Cached Memory? Free Memory? Available?

[olson]

Cached means the memory is holding stuff that has been used in the past just in case it gets used again. For example if you open Firefox once the machine will hold the executable file in memory in case you use it again. The same goes for files as well. If an application needs more memory then the cache will be dumped to make room for whatever applications ask for.

[twosheds]

Okay, thanks for the explanation, Luke. :)
I guess that would explain why the Available and Cached numbers were about the same - when the Free memory all gets dumped into Cached memory, it more or less equals the Available memory.
That about right?

[olson]

Okay, thanks for the explanation, Luke. :)
I guess that would explain why the Available and Cached numbers were about the same - when the Free memory all gets dumped into Cached memory, it more or less equals the Available memory.
That about right?

Pretty much yeah, the cache memory is "free" as far as applications are concerned. It just helps to improve system performance with what would otherwise be idle memory.

[InfernalDarkness]

TwoSheds, if you want a more dynamic solution and more powerful control over your memory in Windows, check out ProcessLasso (http://www.bitsum.com/prolasso.php). The website looks cheesy, but it's the best in the business, and also has overrides for application startup for affinity, priority, and throttle as well as cache controls. It's like TaskMan for technical people - and is very potent at keeping a machine running smoothly even with all cores rendering full bore. Just thought I'd mention it!

[twosheds]

Thanks for that, Infernal!
I don't know if I'm just imagining it or if it actually is doing what it says, but after a full day of using it on my home PC I do think things are moving a little quicker.
I love the way you can set individual programs to go full power automatically on loading. Seems like there's an awful lot you can do with it actually, and I'm going to have to dig into it some and see how badly I can mess up my system. :D

[InfernalDarkness]

It's a great application, best of its kind. Also, it can terminate-upon-launch any process, which is convenient when, say, your boss installs youTunes on your workstation when you're not around just to copy music over, and doesn't want you to uninstall it, but then next time he tries to use that steamer it simply won't work! (grins) "I don't know what's wrong with it, boss, but it's not the kind of software we want on this computer you know..."

Best thing is it makes responsiveness a priority, and even while rendering on full in Maya, my media player (KMP) runs without any hangups in full-screen on the second monitor, for example. This should/could happen anyway without ProcessLasso, but having Responsiveness working for you directly is very nice for me.

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