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The processing power stored in the CPU of a PC is extremely important when
running games, movie players, compression products and graphics software.
However, when analysing overall system performance, CPU speed comes second
to having sufficient physical memory (RAM) to run these complex applications.
While many of today’s computers have enough RAM to store a small library,
modern software and media files do require a lot of memory consuming resources.
Memory-related problems can cause delays and glitches that can drastically
hamper the software being used with, for example, noticeable slowing down of
movies (or delays in playback)and games.
By optimizing all your system settings and by monitoring resource usage more
carefully, these problems can be avoided, resulting in a smoother and more stable
gaming experience.
Paging Files and Performance:
In comparison to the minute integrated circuitry of a RAM Chip, a mechanical
hard drive is not very fast.
The read/write speed of the hard drive is slower than RAM and the technology
of the former is not designed toward accessing small pieces of data at a time.
When your computer runs out of physical memory, Windows will use your hard
drive to store the information that it cannot place in RAM.
It will indiscriminately create what is called virtual memory or a paging file
(or a swap file) that stores data from RAM that hasn’t been used recently
to load up and manage the more recent applications.
This slows down your hard drive and eventually may lead to a system crash.
The greater the number of (or the more power-hungry) applications running,
the more RAM is required and the larger the paging files may be.
The easiest solution to this problem and perhaps the most expensive is to upgrade
your RAM. There are, however, less expensive solutions that will greatly enhance
your PC memory.
Ideally, you would want to avoid using the paging file (hence your hard drive)
directly for complicated operations by making sure that there is always enough
RAM to execute these programs.
On the other hand, a large sound file containing 30 minutes of audio data might
not have to be stored in RAM all the time.
By moving less important data to the hard drive, making the physical memory
available to the applications that really need it, you can improve both performance
and stability considerably.
Memory Management with SpeedUpMyPC
Windows is indiscriminate when it moves data from RAM to virtual memory.
Windows will also use leave a lot of unused information in RAM until this information
is explicitly removed by the application that created it or until the RAM is
needed by other applications.
In addition, the operating system does not know which applications are more
important or whether you are going to start a memory-demanding application.
By using SpeedUpMyPC to monitor your RAM usage in real time, you can easily
find out if there is enough RAM to run your favourite applications.
SpeedUpMyPC also lets you free up RAM at any time with a single click.
This can be very useful if you running a game or play a DivX movie.
By freeing up memory before starting a demanding application, you won't have
to experience pauses or skipped frames while the application is running.
SpeedUpMyPC can also free up memory automatically whenever your memory usage
exceeds a certain limit.
This can help you avoid running out of resources when running multiple applications,
and will also prevent resources-related crashes.
Apart from monitoring RAM usage, SpeedUpMyPC can also monitor your page file
usage or virtual memory usage in real time.
As soon as your page file usage reaches a critical level, SpeedUpMyPC will
inform you about the situation, giving you enough time to terminate some applications
before the computer crashes or stops responding.
About the Author:
Kevin J Vella is the author of this article and the Public Relations Manager
of Uniblue Systems, a leading developer of Performance and Security Solutions
for Home and Business users: http://www.the-easy-way.com/uniblue.html |
