Windows 7 PCs already maxing out RAM? [U]
updated 01:45 pm EST, Thu February 18, 2010
Most are forced to use slower "virtual" memory
(Update: debunked) An analysis performed lately by Devil Mountain Software reveals that the vast majority of Windows 7 systems regularly use slower disk-based virtual memory, negatively impacting performance. Data compiled from the more than 23,000 PCs in the company's community-based Exo.performance.network (XPnet) shows that 86 percent of PCs with Windows 7 regularly consume 90 to 95 percent of their available RAM and are forced to use virtual memory, which creates performance bottlenecks. By comparison only 40 percent of Windows XP PCs reach that level of memory usage despite having less total RAM.
Windows 7 systems also scored worse than XP machines on peak processor workload and I/O performance. 85 percent of Windows 7 systems run peak I/O loads, versus only 36 percent for XP PCs. CPU processing delay statistics are closer, although Windows 7 systems still do more poorly, at 44 percent to 36 percent.
Devil Mountain CTO Craig Barth called the resource usage of Windows 7 alarming. "Windows 7 is not the lean, mean version of Vista that you may think it is," said Barth. [via Computerworld]
Update: The story has been discredited as Barth is actually a pseudonym for ex-InfoWorld contributor Randall Kennedy, who provided the questionable report. Kennedy has since been ousted from his position.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2008
I dunno?
I'd like to know who they are surveying? I have Win7 x64 on 3 computers that I use. I multitask heavily on my work desktop with 8GB RAM and I've never engaged more than 2.5GB of RAM. My Dell XPS1330 laptop has 4GB and I've barely seen more than 1.5GB in active use doing common household computing (word processing, internet, email, photo editing). And my wife's old Sony CR320 has only 2GB and no issues? Although neither of my older laptops really had any issues running Vista FWIW.