RAM is necessary for the processor for fast access to data that the hard disk cannot provide in any way. Therefore, the program is loaded into RAM at startup – only so the computer can make calculations, sending data to the processor from the RAM and back.

In Windows, running programs can physically be located not only “in the Memory cards”, but also on the hard disk in the file  pagefile.sys.  This file is called a “swap file” or “swap” (from the English swap).

The idea is that if a program takes up a lot of memory, its part is downloaded to the hard disk in the swap file, freeing up the “living space” for other programs, and if necessary, the data is loaded back into RAM.

The problem is that the speed difference between RAM and the hard disk is huge .

To only swap out unnecessary data in the paging file, Windows runs the Memory Manager.  It works quite well, so you can run programs with more than a gigabyte of memory on a computer with 512 MB of RAM. A typical example is modern versions of Adobe Photoshop, 3DS Max and many other programs for complex calculations. Of course, with such a small amount of RAM, programs will be severely hampered, but they work in any way, but it is possible.

What do the memory optimizers do?

I will draw an analogy with drugs for the removal of symptoms – they do not treat the cause, only alleviate the symptoms. If a person is sick with the flu, getting rid of the cold will not cure him. If the computer slows down and there is not enough free memory, it does not slow down due to busy memory, but because of the overly intensive program or, for example, overheating.

All optimizers necessarily  show the amount of free space in the RAM. And often with red letters and warnings that this negatively affects the speed of the computer. What, in fact, is not true. If the program needs all the main memory, then it is required for the case (calculations) and it will work quickly only if it is given as many places as it asks for.

A typical example of programs that require large amounts of RAM are games. If the game requires 2 gigabytes of RAM – this can not be helped. Without the required amount of RAM, it will be difficult to play due to the low frame rate – the game will slow down due to the fact that some of the data will be located on a slow paging file. RAM optimizers create  the same negative effect  – after releasing memory, the programs are allocated less memory than they need, because of what the “brakes” again begin.

Note # 1:  I do not claim that the frame rate in games directly depends on the amount of RAM. Having installed more RAM in the computer, it will be possible to increase the performance only in those programs where the amount of RAM is really important without looking at other more important parameters: the processor frequency, the characteristics of the video card, the frequency of RAM, the speed of the hard disk, etc.

Note # 2:  Errors under the general name of ” memory leak ” occur with programs when the program “grows” without reason and takes up all the memory unnecessarily, but in this case it is necessary to require developers of this program to fix the error, and not to free memory by optimizers.

How Memory Optimizers Work

Memory optimization programs (they may have different names – SuperRAM, FreeMemory, Memory Management SuperProMegaEdition, etc.) can release memory in several ways, but they are all tied to the principle of cheating the Windows Memory Manager:

1. The program calls the special function EmptyWorkingSet (), which forces all programs to unload “themselves” as much as possible into the swap file.
2. The program begins to grow uncontrollably in memory, telling the Windows Memory Manager that it needs it for the job (I say metaphors, but it’s actually the case), as a result of which the Memory Manager throws as many programs as possible onto the hard drive into the file swap.

The result is always the same: the programs start to slow down, but the free space in the main memory of the green color and the memory optimization program say that everything is fine. As a result, the user rejoices, opens the window with his favorite program and … waits.  Because his favorite program starts  to slow down.  This will happen until the program returns “itself” to the RAM from the swap file. As a result, the memory is filled up again, the free space indicator again reports the memory usage, the user gets angry, starts the memory cleaning and everything happens on the second (third, fifth, tenth) circle.

Another sad point: memory optimizers can not unload unnecessary programs from RAM. We define “uselessness” ourselves, everything is arranged differently in the computer. All the programs are unloaded into the swap file.

Conclusion # 1: the  release of RAM by optimizers only goes to the detriment and reduces performance.

Conclusion # 2: you can not judge the speed of the program by how much space it takes in RAM.

Conclusion number 3: if the program takes up a lot of space in the RAM, it means – it operates with large amounts of data. To help her “think” faster, you can only increase the amount of RAM, i.e. putting more RAM in the computer. But this does not help if the other characteristics of the PC do not meet the requirements.