I have a question about memory on my computer..........?

Question

My computer system information says that I have a Total Physical Memory of 261,424 KB, Available Physical Memory of 61,604 KB, and Total Virtual Memory of 892,412 KB. What does this mean? I was under the impression that I need at least 256 MB of RAM to run Windows XP (I have the program) and I presently have Windows 2000. Can anyone enlighten me?

Answer 1

as I understand it, physical and virtual memory are peices of the hard drive that the computer is using to speed the "pagefiling" right click on my computer and go to properties. then it will tell you what your processor speed and amount of memory is.

Answer 2

You should really think about investing in some more RAM. at least 512MB total. That should be enough to run anything you throw at it as long as you're not a hard core gamer or graphics designer. Before I explain what virtual memory is, let me explain what RAM is. RAM or Random Access Memory is used by the computer to access data very fast so it can run programs and such. You may be asking why not just use a hard drive? Hard Drives are not fast enough. Virtual RAM is a space on your Hard Drive that Windows makes into Virtual RAM. It is slow but this RAM can be used to run simple tasks for Windows. Physical memory is the actual stick of RAM you have. Like I said before, go with at least another 256MB os RAM and you should be set. Good Luck!

Answer 3

Divide 261,424 KB by 1024 and that converts to 256 MB, which is how much stick RAM you have.

You currently have 60 MB of memory not being used.

Virtual memory just means information is being stored on the hard drive instead of in memory. Storing stuff in main memory is preferred over virtual memory since stick memory is purely electronic while storing stuff on the hard drive involves moving parts, and when moving parts are involved data reads/writes are much slower.

Answer 4

Are you asking if you are able to run XP on your system? Based on what you have said, you have 256 MB memory installed (256 MB Physical Memory minus your currently using Memory = Available Physical Memory) and if it is an XP's minimum requirement, then, you can run XP on it but of course, on a minimum performance which absolutely you don't like. Furthermore, Virtual Memory is a portion of your HDD alocated by your Operating System as additional memory.

Answer 5

Physical memory is hardware in your computer. Virtual memory is used by Windows when it runs out of physical memory. When you read these statistics using certain applications, your get the physical and virtual memories combined into one. Make no mistake though, physical memory is much faster than virtual memory. You see, Physical memory is stored electronically while virtue memory is stored physically on your hard drive. It takes time to get the requested memory from your hard drive to your physical memory ( that causes a wait state). Soooo, the more physical memory you have (I'd go for at least 512MB) the faster your computer will be (within limits).

Realize this, bottle necks happen in every computer. It sounds like your current bottle neck is your memory.

Answer 6

1000 KB = 1 MB

So 261,424 KB = 261 MB (RAM)

61,604 KB = 62 MB (This is amount available with Windows and other programs all ready running) (part of RAM)

892,412 KB = 892 MB (this is the space on your hard drive that is available to be used if RAM memory is all used)

The truth is that you should have 512 MB of RAM for XP to run adequately.

Hope that helps.

Answer 7

Your available physical memory is how much RAM you have in your computer (in this case, it comes out to 256mb)

Available memory is how much you have left.

Can't remember the Virtual Memory part.

This means that your computer has 256mb of RAM and it is currently using about 200mb. In other words, Windows is using about 200mb of RAM and there is only about 56mb or so to run any other programs.

You really need to get more RAM. You can run XP with what you have, but it will probably be slow.

Answer 8

yes XP will run on 256 mb of ram but it will be dog slow you will need to get another stick of 256 . I would take your computer into a shop and have them look and see what speed and if your computer can handle another stick of ram. I run a minimum of 1gig of ram on my system so its not so slow. Even 2 sticks of 256 can be slow but it depends on what your doing with the computer.
Hope this answers your question.
Morgaine