maximising RAM usage by software

misskool

Hi guys,

I'm currently using a piece of software on a PC optimised for 64-bit windows 7 which requires min 8GB RAM.

Unfortunately, IT support haven't got round to buying me the right PC so I'm using it on a 32-bit Windows 7 enterprise with only 4GB of RAM.

The PC is 2.2GHz dual-core so not a processor speed issue.

When I'm running the software and quitting everything else, it seems only to be using 700MB of RAM with 300MB in reverse.

1GB of RAM seems to be reserved for hardware? But how can I tell the PC to use the other 2GB of RAM available?

I know this will be a temp workaround but I need to be able to start doing some analysis and I'm chasing as much as I can get to get the 64-bit Windows 7 enterprise. However, my IT support team are not very efficient and it might be a few more weeks (although it was supposed to be ordered a few weeks ago).

Any tips/tricks/help anyone please? (aside from buying another PC without IT's involvement which is very tempting but probably not a good idea as we are a managed IT environment)

closed

which software needs to use 8GB minimum? It should allocate what it needs as it's working, if it doesn't, it probably doesn't need it.

Ectophile

I'm not entirely sure where the problem is.

The PC will use the extra RAM if it needs it. If you still have loads of memory free, then nothing is using it. That's a good thing, not a problem.

Most software (in fact all but the most badly written and bloated software) will only grab memory when it is required. It shouldn't just grab gigabytes of memory on the off-chance that it might be useful at some point in the future.

John_Gray

misskool wrote: »

I'm currently using a piece of software on a PC optimised for 64-bit windows 7 which requires min 8GB RAM.

I love your use of the word "optimised"! The only software that I can think of which might want that amount of virtual memory is AutoCAD.

And do you really mean RAM? It's only fairly recently (well, a few years) in PC history that you could actually install 8 GB into a PC, largely because a decent 64-bit PC operating system wasn't yet available (I spurn Vista, for obvious reasons...).

misskool

Thanks guys, I'm not sure either. It's specialised science software and that was the recommendations of the software tech support.

I thought having a non-biased point of view from both sides would be helpful.

Hopster_2

misskool wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm currently using a piece of software on a PC optimised for 64-bit windows 7 which requires min 8GB RAM.

Unfortunately, IT support haven't got round to buying me the right PC so I'm using it on a 32-bit Windows 7 enterprise with only 4GB of RAM.

The PC is 2.2GHz dual-core so not a processor speed issue.

When I'm running the software and quitting everything else, it seems only to be using 700MB of RAM with 300MB in reverse.

1GB of RAM seems to be reserved for hardware? But how can I tell the PC to use the other 2GB of RAM available?

I know this will be a temp workaround but I need to be able to start doing some analysis and I'm chasing as much as I can get to get the 64-bit Windows 7 enterprise. However, my IT support team are not very efficient and it might be a few more weeks (although it was supposed to be ordered a few weeks ago).

Any tips/tricks/help anyone please? (aside from buying another PC without IT's involvement which is very tempting but probably not a good idea as we are a managed IT environment)

Although Windows state that 32bit versions run 4gb of ram its actually more like 3gb..
Also you video card can have a effect on how much ram is available, if its one of those integrated/onboard graphics chips then that may have ram allocated to it..

Am afraid you may be stuck until you get your hands on 64bit power..

tronator

misskool wrote: »

Hi guys,

I'm currently using a piece of software on a PC optimised for 64-bit windows 7 which requires min 8GB RAM.

Unfortunately, IT support haven't got round to buying me the right PC so I'm using it on a 32-bit Windows 7 enterprise with only 4GB of RAM.

You could ask your IT support to enable the PAE kernel as described here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg487503.aspx

Then your Windows should be able to use more than 4GB.

hth

StumpyPumpy

tronator wrote: »

You could ask your IT support to enable the PAE kernel as described here

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg487503.aspx

Then your Windows should be able to use more than 4GB.

hth

PAE will not help the OP as it does not change the amount of virtual address space available to a process: this remains at 2gb+2gb (or 3gb+1gb in /3GB mode) ie 32bit. It just allows the CPU to use 36bit addressing, so Windows has a theoretical 64gb limit but the VAS is still 4gb per process.

It might be a solution if the OP wanted to run 3 separate processes simultaneously that worked best with (say) 2gb each and the machine had 8gb installed but as I understand it, this is not the issue here.

SP

misskool

So, this morning I tried again and got this error message. Is this possible as it was only using 1GB of RAM when this happened. Willing to try anything

Message: Application Error
Component: GS
Stack: System.OutOfMemoryException: Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' was thrown.

at System.String.CtorCharArray(Char[] value)

at I.GS.GX.Analysis.ProbeData.SetProbeBeadTypeDataChannel(Boolean CY3)

at I.GS.GXModule.Analysis.GXAnalysisGroup.AddSample_Marvel(GXSample gxSample, Int32 numSamples, GXManifest manifest)

at I.GS.GXModule.Analysis.GXAnalysisGroup.InitializeData_MultiThread(GXManifest manifest)

at I.GS.GXModule.Analysis.GXAnalysisGroup.Calculate_MultiThread(GXTableTypeEnum tableType, GXManifest gxManifest)

at I.GS.GXModule.GXDataTable.CalculateData_OneThread(Object obj)

at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart(Object obj)

debitcardmayhem

How big is your page file? try upping it to 8GB -

1. Open System by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.
2. In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
3. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
4. Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change.
5. Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.
6. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
7. Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.

S0litaire

If the program is used for complex scientific or graphics data manipulation then 8Gb requirement is probable. Its easier for the program to dump all the required data and storing results in ram than relying on relatively slow SSD's, swap files or Disk drives!

I've seen some science based apps that require to do complex maths regarding chemical interactions or structural modelling using well over 8Gb of RAM just to store the results! Though they were running on server grade equipment (multiple quad core CPU's and 64 Gb of ram)