagefile totally. You may get away with 512MB, 1024 or 1.5 GB pagefile but I think the days of Microsoft recommended 2-3 times installed RAM are gonzo with that much memory installed.

    I noticed that the CPU usage is at 100%. Perhaps you could look at the processes tab and see what's chewing up CPU usage.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    F@H is chewing it up, my PC so far has stayed virus and spyware free :D

    I'll reconfigure my Page file, I have a second HDD, it's not SATA like my main drive, but I figure it's still best to put it on there. 1.5GB of Page file should do good enough, even for all the Digital Media work I do.
  • tophericetopherice Oak Ridge, TN
    edited November 2004
    OK The commit charge is the amount of physical memory (RAM) and virtual memory that is allocated to all running programs, or applications, and the operating system itself.

    Kernel Memory is the amount of memory allocated to your system kernel (the part of the OS that loads first and remains in memory). The kernel is responsible for memory, process, task, and disk management.

    Paging:
    As far as virtual memory goes, a page is a fixed number of bytes recognized by the operating system.

    The OS copies a certain number of pages from your storage device to memory. When an app. needs a page that's not in memory, the OS copies the required page into memory and copies another page back to the disk. Whenever a page is needed that is not currently in memory, a page fault occurs. An invalid page fault occurs when the OS calls a page at an invalid address.

    Hope that helps. What exaclty is it that you're looking for here.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Just trying to figure out what is what... curiosity... and how much Physical Memory is being used compaired to Page File... Page File as far as I know being on the Hard Disk.
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited November 2004
    Digital video surprisingly won't chew up a lot of memory since it is 2D. What may chew up processor time first then memory are effects (transitions) that have not been rendered.
  • RWBRWB Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Well I don't just do video, I usually do 3D stuff, lots of textures and lots of memory :D
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    On a related note, I have changed my swapfile to a drive other than C: but it keeps going back to C even after I apply the changes and reboot. I found this out accidentally as the computer ran out of virtual memory when burning CD's. Nothing I've tried has made it stick so I just made a bigger space on C: for the swapfile. :mad:

    It hasn't slowed down the real life performance or response time of the machine so I'm not that worried about it but wanted to mention it in case there is a known problem or easy fix I've missed.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited November 2004
    MediaMan wrote:
    Those windows can be custom configured to display different options. The pagefile is XP (and Win2K) replacement for what was known as virtual memory. Remember Win98?

    The pagefile is a file area WinXP puts on the hard drive to swap data to if there isn't enough memory. It "pages" information to the file. With 1.5 GB of memory you should set min and max to 1.5 GB.

    There are many discussions about the optimum settings but you cannot get rid of the pagefile totally. You may get away with 512MB, 1024 or 1.5 GB pagefile but I think the days of Microsoft recommended 2-3 times installed RAM are gonzo with that much memory installed.

    I noticed that the CPU usage is at 100%. Perhaps you could look at the processes tab and see what's chewing up CPU usage.


    if u go into proformence then advanced u can disable page file
    it improves speed ALOT and i mean ALOT espicaly for load times in games
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