Performance Issue?

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

I have noticed, at least in Vista when ever I am doing ripping, muxing or burning my system slows down to a halt. I have 4GB of ram but when I am doing those things, I am only using 1.6GB at most and it slows down like I am using 3.9GB.

I was looking at the Task Manager during this, and it says under Physical Memory that I have 2813? Is that correct, does that not mean I have just under 3GB of RAM? Anyone got any ideas to why? For either question..

rotjong · August 6th, 2008

Is 4 GB showing up under System for the memory?

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

Wow that was fast, and yes it is.

rotjong · August 6th, 2008

Originally Posted by Bman

Wow that was fast, and yes it is.

I'm assuming you are using Vista 32-bit?

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

Sorry yes, Vista 32-bit

System info if needed

780i SLI motherboard
8800GT 512MB
4GB dual channel 1066Mhz ram
1TB (2x500) harddrives
Q6600 at 3.02Ghz

And I know the limitation of 32-bit, but it should be able to use 4Gb now correct?

And that is besides my question, i can multi task games and tons of programs without issue, but once i mux, or rip or burn, it slows to a halt.

rotjong · August 6th, 2008

You have 4 GB of RAM installed and Vista 32-bit does and can recognize 4 GB of memory but it cannot actually utilize it all. As with XP 32-bit there is the 4 GB limitation. It really comes down to the limitations of a 32-bit operating system. With Vista 64-bit you would be seeing and utilizing the full amount installed.

Even though you aren't able to make full use of the 4 GB of system memory it is still better than if you only had 2 GB installed.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

So what about my question

I can multitask games and programs without any slow down.

Ripping, muxing, and burning it's slowed to a halt.

(off topic question, is there away to upgrade to 64bit without reinstalling anything?)

**LeeJend** · August 6th, 2008

On board video shared ram may reduce your total. Task Manager is only seeing 2.8G

A 32 bit OS will only recognize 3MB of the 4MB installed.

You can't put the whole item you are converting in RAM so you have to spool to disk as you process. That can severly slow things down. Check disk usage stats while you are slowed down.

In general turn off all non-essential tasks when doing processor or memory intesive jobs. Make sure the HD is defrag'd. If not you slow HD just gets really slow jumping around all over itself looking for free space. Also the HD should be packed as all one contiguous free area. Page files can really screw this up.

Kill pagefiles, hibernate files, etc then defrag. Right after defrag turn pagefiles, etc back on. Now your work area will be contiguous.

rotjong · August 6th, 2008

Originally Posted by Bman

(off topic question, is there away to upgrade to 64bit without reinstalling anything?)

Unless something changed when I wasn't aware then the answer is no. There is no upgrade path from 32-bit to 64-bit.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

Originally Posted by LeeJend

On board video shared ram may reduce your total. Task Manager is only seeing 2.8G

A 32 bit OS will only recognize 3MB of the 4MB installed.

You can't put the whole item you are converting in RAM so you have to spool to disk as you process. That can severly slow things down. Check disk usage stats while you are slowed down.

In general turn off all non-essential tasks when doing processor or memory intesive jobs. Make sure the HD is defrag'd. If not you slow HD just gets really slow jumping around all over itself looking for free space. Also the HD should be packed as all one contiguous free area. Page files can really screw this up.

Kill pagefiles, hibernate files, etc then defrag. Right after defrag turn pagefiles, etc back on. Now your work area will be contiguous.

Thanks I will give that a try. Not exactly remembering how to turn off Pagefiles though, but should be able to figure it out. And I guess defrag really makes the difference I never thought it did.

**LordOfLA** · August 6th, 2008

Make sure your drives are running in DMA mode. The greatest cause of slow down during IO is running in PIO mode.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

How would I change that?

**Sazar** · August 6th, 2008

Control Panel > System > Drive properties usually.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

I don't seem to find anything about DMA in the control panel, system just shows information, nothing to change.

**LordOfLA** · August 6th, 2008

it would be in device manager on the SATA/IDE controllers.

**Dark Atheist** · August 6th, 2008

i always thought sata drives would default to udmaX (x being 6/7)

**LordOfLA** · August 6th, 2008

if there are too many crc errors they switch to PIO.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

Seems like everything is in DMA. I haven't defraged either yet.

Quick suggestion to your favorite defrag program?

rotjong · August 6th, 2008

One thing to note is that if you use AnyDVD it prevents your ODDs from reverting to PIO.

I recommend Raxco PerfectDisk for defragmentation.

**Bman** · August 6th, 2008

Originally Posted by rotjong

One thing to note is that if you use AnyDVD it prevents your ODDs from reverting to PIO.

I recommend Raxco PerfectDisk for defragmentation.

Good to know, and thanks for suggestion.

And I don't need to disable pagefiles and such to defrag right?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #1
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Performance Issue? I have noticed, at least in Vista when ever I am doing ripping, muxing or burning my system slows down to a halt. I have 4GB of ram but when I am doing those things, I am only using 1.6GB at most and it slows down like I am using 3.9GB. I was looking at the Task Manager during this, and it says under Physical Memory that I have 2813? Is that correct, does that not mean I have just under 3GB of RAM? Anyone got any ideas to why? For either question..

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #2
rotjong OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: The far side of nowhere Posts: 573 Reputation: 585 Power: 112	Re: Performance Issue? Is 4 GB showing up under System for the memory?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #3
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? Wow that was fast, and yes it is.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #4
rotjong OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: The far side of nowhere Posts: 573 Reputation: 585 Power: 112	Re: Performance Issue? Originally Posted by Bman Wow that was fast, and yes it is. I'm assuming you are using Vista 32-bit?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #5
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? Sorry yes, Vista 32-bit System info if needed 780i SLI motherboard 8800GT 512MB 4GB dual channel 1066Mhz ram 1TB (2x500) harddrives Q6600 at 3.02Ghz And I know the limitation of 32-bit, but it should be able to use 4Gb now correct? And that is besides my question, i can multi task games and tons of programs without issue, but once i mux, or rip or burn, it slows to a halt.

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August 6th, 2008	Top \| #6
rotjong OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: The far side of nowhere Posts: 573 Reputation: 585 Power: 112	Re: Performance Issue? You have 4 GB of RAM installed and Vista 32-bit does and can recognize 4 GB of memory but it cannot actually utilize it all. As with XP 32-bit there is the 4 GB limitation. It really comes down to the limitations of a 32-bit operating system. With Vista 64-bit you would be seeing and utilizing the full amount installed. Even though you aren't able to make full use of the 4 GB of system memory it is still better than if you only had 2 GB installed.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #7
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? So what about my question I can multitask games and programs without any slow down. Ripping, muxing, and burning it's slowed to a halt. (off topic question, is there away to upgrade to 64bit without reinstalling anything?)

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #8
LeeJend OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: January 2003 Location: Fort Worth, TX Posts: 5,259 Reputation: 3386 Power: 199	Re: Performance Issue? On board video shared ram may reduce your total. Task Manager is only seeing 2.8G A 32 bit OS will only recognize 3MB of the 4MB installed. You can't put the whole item you are converting in RAM so you have to spool to disk as you process. That can severly slow things down. Check disk usage stats while you are slowed down. In general turn off all non-essential tasks when doing processor or memory intesive jobs. Make sure the HD is defrag'd. If not you slow HD just gets really slow jumping around all over itself looking for free space. Also the HD should be packed as all one contiguous free area. Page files can really screw this up. Kill pagefiles, hibernate files, etc then defrag. Right after defrag turn pagefiles, etc back on. Now your work area will be contiguous. Thought for the new millenium: In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates? - Open Office - Firefox - Thunderbird - Gimp -Ubuntu - Red Hat -

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #9
rotjong OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: The far side of nowhere Posts: 573 Reputation: 585 Power: 112	Re: Performance Issue? Originally Posted by Bman (off topic question, is there away to upgrade to 64bit without reinstalling anything?) Unless something changed when I wasn't aware then the answer is no. There is no upgrade path from 32-bit to 64-bit.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #10
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? Originally Posted by LeeJend On board video shared ram may reduce your total. Task Manager is only seeing 2.8G A 32 bit OS will only recognize 3MB of the 4MB installed. You can't put the whole item you are converting in RAM so you have to spool to disk as you process. That can severly slow things down. Check disk usage stats while you are slowed down. In general turn off all non-essential tasks when doing processor or memory intesive jobs. Make sure the HD is defrag'd. If not you slow HD just gets really slow jumping around all over itself looking for free space. Also the HD should be packed as all one contiguous free area. Page files can really screw this up. Kill pagefiles, hibernate files, etc then defrag. Right after defrag turn pagefiles, etc back on. Now your work area will be contiguous. Thanks I will give that a try. Not exactly remembering how to turn off Pagefiles though, but should be able to figure it out. And I guess defrag really makes the difference I never thought it did.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #11
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 212	Re: Performance Issue? Make sure your drives are running in DMA mode. The greatest cause of slow down during IO is running in PIO mode. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #12
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? How would I change that?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #13
Sazar F@H - Is it in you? Joined: April 2002 Location: Between Austin and Tampa Posts: 14,886 Reputation: 4110 Power: 312	Re: Performance Issue? Control Panel > System > Drive properties usually. Help to find cures for Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers. Folding@Home, is it in you?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #14
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? I don't seem to find anything about DMA in the control panel, system just shows information, nothing to change.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #15
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 212	Re: Performance Issue? it would be in device manager on the SATA/IDE controllers. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

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August 6th, 2008	Top \| #16
Dark Atheist OSNN Veteran Addict Joined: April 2003 Location: In The Void Posts: 6,372 Blog Entries: 9 Reputation: 1877 Power: 192	Re: Performance Issue? i always thought sata drives would default to udmaX (x being 6/7)

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #17
LordOfLA Godlike! Joined: February 2004 Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK Posts: 7,031 Blog Entries: 5 Reputation: 4137 Power: 212	Re: Performance Issue? if there are too many crc errors they switch to PIO. If HK-47 and GLaDOS had a child, the character they create would cause the video game world to overdose on awesome. -sheridanmovieguy: Dragon age forum user.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #18
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? Seems like everything is in DMA. I haven't defraged either yet. Quick suggestion to your favorite defrag program?

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #19
rotjong OSNN Senior Addict Joined: January 2004 Location: The far side of nowhere Posts: 573 Reputation: 585 Power: 112	Re: Performance Issue? One thing to note is that if you use AnyDVD it prevents your ODDs from reverting to PIO. I recommend Raxco PerfectDisk for defragmentation.

August 6th, 2008	Top \| #20
Bman OSNN Designer Joined: July 2002 Location: Ottawa, Ontario Posts: 8,722 Blog Entries: 106 Reputation: 1386 Power: 221	Re: Performance Issue? Originally Posted by rotjong One thing to note is that if you use AnyDVD it prevents your ODDs from reverting to PIO. I recommend Raxco PerfectDisk for defragmentation. Good to know, and thanks for suggestion. And I don't need to disable pagefiles and such to defrag right?