Why does it say that i am using half my RAM?

[dubs89]

I have 4 gigs of corsair XMS2 2x1 GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 RAM.
My Mobo is a ASUS P5K deluxe LGA775 DDR2 1333FSB
My monitors are 2 Samsung 24" wide screens at full resolution.
My video card is a nvidia Quadro 5300
My operating system is Vista home premium 64 bit
My processor is a Intel core 2 quad Q6600 Quad core LGA774 1066FSB

My problem is that when i am on my desktop and have nothing running my vista side meter thing says that i am using half my RAM and 30% if my processor how could that be possible inst that like 2 gigs?

 

[Geoff]

Go to the task manager and see what program/process is taking it all up. Vista actually seems to take physical memory and use it to store commonly used files, so that may be the reason why.

 

[Quentin_T]

That's crazy. You must have some stuff running in the background hoggin up some of those resources. I finally have my Vista down to about 600/2046 in the memory department. Core 1 and 2 average 0-5% when idle.

 

[Klue22]

vista will always use about 1 gig of ram, because it renders everything in 3D
but it should only use about 5% processer
idk

 

[dubs89]

I checked and it says i am only using 3% of my processor. However i am using 1.4 gigs of ram. So this is just a vista thing i guess...

 

[tyttebøvs]

superfetch?

 

[SirKenin]

Vista uses half your available RAM whether you have 512MB, 1GB, 2GB or whatever. The CPU usage will vary depending on what you're doing and what's running in the background.

 

[tlarkin]

Vista is always caching things in memory to your RAM and your HD, which is why it requires at least 15 gigs of free HD space to run optimal. This is done in most modern OSes.

 

[Vizy]

If you have it, vista will take it, up to a pt.

 

[diduknowthat]

My computer uses about 1.4gigs of memory just doing normal stuff (firefox, winamp, aim, xfire). Vista will use more memory if you have memory to spare.