MBP not using all 8GB of upgraded RAM on Windows 7 64-bit

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Cal2015 Author

Level 1

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MBP not using all 8GB of upgraded RAM on Windows 7 64-bit

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on this forum, so please bear with me.

I have a 2011 MBP 13", on which I installed Windows 7 64-bit. I also upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB. When I was running SolidWorks, I noticed that my computer was only using up to 4GB of RAM, instead of the 8GB it has available. Why is this? How can I use all 8GB of RAM?

I've seen other posters post about the same problem, but the solutions were to all upgrade their Windows OS from 32-bit to 64-bit, but I already have 64-bit and my computer still won't use all 8GB of RAM.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on May 31, 2012 7:21 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 31, 2012 7:43 AM in response to Cal2015

you assume or know that SW will max out all the available RAM?

I don't use or know SW but Windows seems to be better at using memory and only what it needs. Some things on OS X will require more. Both systems use any free memory to cache and buffer system tasks.

Obviously SW version you have is current 64-bit version. And any preference to limit or allocate % of your memory. A 32-bit app would use 3.5GB and Windows will use 1-2GB and still use memory to hold more into memory as needed.

Maybe a screen shot from Resource Monitor or something?

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Answer 2

Cal2015 Author

Level 1

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Jun 2, 2012 3:00 AM in response to The hatter

Hi,

Thank you for the response. I'm confident SolidWorks will use as much memory as it's given, as I have read on other threads of users adding up to 16GB of RAM just for running SolidWorks. I've attached a screenshot of the task manager while I was running some analysis using SolidWorks. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Jega

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jun 2, 2012 4:05 AM in response to Cal2015

You're fine, right now it is processor heavy and using 32% physical memory is good.

And total memory is 8GB too. Seems it is proicessor bound, maybe graphic, and I/O

With 8GB of RAM, you could be wasting disk space with overly large page file, and also hibernation.

Take a look in Processes and also launch Resource Monitor.

I find Windows to be good at memory management.

Everything I could find on SW site and blog and benchmark were old, woeful, talking about XP even in 2009 instead of 7.

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