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Groups > alt.comp.os.windows-11 > #18471

Re: memory usage vs fan usage

From Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk>
Newsgroups alt.comp.os.windows-11
Subject Re: memory usage vs fan usage
Date 2025-04-17 22:12 +0100
Message-ID <m6d96qFdrguU1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References <m6cgr0Fa4thU1@mid.individual.net> <e0soeyu4gp7i$.dlg@v.nguard.lh>

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VanguardLH wrote:

> As far as memory compression goes, it might has some value on low-end
> computers.  See the following about that wonderful OS "feature".
> 
> https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-memory-compression-guide/

Yes, that was the article I read to find how to turn it off.  did you 
spot the true/false error?

> Even if the data is held entirely in memory, like a buffer or cache,
> compression takes CPU cycles, and more CPU cycles generate more heat.
> Every read will have to decompress the data before it can be used.
> Every write will have to compress the data.  That is overhead on the
> CPU.

yes, I didn't/don't know how much CPU the mem compression is using 
behind the scenes, I suspect it hides that from taskmgr?

I don't know what it doing, but given that memory may contain pointer to 
other memory, if you've compressed it, wrst case youmight have to 
intercept reads, unfrig the pointers before you pass the pages back to 
the unsuspecting app ... that could chew some CPU and cause some heat.

> Apparently the Memory Compression service is always active.  I have 64
> GB of RAM, and don't use anywhere near that much at any time.  Yet Task
> Manager's Performance tab under Memory shows "Inuse: 6.3 GB (204 MB)
> Available: 52.0 GB" which is the amount of RAM in use with the
> compressed size in parenthesis, and the last is how much is free.  No
> idea why anything in RAM got compressed considering over 50 GB of RAM is
> unused.
> 
> I was going to ask how much free RAM you have


usually about 6G free out of 16GB physical.  for some reason I had the 
pagefile set to "auto" and it had allocated 16GB, so I had 32GB virtual, 
I've nowchopped that down to 1GB pagefile.

> but I have gobs, and RAM
> compression is still getting used.  Because compression is involved
> means there are more CPU cycles for the same amount of data, so there
> will be more heat with compression enabled.  Considering the overhead
> involved to compress on write, and decompress on read, with lots more
> CPU cycles to do both, seems another Microsoft gimmick most likely to
> get their OS working on low-end computers (those with not much RAM).
> You mentioned how much physical RAM you have in your computers, but not
> how much is free after loading whatever programs you often use
> concurrently.  So, yep, I'll ask: how much free RAM do you have?

right now (with only FF, TB and HWmonitor, taskmgr as foreground apps) 7.4GB

I have a probably 150-200 tabs open, but nowadays they unload in the 
background much better than they used to.

> I've seen some gamers noting they go from 60 fps to 70 fps with memory
> compression disabled.  Some users have reported a whopping change from
> 30 fps to 120 fps.  3D graphics users have noted the app is slower when
> memory compression is enabled.  Less overhead in CPU cycles to compress
> on write and decompress on read.  Impact would be affected a lot by the
> performance of the CPU: a low-end slow CPU would take longer to compress
> and decompress.
> 
> https://www.elevenforum.com/t/enable-or-disable-memory-compression-in-windows-10-and-windows-11.3555/
> 
> With 64 GB of RAM (often only 10% of it in use), and 1 TB SSD NVMe, 2 TB
> SSD, and 4 TB spinner all of which are less than half occupied, or much
> less, I certainly don't need RAM and disk compression trying to save
> resources that far exceed the demand.  Considering how memory
> compression is not saving me from some low-memory disaster, I'll be
> disabling it.

I've got a dell R760 to tinker with at the moment, not huge amounts of 
memory (we had 256GB or 384GB models as VMware hosts several years ago) 
just 128GB but 2x24core xeons, 12Gbps SAS, couple of SSD to boot from 
and couple of SATA for local backups, 10Gb NICs.

> 
> get-mmagent
> 
> in Powershell (with admin privs) shows it is currently enabled on my
> desktop PC.  I see no point in adding all that CPU overhead for
> compression when I have gobs of free RAM.
> 
> disable-mmagent -mc
> 
> Even if I get no performance boost from not compressing into RAM, I'd
> rather the CPU run cooler by not wasting cycle on superfluous
> compression.


yes, with compression off,this machine is less fan-happy, if I'm 
watching youtube,sure the fan is on, but if firefox is in th ebackground 
and I'm just reading/typing in TB, then the fan shuts off pretty easily, 
whereas before it was constant.

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Thread

memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 15:16 +0100
  Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-17 12:09 -0400
    Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 19:57 +0100
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-18 03:15 -0400
  Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-17 11:59 -0500
    Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 19:40 +0100
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-04-19 12:04 +0000
        Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-19 13:36 +0100
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-19 09:25 -0400
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-04-19 14:54 +0000
            Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-19 16:16 +0100
            Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-24 08:17 +0100
              Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-24 05:14 -0500
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-24 11:30 +0100
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-24 09:08 -0400
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-24 20:59 -0500
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-25 07:40 +0100
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-25 19:13 +0100
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-25 22:29 -0500
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-26 10:31 +0100
                Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-26 15:05 -0500
        Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-19 14:36 +0200
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-19 13:56 +0100
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-19 09:28 -0400
  Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-17 15:07 -0500
    Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-17 22:25 +0200
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-17 19:30 -0500
        Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-18 14:09 +0200
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-18 11:13 -0500
            Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-18 21:33 +0200
    Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 22:12 +0100
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2025-04-17 20:07 -0500
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-18 05:24 -0400
        Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-18 12:08 +0100
          Re: memory usage vs fan usage Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2025-04-18 18:09 +0000
            Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-18 19:36 +0100
  Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-17 22:29 +0200
    Re: memory usage vs fan usage Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> - 2025-04-17 22:17 +0100
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage "Carlos E.R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2025-04-18 02:19 +0200
      Re: memory usage vs fan usage Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> - 2025-04-18 05:52 -0400

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