What is virtual RAM (Random access memory) ?

Question

i downloaded a PC cleaner and PC speed booster software

and i have 1 GB of RAM

and when i runs this software

then it makes extra 1GB of virtual RAM

and my total memory becoms 2GB





please tell me that what is this

and What is VIRTUAL RAM????????

Answer 1

Virtual RAM must be the term they given to PAGEFILE. Actually its a virtual RAM.

As the name indicates its virtual only. it doesn't exist in your system physically.



Let me tell you what is a pagefile. a page file is a memory area occupied by the operating system in the hard disk . where it keeps the contents (pages) of the RAM (that you actually have) for temporary purpose. It is used when your system's RAM is not enough to load the programs and execute it.



Let me explain this with an example. consider you only have 256 mb of ram. your operating system occupied 100 mb of it, and you opened a movie of 700 mb (think how), the movie player is of 50 mb. Still you can play a game of 100mb. how?



The processor can perform only one task at a time. but it perform with a faster speed that we think all the applications are running simultaneously. this is the case of processor. when a application is to be executed the operating system is the one who loads the program into memory and assign CPU time to it. while loading , instead of loading the complete file it will be loading only the required portions of the 100mb program, these portions are called pages. when your memory is full, you still need to run some other programs, the operating system will move some of these pages (unused for a long time, but still under execution) in to your hard disk, in order to make some space for the new program. this space in hard disk is called virtual memory or VRAM.





now think about a 700 mb movie, how, because the complete movie is not loaded in to memory , a part of it is been loaded, and keep on loading as you finished watching the loaded part,( we call it bufferring when we watch videos in youtube)

Answer 2

Cache (not "cash") memory is like a "temporary holder" for information before it goes into the processor or the hard drive. It speeds things up. Random Access Memory is the silicon chips that hold the information to be processed by the computer's processor. Anything in RAM will disappear as soon as power is cut off to the motherboard. Virtual memory is space on the hard drive that is used along with a program to emulate additional RAM. Virtual memory used to be called a "swap file", but with the advent of Windows 95, Microsoft gave it the more technical-sounding name...virtual memory.

Answer 3

http://www.howstuffworks.com/virtual-memory.htm



" If there were no such thing as virtual memory, then once you filled up the available RAM your computer would have to say, "Sorry, you can not load any more applications. Please close another application to load a new one." With virtual memory, what the computer can do is look at RAM for areas that have not been used recently and copy them onto the hard disk. This frees up space in RAM to load the new application.

Because this copying happens automatically, you don't even know it is happening, and it makes your computer feel like is has unlimited RAM space even though it only has 32 megabytes installed. Because hard disk space is so much cheaper than RAM chips, it also has a nice economic benefit. ­

The read/write speed of a hard drive is much slower than RAM, and the technology of a hard drive is not geared toward accessing small pieces of data at a time. If your system has to rely too heavily on virtual memory, you will notice a significant performance drop.

Answer 4

Hay, Virtual RAM really acts as RAM only upto an extent.



These softwares uses our external storage devices like pen drives or hard disks to cache(Storing temporarily) our processes.

Thus , the cache increases the access speed of our PC. Got it..?

Answer 5

Virtual ram::::it is process of using hard-drive as RAM (i.e:cheating your computer)...however the access time of the hard-drive is very slow when compared to RAM





@NemoKhan:::i don't even read your post before answering...my answer is similar to your answer



@asker::if you are using windows7 you can use your pendrive as RAM...which's access time is better than hard-drive



@Varun::how you guys are thinking what i was thinking WOW

Answer 6

Virtual RAM does not exist lol. You downloaded a virus.

:P

Uninstall the program, and delete any files that are associated with it.

NEVER download PC cleaners. They are quite the opposite of what they say they are.

RAM is installed in a computer via physical cards, therefore cannot be virtualized. (Unless you have some sort of super ram)

Answer 7

Are you referring to SWAP partition?