Windows 7 Memory Usage

[ddecker]

So, the Technibble email today referenced the Windows 7 RAM issue from Tom's Hardware. You can search www-tomshardware-dot-com for "Report: Most Windows 7 PCs Max Out RAM, Choke" for the article there.

That article is pretty much flat wrong according to ARS Technica. You can search www-arstechnica-dot-com for "Behind the Windows 7 memory usage scaremongering" for details.

(I can't post links because I haven't hit the 15 post threshold yet)

On my system (64 bit Win7 Pro with 4 GB) at this moment, the resource monitor is showing these statistics:

2088 MB in use, 1937 MB in standby, 1940 MB available, 12 MB free.

"Standby" is superfetch RAM, holding cached data that, as needed, will be pitched if RAM is needed elsewhere. And that's the reason behind "1940 available".

Anyway, just an FYI that the Tom's Hardware folk are behind the curve.

The comments at the Tom's Hardware site are also informative.

[thecoldone06]

Mine is right on track. I have Win 7 32 bit with a bunch of apps open and I'm sittin at 1013MB used out of 2GB. That seems fine to me.

[kwisher]

Just for comparison/argument sake, running Linux Mint-8 and currently using 374mb out of 3gb.

[thecoldone06]

There is no comparison between memory usage in windows vs. linux. It's like comparing apples to oranges.

[purple_minion]

Originally Posted by kwisher

Just for comparison/argument sake, running Linux Mint-8 and currently using 374mb out of 3gb.

Well I am using 5.4/7.8G on debian squeeze. Probably that VM of Win 7 that is taking 2G and the compressing with paq9a another 1.5G.

I personally am not impressed with mint anymore, next to impossible to upgrade my cousin's laptop from mint 5. Didn't even give the option like in ubuntu (which is another mess IMO).

And you can compare apples to oranges... both are fruits, have fructose, fiber, grow on trees...

[thecoldone06]

Originally Posted by purple_minion

And you can compare apples to oranges... both are fruits, have fructose, fiber, grow on trees...

Well if your going to go that far, Windows and Linux are both OS's but thats about as far as the comparison can go LOL.

[ddecker]

Well, as an update, it looks like Tom's Hardware was getting its information from Computerworld, and apparently there were shenanigans afoot.

http-www-tomshardware-com/news/computerworld-randall-kennedy-craig-barth,9713-html