Maximizing CPU and Memory Resources
Your operating system (Windows 8) takes care of managing the CPU and memory for you. Even so, you can do some things to improve performance as it relates to your system's memory and CPU. The following sections offer some tips.
Conserving memory
One of the best things you can do to improve your computer's performance is to ensure that it has plenty of memory. Initially, that means making sure the computer has a sufficient amount of physical memory installed. You should consider 2GB a minimum, although Windows can run with 1GB. If you use lots of programs at once, or use applications that require a lot of memory, consider using the 64-bit version of Windows and having at least 4GB of RAM in the computer, if not more.
Having a lot of memory is part of the solution, but managing the memory you do have is equally important. You can optimize your computer's RAM in these ways:
- Reduce the number of programs you run concurrently:
If you aren't using a program, close it to reclaim the memory it is using. You can always open it again later if you need it. - Minimize the number of programs you install on your computer:
Do you really need a program on the tray that tells you what the weather is like outside? All of the little add-on programs you install and run on your computer, even if they are running in the background, consume resources. The fewer, the better.
Reducing the number of programs running at one time not only improves performance from a memory perspective, but it also reduces the load on the CPU, making processing cycles available to those programs that do need to be running.
Managing virtual memory
In the very early days of DOS, a computer could run only one program at a time. Programs had to be written to fit in the available (and minimal) memory in the computer. In today's Windows OS, you can run almost as many programs as you want at one time as a result of the design of today's CPUs and of the OS itself. The capability to manage memory effectively for all of those programs is due, in part, to the use of virtual memory.
Modern computers can use two types of memory. The first type is physical memory (RAM), which consists of physical memory chips on memory modules (small circuit boards) that plug into the computer's motherboard.
Tip:
The amount of RAM shown on the General tab of the System Properties dialog box is the amount of physical RAM in your system.
The second type of memory is virtual memory, and Windows 8 uses the computer's hard drive for that, using a file on the drive as a place to store data as an alternative to physical memory. The area on the hard drive that's used as virtual memory is called a paging file because data is swapped back and forth between physical and virtual memory in small chunks called pages. When you fill up both your physical memory and virtual memory, the computer doesn't just stop and display an error. Rather, it displays a message in advance, warning that the computer is running low on virtual memory and suggesting that you make room for more.
Because the virtual memory is just a paging file on the hard drive, you can easily add more just by increasing the size of the paging file. You don't have to buy or install anything. This is unlike physical memory in that the only way to increase physical memory is to buy and install more RAM. On downside to virtual memory is that it is much slower than physical memory as hard drives are slower than RAM chips.
To manage virtual memory in Windows 8, open the System applet from the Control Panel and click the Change Settings link. In the resulting System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced System Settings item on the left side of the window, and click the Settings button in the Performance group. Then, click the Advanced tab in the resulting Performance Options dialog box. The Virtual Memory area on this dialog box shows the total paging file size for all drives. To adjust the settings, click the Change button to open the Virtual Memory.
In most cases, it makes sense to select the top check box, Automatically Manage Paging File Size For All Drives, to allow Windows to adjust the page file.
If you don't want Windows to manage the page file for you, your main options in the Paging File Size For Each Drive area of the Virtual Memory dialog box are as follows:
- Custom Size:
You choose where you want to put your paging file(s), their initial size, and maximum size. - System Managed Size:
Tells Windows to create and size the paging file automatically for you. - No Paging File:
Eliminates the paging file from a drive. Not recommended unless you're moving the paging file from one drive to another.
If you have multiple hard drives, you can get the best performance by using the least busy drive for virtual memory. For example, if you have a D: drive on which you store documents, it may be better to use that, rather than the C: drive, because the C: drive is pretty busy with Windows and your installed programs.
If you have multiple physical drives, you can get a little performance boost by splitting the paging file across the two drives. A single drive that's partitioned into two or more partitions, to look like multiple drives, doesn't count. You don't want to divide the paging file across multiple partitions on a single drive because that will have the reverse effect and slow things down.
If you do opt for a custom size, you can work with any one hard drive at a time. The drives are listed by letter and labeled at the top of the dialog box. In the example shown, all of the partitions actually reside on a single drive.
Tip:
If you have a single physical hard drive, it will be Disk 0. If you have two physical hard drives, they'll be listed as Drive 0, Drive 1, and so forth.
If you don't select the check box at the top of the Virtual Memory dialog box, you'll need to set the paging file sizes individually. For example, to move the paging from drive C: to D:, first click drive C: at the top of the dialog box, choose No Paging File, and then click the Set button. Then, click drive D:, choose Custom Size, set your sizes, and click Set.
The Total Paging File Size For All Drives section at the bottom of the dialog box shows the minimum allowable size, a recommended size, and the currently allocated size (the last measurement being the sum of all the Initial Size settings). The recommended size is usually about 1.5 times the amount of physical memory. The idea is to prevent you from loading up way more stuff than you have physical RAM to handle, which would definitely make your computer run more slowly.
If your computer keeps showing messages about running out of virtual memory, you'll definitely want to increase the initial and maximum size of the paging file. A gigabyte (1,024MB) is a nice round number. But if the computer runs slowly after you increase the amount of virtual memory, the best solution would be to add more physical RAM.
If you do change the Virtual Memory settings and click OK, you'll be asked if you want to restart your computer. If you have programs or documents open, you can choose No and close everything first. But because the paging file is only created when you first start your computer, you'll eventually need to restart the computer to take advantage of your new settings.
Priorities, foreground, and background
Your computer's CPU and RAM are very busy places, with potentially thousands of tasks occurring at one time. To try to optimize performance, Windows prioritizes those tasks. Your application programs typically run in the foreground, which means that when you click an item with your mouse or do something at the keyboard, fulfilling that request gets top priority in terms of being sent to the CPU for execution.
Most processes, by comparison, run in the background. This means that they get a lower priority and have to momentarily step aside when you tell Windows or an application to do something. For example, printing a document is treated as a low-priority background process, and for a good reason. All printers are basically slow, mechanical devices anyway. So by making printing a low-priority process, you can continue to use your computer at near normal speeds while the printer is slowly churning out its printed pages.
Controlling CPU priorities
By default, programs that you're using are given a higher priority than background processes. It's possible to reverse that by giving processes a higher priority than applications. If you have an intensive background task running and want to give it higher priority, you can reverse the order. Or, if you want to make sure that your applications are getting top priority, as they should be, follow these steps:
- Open the System window for your system.
- Click the Advanced System Settings link on the left side of the screen to bring up the System Properties dialog box. Click the Advanced tab in the System Properties dialog box.
- Under the Performance heading, click the Settings button. The Performance Options dialog box opens.
- In the Performance Options dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
Tip:
The System icon in Control Panel also opens the System window. If Control Panel opens in Category view, click System And Security and click the System link.
The Processor Scheduling options determine whether your actions, or processes, get top priority when vying for CPU resources to do their jobs. If you choose Background Services, your computer may not be as responsive as you'd like, but background tasks will get higher priority. So for example, if you are running a scan of your system in the background and want it to finish faster, select Background Services in the Performance Options dialog box and click OK.
Note:
Choosing Background Services won't make your printer print any faster. There's really nothing you can do to speed printing, other than use the printer's Draft mode (if it has one). But even so, printers are just inherently slow mechanical devices.