Solved how much ram for 64 bit windows 8 systems.

I have 4gb of ram in my desktop computer and have noticed that when I am on the internet, listening to music in the background and the mail app is open. I am using about 40% of ram, which seems a lot.

how much ram should someone have when using windows 8 64bit?

how much ram do you have in your win8 or 8.1 computer?

my laptop has 6gb of ram.

Damn one of these days I'll get 16 g in here. I only have two slots, DDR2 in this machine. Four shots in my HP and Dell boxes. I've got 3 GB of mismatched ram in there heh, runs 64 bit great.

I have 4gb of ram in my desktop computer and have noticed that when I am on the internet, listening to music in the background and the mail app is open. I am using about 40% of ram, which seems a lot.

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Under the circumstances 40% usage seems quite reasonable. You have to understand that the memory usage of those currently running processes is by no means a fixed quantity but can vary widely, even when performing the exact same task. Windows memory manager could quite easily make that 40% into 20%. The numbers might look good in Task Manager but the performance wouldn't be as good. As long as adequate memory is available Windows will allow processes to use virtually as much memory as they wish. As long as memory isn't need for other uses why not? But when memory is needed for other uses, such as running a major application, then the usage of these current processes will be trimmed back, drastically if necessary.

It's not too much, what do you want that empty memory for? it just sits there doing nothing. If you fill memory up than it will svap on disk and free some ram, only than it might slow down a bit. It is actually desirable for programs to use RAM, it means it does not have to run some of it's parts from much slower disk. It is widely accepted that 1GB per processor core is quite enough for everyday use and all above is just a bonus.

Glad to see the proper answers given to memory usage. I saw on the sister site a quote that goes like this: If you want to avoid using memory, remove it from your computer and put it on a shelf. Memory is there to be used. Not since the XP days has anyone been concerned with using too much memory. Vista, 7, and now 8 all use what you give it to be faster, more efficient, and more responsive.

The basic concepts of memory management in Windows haven't changed much since NT 3.1 was released in 1993. But even then the principles weren't new, being used in large computer systems long before that. Memory management in Linux and the Mac OS (since OS X) is more like Windows than different. The principle is that memory should be used to the fullest possible extent. Free memory is evil and should be put to work as soon as possible. The ideal would be zero free memory at all times but we aren't there yet.

The principles didn't change in Vista but what was new was some innovative ways, such as Superfetch, of putting memory to work that would otherwise be free. Task Manager and the new Resource Monitor now revealed more of what the memory manager was doing.

thanks for the replies.

I'm amazed - all the answers are correct! No-one has said create a RAM disk, turn off page file or anything bizarre like that.

It is all really easy actually (if you have PHD in Math as the guys who write this do then correct me).

Imagine you want to do something using a computer what will slow it? Looking at the internet on your phone? Your connection. Trying to add up 1m account balances - your I/O. Trying to calculate TEG or APR perhaps your RAM. Possibly CPU but this is really unlikely.

Your OS will page into memory what it needs and it is always faster than asking the I/O subsystem. It will also request what it thinks it might need based on previous work you have done (this is the pre-fetch/super fetch).

I work with midrange generally. If I can push CPU to 85 or 90% I'm very happy. This means that I am providing CPU with enough work. Generally though the problem is not RAM or CPU it is I/O. The OS will page in what it can work with (so for a normal PC 8 is certainly OK). After that you will be waiting on your disk.

CountMike is not quite correct. If you "fill memory" it will not paged back to disk. Pages are written to disk only when a change has been made. Your RAM is "filled" on the off-chance it may be required (a good thing). If it is not required and has not changed it is simply purged if another process wants it.

To answer your question though - I had 4GB on my laptop and it was fine (with i7 and 2 old style HDD). I upgraded to 8GB as I like to run OSX in a VM and wanted to give it 4 as well. I don't play games though - perhaps you need more for that.

Well, "fill up memory" is maybe a bit coarsely said. In very rare cases OS will let properly written programs fill RAM to the stage of un-usability. Win8 is much gentler with memory than older ones, remember "always unload DLLs from memory"? with With 16GB of ram, I did turn PF off but for other reasons (to save some wear of the SSD) and to be honest, did not see any improvement of the overall performance but with no ill effects either. Even with PF turned off there will always be some processes that use storage devices and some programs insist on using their own swap and temporary files on the HDD or SSD and merely turning off PF will not stop it from doing so. In such cases, having virtual disk or forcing them to create those temporary files on another physical disk can help a lot.
I also turned prefetch/superfetch of because of SSD, with it's speed they are really not necessary and can (questionably) save same wear and tear on it.
So all those "tweaks" to the system are pretty well on a need to basis as we are still far from OS making all the decisions for you on it's own. If you want to pull every ounce of the computer performance you' ll have to make some decisions on your own. Of course, if you can afford it "the more, the merrier" can apply to memory too but don't expect any spectacular if any results. I did notice that when on XP I changed from 2 to 4GB of RAM somewhat faster large file transfer within the memory but was nothing large enough "to write home about".

Mike, (I hope it is your name). You are correct. However you need to know exactly what a program is doing before you decide that forcing into memory is a good idea. In fact I force calendars (like when it is a holiday) and exchange rates into RAM as I know they are accessed a lot in the specific area (banking) that I do.

I'm watching an SSD on ebay for my laptop - not really for speed but for battery life.

You are right though - I upgraded from 4 to 8GB on my laptop and saw zero performance improvement. Except I could give it to a VM.

Adam

Yeah, Mike is the name, "Count" part, ugh, long story.
There are some nifty tools, even in W8 itself to find out what is using what resources and than decide. I have "MemInfo" sitting in the corner and when needed just look up particular information. Just checked, bunch of open stuff TV, AV, CPUid HWM and all kinds of usual suspects and 1.68 GB used. Firefox with 10 open tabs, 2 of which with flash content and it is the largest memory hogger with 385 MB, so weather I had 4, 8, or 16 GB would not make any difference as it is right now.
Do get an SSD, I'v seen the light when installed one, everything feels so much more "fluid" with it, Access times and those 4K reads and writes are making much more difference than just the raw reads and writes.