I was wandering if it's recommended to use RAM freeing programs regularly, such as OptimizeMemory 3.5, MemOptimizer included in TuneUp utilities 2007, and FreeRAM XP Pro v1.52.

if it is, which one is the best?


p.s. sorry if i made some mistakes, english isn't my first language

Those programs are pretty much useless and actually do more harm than good.

I don't want to get technical.. Just google for "memory optimizers hoax"

gotta disagree with you nodsu. Been using Freeram xp pro now for quite some time. Works great. In fact, it's help unstick some software.

Me too nodsu, I've been using RAM Optimizer for a very long time (couple of years), it works better on systems with 1GB or more of RAM. Heck I even use it at work.

And how exactly does it "work"? Do you actually notice any speed difference or do you just gawk at the arbitrary numbers it spits out?

Maybe run a couple of benchmarks?

I have to agree with Nodsu on this one, I've tried these "RAM optimizing" and "RAM freeing" programs and I haven't noticed the least bit of speed improvement on any of my systems.

Honestly speaking RAM freeing programs will only be useful on systems wid 256MB memory or less coz dats wen the software works 2 free ur RAM of unnecessary stuff wen important programs require RAM...

they're not used to increase speed. They're used to free programs that leak memory - or bog it up by poor coding.

I find they are no good for normal operation, but Freeram helps a great deal when unknown things are not right.

Can you elaborate a bit?

In my opinion, free RAM is wasted RAM.


MemTotal: 3089972 kB
MemFree: 22912 kB
Buffers: 50492 kB
Cached: 2351944 kB

Anyone saying that those memory optimizers "work" somehow, doesn't know how programs or operating systems work..

If a program has claimed some RAM, another program cannot just take it away. You'd have to manipulate some intimate in-kernel resources for that. And if you accidentally take away a piece of memory that is actually needed, the OS or the "leaky" program will crash.

Now, what those optimizers do, is that they force some of the physical RAM to be written to the swapfile. This is something that would happen in any case. All you gain is a pretty progress bar instead of just waiting for some other program to load while some memory is being freed up.

You also get slow response and mad swapping whenever one of those paged-out programs suddenly want their memory back. If the "optimizer" also decided to flush system cache, you lose the contents of that cache, meaning that the next time you want that cached data, you wait for your disk again.

As Mictlantecuhtli said, free RAM is wasted RAM. If something is there, then it is there for a reason (like a running program or cache). And if something there is not needed, the OS itself will write it out to swap in no time.

I don't know any of the details of how they work in the system, but I have tried a few freeware ones, and a few payware ones, and none made a difference to me. Infact, in my unbiased opinion I felt the computer was slower.

actually - according to Free RAM pro. Sometimes RAM gets locked by programs no longer in use. I have had many instances of this where this was actually the case. Both on my desktop and laptop. If it weren't for Freeram pro, the system might have locked up.

In any case it is also a good monitoring tool to see how much ram is actually being used. I haven't noticed any performance decrease at all.

Finally able to replay back to some questions:

The otherday this week I was reading about O&O CleverCache Pro for Windows XP HME or PRO. What I had found interesting that it handles the file system cache and memroy freeing a different way. The first image shows you before using OOCC and after using OOCC.

So without OOCC: 279MB
So with OOCC: 19MB

All my systems now run this program I've disabled and turned off tweakpowerpack 2006 Ram Ide Pro. Which only free up memory. OOCC does more than that as you can see above and below.

Tested Systems
OS:
1-XP Pro SP1, 3-XP Pro SP2, 4-XP MCE 2005 SP2

CPU:
1-Mobile PII 266MHz, 1-Mobile PIII 850Mhz, 1-Mobile PIII 1GHz, 1-AMD Mobile 1.8GHz,
1-AMD X64 2600+, 2-AMD X64 2800+, P4 Presscott 2.6GHz

Laptops with only one: HDD:
3-40GB & 1-60GB, RAM: 1-256MB, 2-512MB, 1-1GB 4-Wireless

Desktops with more than one: HDDs:
1-260GB, 1-320GB, 1-500GB, 1-560GB, 1-4-1GB 4-Wired 1-Wireless option.

One system I use as Printer Server, before OOCC: 495MB, after: 22MB with OOCC . So doing this does not overwhelm the resources of your main memory. More memory can be made available to your system, reducing the need for swapping segments of memory onto the hard disk. As a result, applications and operating systems can react more quickly.

Here is what you see on the very first page.



This is the actual memory, usage memory allocated memory, file cache use and not used.



Results: Streaming Live TV and AV Media over the network wired and wirelessly, downloading an normal general task, on some older systems like the Mobile Intels there was much improvement in speed for accessing applications and opening up IE. The desktop AMD X64 and P4 Presscott were fast before, but better file cache and memory manage made opening up applications seem alot faster. More operations task though, still testing daily with Anti-V and regular stuff I run in the background so far so good. System quite stable.

Note: Download is free for 30 days but it's the trial version. After installation there really isn't anything to configure, it's pretty much takes over the control for you.

Maybe use some real benchmarking program to demonstrate how reducing system cache speeds up your computer? Pretty graphs showing arbitrary numbers mean nothing.

Sure, opening a new program is faster, but what about those programs that are already running? They will be slower..

Well those type of testing will require a some free time and I'll have to get my hands on benchmark program.

I have the time, just buy me SYSmark 2004SE

What Nodsu says seems to make sense.

Messing around with allocated RAM reeks of lack of confidence in the operating system.

There is usually a good reason why some process is in the RAM (unless its a virus or a spyware).

What is the prime function of a cache ?

If one needs to have a program execute faster, perhaps one should limit the number of application programs initiated/running simultaneously.

If you really need more speed, why not add some RAM ? It isn't that expensive.

Squeezing allocated RAM will eventually cause 'threshing'

I use freemem pro 4.3 (really old program) and it help my system running smoothy for 3 day straight. i could watch movies, burn DvD, browse the web or even PSing if i want and there won't be a slow down (a bit if I were to open PS^_^). I got torent thingy running in the back ground too.

I set my Freemem to allocate memory for every 3 min, I sometime do it manually everytime I shut down my broswer or close a program to free up ram.

all running on 3.5 ghz cpu , 1 gig of ram.

screenshot here . I can video it if yall want further proof of how amaze that little program can do.

So you are saying that once you turn off your wonderprogram, your system turns horribly slow and crashes?

Care to benchmark it for us?