If I doubled my RAM, would my memory usage go down?

Question

My PC currently only has 1GB of RAM, and I am currently using 86% of that. With 2GB of RAM, would I be using 43% right now?

Answer 1

Yes, your math is correct, to some extent.

However, note that most modern operating systems use more memory for caching (SuperFetch or whatever it's called). In particular, Vista and Windows 7 are really aggressive with this. This article on Coding Horror does a good job of explaining how memory management in Vista works--basically, it tries to use up your free (idle) memory for its cache, and when needed by another program, that memory is released again.

So the OS might appear to be taking up more memory, but it is only for caching purposes and can be freed at any time.

Answer 2

Not necessarily, most operating systems use extra memory as a buffer.

Answer 3

My company recently upgraded their XP laptops from 1 GB to 2 GB and my machine is currently using 1 GB of RAM, so XP probably uses more, too.

It's not like your memory is only RAM. There is also the pagefile, which is basically used for the same data. Just think of RAM as the faster part of your system memory. If the OS notices there is more RAM available, it will use more of it to store data that would normally reside in the pagefile. But if needed, the memory can be released quickly again, so that's nothing to worry about.

Answer 4

vista used to occupy about 50% of my RAM when i had 2GB of RAM,idle

Answer 5

No you would most probably not be using 43% of your RAM if you upgrade to 2GB. Some programs utilize RAM in a logarithmic manner - more RAM detected, they will attempt to use more then.

Answer 6

It is important to understand that memory usage in Windows is highly dynamic. Memory usage is dependent on system workload and how much memory is available. When more memory is available the system will enlarge the system cache and process working sets. When memory is short then working sets will be trimmed back. Physical memory usage is controlled almost entirely by the system with applications having only limited influence.

Answer 7

No, you'd probably be using about 86% of that too. It's like the way a family lives in a house. If you have 10% of the house empty and you move into a house twice the size, you eventually wind up with the new house about 90% full as well. Managing space is an active process, and more space means you can keep more stuff. There's no point in having more space just to keep more of it empty.

Free memory is just a cushion, a necessary evil in case the system needs space faster than it can free it. Otherwise, the system does its best to use all available memory. That tends to result in the least disk I/O and the most responsive system.

Answer 8

No.

Having recently upgraded my RAM, I know that XP will use more for buffering and caching purposes when it has more to mess with. With 768mb RAM simple services in Windows like spoolsv.exe (printer related) would use about 1 to 1.5mb of RAM. With an upgrade to 2.5gb of RAM spoolsv.exe is now hogging 4mb, as are many other services that previously used around 1mb.