Does free ram available affect speed

M

mfhboy

My question is does more free ram increase the performance?

I run a simple charting program with 1 min, 5 min chart plus times and sales of only a single index futures, others stuffs are TWS, EXCEL, a web browser, MSN as well as Oanda with 2 windows. That's it, all on XP.

My CPU usage is below 30% for most of the time. I got 1GB ram and I have about 35-45% free ram available after loading all my stuffs during trading hours.

Also, as time running, I got less ram available after trading hours. Any freeware can clean up those unnecessary ram allocation as many as possible?
 
YES DEFINITELY.... when there is no RAM available the cpu has to find an alternative place to store information... one of the next available locations is.. your hard drive/disk (AKA Swap). The hard drive is significantly slower than your RAM.
 
If you still have free physical RAM, adding more probably will not increase speed.

Programs which "free up" RAM generally do not increase speed, either.
 
Thx StockApprentice and Gnome

I have set the vitural memory as zero is that mean I have switched off the SAWP function. If not, how to shut it off?

Also 1GB ram seems enough for my situation if I don't running SAWP, right?
 
Quote from mfhboy:

Thx StockApprentice and Gnome

I have set the vitural memory as zero is that mean I have switched off the SAWP function. If not, how to shut it off?

Also 1GB ram seems enough for my situation if I don't running SAWP, right?
More...

Yes, probably enough. There's a check box for "No Paging File" below where you set the page file size. I'd recommend you keep the page/swap file. Some programs may have difficulty if you don't have one... not because you don't have a enough memory, but because the program has "looking for a page file" designed into it. If nothing else, just set it small. 512 minimum and 512 maximum so that it stays contiguous.
 
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