Windows 7 cached memory bloat

[Linkin]

Windows 7 has a nasty habit if caching random shit into memory and filling my free 14GB of memory with useless crap. This is a problem because:

It rarely releases memory fast enough
It doesn't need to cache 14GB of photos and music that I just moved from one HDD to another and hold it memory
Lots of my heavily modded games (skyrim for example) can leak RAM left right and centre and Win7 won't release cached memory any if a program is leaking.

Thing's I've done:

Disabled superfetch service.
Set Memory Management prefetching in regedit to 0 for both options
Cleared C:\Windows\Prefetch
Searched google a million bajillion times with people asking the same question.

I don't care if I have to rip apart windows kicking and screaming covered in its own blood, does anyone know of a way to stop it from caching shit into memory and leaving it there?

I won't care how deep I have to dive within windows, I have a full backup on another drive. This is just another quest...

I've got RAMMap installed which allows me to manually clear the cached memory (with no ill effects), but I'd rather not have to do this every 5 minutes as windows goes apeshit loading crap into memory.

[terrastrife]

Loading from your SSD is slower than dumping used memory.
Don't forget that loading stuff also requires massive cpu loads decompressing packages etc.

But, it shouldn't be fetching with an SSD anyway, or at least it doesn't for me (both my desktop and laptop). I haven't messed with any Window's settings, just the default/toolbox setup.


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[power]

I don't think Windows is to blame here, are you sure you don't have some other issue (virus or memory leak of some sort?)

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by terrastrife

Loading from your SSD is slower than dumping used memory.
Don't forget that loading stuff also requires massive cpu loads decompressing packages etc.

But, it shouldn't be fetching with an SSD anyway, or at least it doesn't for me (both my desktop and laptop). I haven't messed with any Window's settings, just the default/toolbox setup.

pix

Originally Posted by power

I don't think Windows is to blame here, are you sure you don't have some other issue (virus or memory leak of some sort?)

My system is clean.

Look in resource monitor for standby memory. That is memory that contains items that are not in use, but in standy. So it's "free" when windows wants to release it. The problem is that windows will happily fill all 16GB of my memory with standby items. At which point, if I've been playing skyrim for hours and it's leaking memory again, windows won't clear any cached memory for it, and the game will crash.

I'll see if I can get a screenshot of it

[power]

I'm yet to see a 7 machine have issues with the way it handles memory in the way you are describing - the issue from what you are saying is with Skyrim? (or is there other stuff as well?).

All the messing about you've done has if anything probably made the whole thing worse. 7 knows what it's doing and 16GB of free RAM is crazy, just crazy.

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by power

I'm yet to see a 7 machine have issues with the way it handles memory in the way you are describing - the issue from what you are saying is with Skyrim? (or is there other stuff as well?).

All the messing about you've done has if anything probably made the whole thing worse. 7 knows what it's doing and 16GB of free RAM is crazy, just crazy.

It does the same thing with a clean install as well. Everything I've tried is an effort to stop or reduce this behaviour.

Another annoying thing that it causes is the "windows has detected your computer's performance is low" when everything's fine except for the majority of free RAM is actually loaded with junk in standby.

[power]

I honestly am not sure what's going on but I think you are barking up the wrong tree in looking at trying to disable Windows 7's memory management features. It's more likely to be related to Aero

try this, also I'd reverse all that other stuff you did.

Right-click the game's .exe or its shortcut. If it's pinned to the Windows 7 taskbar, then Shift+Right-click it.
Choose Properties.
Switch to the Compatibility tab
Enable "Disable visual themes"
Enable "Disable desktop composition"
Click OK

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by power

I honestly am not sure what's going on but I think you are barking up the wrong tree in looking at trying to disable Windows 7's memory management features. It's more likely to be related to Aero

try this, also I'd reverse all that other stuff you did.

It's not related to aero either, I've tried using the basic and classic themes.

Barking up the wrong tree or not I want a way to disable this.

[shift]

Originally Posted by Linkin

It's not related to aero either, I've tried using the basic and classic themes.

Barking up the wrong tree or not I want a way to disable this.

Are you sure Window is not dumping stuff it should, or is skyrim just hitting the max memory limit for a 32 bit app?

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by shift

Are you sure Window is not dumping stuff it should, or is skyrim just hitting the max memory limit for a 32 bit app?

It's been patched to use up to 4GB as per the patch notes from months ago, it's not going over that much by a whole lot but when it does, windows won't release any standby memory for it. It either causes awful performance or the game(s) crash.

[shift]

Originally Posted by Linkin

It's been patched to use up to 4GB as per the patch notes from months ago, it's not going over that much by a whole lot but when it does, windows won't release any standby memory for it.

So it is using the full 4GB; the maximum that a 32bit application can map?

If it is, then Windows simply cannot give it any more.

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by shift

So it is using the full 4GB; the maximum that a 32bit application can map?

If it is, then Windows simply cannot give it any more.

I also have this problem with BF3. Long games can get it to 6GB or more (and it's a 64 bit program) when windows decides not to release any standby memory the shit hits the fan in regards to the games performance.

[tiro_uspsss]

Which flavour OS are you using precisely?

& could you please provide a screen-shot of all this RAM 'mis-usage'?

[Linkin]

Originally Posted by tiro_uspsss

Which flavour OS are you using precisely?

& could you please provide a screen-shot of all this RAM 'mis-usage'?

Win7 Ultimate x64

Here:



And again, it does the same thing on a clean install with nothing modified.

[tiro_uspsss]

Originally Posted by Linkin

Win7 Ultimate x64

Here:

image

And again, it does the same thing on a clean install with nothing modified.

are you referring to the 'standby' ram quantity?

edit: does it affect how your PC 'feels' - any unusual lags, whether in a game or just browsing net?