Most Windows 7 PCs max out memory

taodr · Feb 18, 2010

Other data that Devil Mountain collates as part of a new metric dubbed "Windows Composite Performance Index" (WCPI) quantifies peak processor workload and I/O performance. Both of those measurements are also higher for Windows 7 systems than for XP machines. While 85% of the former are running at peak I/O loads, only 36% of the latter do; the numbers for CPU workload are closer, as 44% of Windows 7 computers are running a computational backlog that delays processing tasks, compared to 36% of the XP systems.

"This is alarming," Barth said of Windows 7 machines' resource consumption. "For the OS to be pushing the hardware limits this quickly is amazing. Windows 7 is not the lean, mean version of Vista that you may think it is."

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9158258/Most_Windows_7_PCs_max_out_memory

rallydog · Feb 18, 2010

"According to XPnet's polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer. "

Well there's your problem! What cheap skate only puts three or four gigs of RAM in a window's 7 OS?

fhl · Feb 19, 2010

Quote from rallydog:

"According to XPnet's polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer. "

Well there's your problem! What cheap skate only puts three or four gigs of RAM in a window's 7 OS?

Isn't 4 gb ram what most off the shelf windows 7 machines come with?

bluebird001 · Feb 22, 2010

Quote from rallydog:

"According to XPnet's polling, Windows 7 PCs sport an average of 3.3GB of memory, compared to 1.7GB in the average Windows XP computer. "

Well there's your problem! What cheap skate only puts three or four gigs of RAM in a window's 7 OS?

Unless you move to a 64bit OS - Windows 7 will ONLY utilize 3G of memory - this is a limiatation of the 32 bit OS. Look at your device manager in Windows 7 32bit - it will say the total memory in the system, but then "total useable memory is 2.99G or something"

Scataphagos · Feb 22, 2010

Quote from taodr:

"... "This is alarming," Barth said of Windows 7 machines' resource consumption. "For the OS to be pushing the hardware limits this quickly is amazing. Windows 7 is not the lean, mean version of Vista that you may think it is."

Yeah! XP RULES.. STILL!!

Waiting · Feb 22, 2010

When I posted some time ago how Windows 7 inefficiently takes ram space

Some of you pathetic little geeks showed up to call me crazy.

other than very small minority like Gnome my opinion of the rest of you on this board is so low I can't put it into words.

taodr · Feb 22, 2010

For Vista users, 7 is far better. I am not sure 7 is a improvement over xp. Xp is clearly faster even after all the crap is cleaned up on both.

l2tradr · Feb 22, 2010

Quote from Waiting:

other than very small minority like Gnome my opinion of the rest of you on this board is so low I can't put it into words.

What do you mean? It looks like you just registered this month?

el pollo · Feb 22, 2010

Quote from Waiting:

When I posted some time ago how Windows 7 inefficiently takes ram space

Some of you pathetic little geeks showed up to call me crazy.

other than very small minority like Gnome my opinion of the rest of you on this board is so low I can't put it into words.

Did you post under the wrong sock puppet....ooooops!

GTS · Feb 22, 2010

Editor's note: The person quoted in this story as "Craig Barth" is actually Randall C. Kennedy, an InfoWorld contributor. Kennedy, who presented himself as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, no longer works at InfoWorld. Given that he disguised his identity to Computerworld and a number of other publications, the credibility of Kennedy's statements is called into question. Rather than simply remove stories in which he is quoted, we have left them online so readers can weigh his data and conclusions for themselves.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-7-ram-memory-xp,9701.html

Update: It's come to light that the Devil Mountain Software's CTO, Craig Barth, doesn't truly exist and is actually an InfoWorld contributor named Randall C. Kennedy. InfoWorld has announced that it has severed ties with Kennedy. Stay tuned for more updates.

If you read the follow-ups the these articles you will see that the original author has been completely discredited and that Win7 uses extra memory for disk caching rather than letting it sit idle/wasted.

This in no way impacts application performance because memory used for cache can be immediately reallocated to any application that requires it.

Here's the link to the previous discussion where mikasa (e.g. Waiting, cold, c-kid) got his butt kicked:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=188524