Vista RAM, Cache vs Free...?

[angelus512]

Ok anybody that runs vista please press CNTRL+ALT+DEL and bring up windows task manager.

I'm probably almost 100% being very pedantic but I notice when I start Vista I have

2045 total physical memory
cache very little
free lots

left alone for say 3-5 mins not opening any other programs it slowly allocates all the free memory to cache.
Why?
And whats the need/point? Is cache just another word for free and if so why have cache?

Confused as to what this means.
Also at current running Windows Mail/ Explorer x1, Windows Explorer

Vista says i'm using 898 memory in that little green bar graph.

However a cursory glance at Processes reveals the total number of mem use by processors which I calculated up by hand is around 200 meg...thats a discrepancy of 700 meg almost.

What gives? I've got 45% usage on the small number of proggies i've got open. Weird.

 

[GVBN]

left alone for say 3-5 mins not opening any other programs it slowly allocates all the free memory to cache.
Why?
And whats the need/point? Is cache just another word for free and if so why have cache?

Vista uses SuperFetch
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/superfetch.mspx

Available memory = Cache + Free

Cache is used to speed up programs. Free RAM isn't used for anything at all

 

[damicatz]

Cache is memory used to store files from the hard disk. Vista will preload applications and data files into unused memory. For all intensive purposes, cache and free memory are one in the same when you are trying to figure out how much memory you have free because the minute an application needs memory (or more memory), it comes from what is being used as cache.

 

[angelus512]

Thanks for all the answers guys, been asking a lot of Questions but only due to getting new system.

Anyways so I don't create another thread I though i'd ask this next one here.
Just got in about 40mins of civ4 play then.
Fresh into windows my Physical memory usage in Vista is about 30%
Once I run BTS and load Rhye's and Fall mod which I rather like my memory usage skyrockets to 70% sometimes a shade more.

Is it normal for civ to eat up so much? I had 1.5GB total usage once i'd run it up and I noticed every turn took around 6-10 seconds to finish just counting the seconds down on my fingers.

Somebody earlier said there system on huge maps was done in around 2-3 seconds and their specs are lower than mine.
I''ll assume he was just overstating things.

Things run nicely just I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

 

[damicatz]

A lot of that has to do with the differences between the way Vista and XP manage video memory under DirectX 9.

In Windows XP, games generally maintain a copy of video memory in System RAM so that when you alt-tab out and then back in, it doesn't take 5 minutes. In Windows Vista, this is done automatically through the new video driver model. What this means is, in a lot of cases, particularly with games made before Vista game out, they end up using a lot more memory than they actually need because they are actually storing two copies of video memory instead of just one.

Microsoft has released a hotfix which corrects this issue on older games. It can be downloaded here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105

Thanks for all the answers guys, been asking a lot of Questions but only due to getting new system.

Anyways so I don't create another thread I though i'd ask this next one here.
Just got in about 40mins of civ4 play then.
Fresh into windows my Physical memory usage in Vista is about 30%
Once I run BTS and load Rhye's and Fall mod which I rather like my memory usage skyrockets to 70% sometimes a shade more.

Is it normal for civ to eat up so much? I had 1.5GB total usage once i'd run it up and I noticed every turn took around 6-10 seconds to finish just counting the seconds down on my fingers.

Somebody earlier said there system on huge maps was done in around 2-3 seconds and their specs are lower than mine.
I''ll assume he was just overstating things.

Things run nicely just I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

 

[angelus512]

A lot of that has to do with the differences between the way Vista and XP manage video memory under DirectX 9.

In Windows XP, games generally maintain a copy of video memory in System RAM so that when you alt-tab out and then back in, it doesn't take 5 minutes. In Windows Vista, this is done automatically through the new video driver model. What this means is, in a lot of cases, particularly with games made before Vista game out, they end up using a lot more memory than they actually need because they are actually storing two copies of video memory instead of just one.

Microsoft has released a hotfix which corrects this issue on older games. It can be downloaded here : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105

So you're saying if I download that hotfix then the huge amount of RAM civ4 seems to use which is around 800meg of it will be smaller if I install the hotfix?

Keep in mind I already run Vista and the way I read the hotfix it basically said Vista already has the function to stop such memory hogging.

I mean I alt+tab out of civ4 into other windows easy as pie but I'm just surprised that Civ eats up almost 1GB of ram when its running.
Makes my mem usage go up to around 70% and I remember (i think) reading others that said when they run civ it doesn't go much higher than 50% mem usage or such.

But I am running Rhye's and Fall mod so perhaps that consumes far more usage due to its huge scope?

 

[angelus512]

I should mention I already downloaded this hotfix earlier. So my statement as to how much ram civ was using 800ish still stands.