Optimus 2 Memory Usage??? - Using far too much RAM - please help!

J

jao144

Active member
ok - i got the Optimus 2 17.3" - its the 2GHZ i7quad version with 8GB samsung 1333MHZ ram. Ive loaded the 64bit windows 7 premium version onto it...

On my old desktop, - ive got the same OS (64bit) but its only got 2GB ram - also its 3ghz dual core. - when idle - it uses 950/2048mb RAM...

On my Optimus 2 - ive got the same applications as my old pc (but no junk files) BUT when idl its using 1.5/8gb RAM


Im putting it down to the drivers that came with the optimus... -

Can someone (a tech person) tell me wheat i can disable in startup (MSCONFIG) - so that my Optimus 2 will use less ram?

I know i cant disable hotkey because then graphics switching wont work, - like wise there are other drivers that will cause isues if i disable them - so expers advice would be nice :) haha
 
Frenchy

Frenchy

Prolific Poster
Um for a start windows 7 scales the amoutn of memory it uses based on how much memory the system has, the reason it used less on your old systemn is because you had less available. The OS wont use the same amount of ram on a low spec pc but it will have to perform a lot more swapping and so will run a lot slower. 1.5GB is fine for useage tbh.

EDIT: for comparison purposes, I have windows 7 running at moment, I have one tab open in firefox 2 tabs open ion chrome and my virtual machine running running linux. I am using 4.29GB of my 8GB. Granted the virtual machine will be using a bit, but that amount of memory useage is completely normal on a system with 8GB ram.
 
Last edited:
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
You can check in resource monitor to see if anything is hogging memory,
if anything obvious is using a lot of memory you can disable it from starting through msconfig on the startup tag,,
so long as your sure it isn't necessary.
But as Frenchy suggests,I wouldn't worry about it,
with 8GB,you're not going to run out of memory.
 
S

Skylinefx

Bronze Level Poster
That's normal for Windows 7. More you have, more it uses as Frenchy said.
I have 4GB RAM and when idle, 41% of it is used.
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
41% isn't normal when idle,thats quite high.
You may have a few unnecessary programs/processes running in the background.
 
Last edited:
J

jao144

Active member
does it release ram when your nearly using it all?

Ok - to test it - i opened a music app and opened samples - 312MB each - i opened it untill it was using 7.5 gb - then it started to fall even though i was using / playing the samples... - so does windows have a smart way of conserving memory? - it uses more until near a quota, then releases things its not doing anything with?
 
P

PotDucky

Bronze Level Poster
-_-

Windows uses something called virtual memory but only when necessary. Virtual Memory is on your hard disk, It's slower than normal memory. The more ram you have to less likely it is to use the virtual mem. For example windows uses about 1.5g of ram bog standard, If you have 2gb of ram it'll stick some of that on the virtual memory to free up more ram. (For more intensive programs) It's nothing to do with the drivers or anything else thats just the best way to run it.

TL;DR When your near your ram capacity windows stores some running programs onto the hard disk.
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
you can also use memory sticks as virtual memory and i think they are a lot faster than the hard drives, it definitely helped me on my old laptop...
 
J

jao144

Active member
Usbsticks as RAM???

If i use a USB stick as RAM - what will the transfer speed be on NAND? - like if i buy a 2GB USB3 (or even a 16GB) - will that alow my computer to ppen more samples as if it had 24GB RAM?

This is really interesting - because USB 3.0 ports are absolutly usless in most applications because devises wont run over the 3.0 driver... - it would be interesting to get a USB3 stick working as more virtual ram or somthing...
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
well i think it can only use up to 4GB and its nowhere near the speed of RAM, im not sure if it works on USB3 because it is meant to be used on older systems running Win7

if you have any extra slots for RAM then get some RAM and if you have small sticks you could replace them for bigger ones? are you using DDR3 then you could drop 1/2GB sticks for 4GB sticks, just make sure they are the same speeds..
 
P

PotDucky

Bronze Level Poster
I wouldn't bother with the whole USB3 Virtual Ram, You won't notice a difference. Transfer speeds are like 1/10th of the RAM and you'll use a a reasonable amount of CPU transferring everything back and forth.

As said above, If you really need to get some more RAM, Although I can't see why it's necessary?
 
W

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
^+Rep

still, if you have a spare memory stick sitting around its probably worth it as it definitely improves speeds when running high mem programs on low RAM systems
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top