I'm curious to know what Mem Usage your Task Manager reports for a freshly opened MEP with a new project initiated? In my case, in MEP 2014 Premium using XP Pro, it's just over 500 MB, and Peak Mem Usage is 1.1 GB so far in this session (after some complex rendering). Seems a heck of a lot. When I get an opportunity I'll fire up 2013 and MX to compare.
Hi Terry
. . . . with a new project initiated? In my case, in MEP 2014 Premium using XP Pro, it's just over 500 MB, and Peak Mem Usage is 1.1 GB . . . . .
The initial figure seems high however I think the peak figure is normal
MEP 2014 Premium on Windows 10:
- nothing on the timeline - 170MB
- with project containing 4 movies, after complex rendering peak 718 MB.
Windows 10 is much better at memory management than XP so I would expect lower figures than yours.
HTH
John EB
Hi John,
Thanks. I'm glad I posted about this because it's revealed some surprises after I repeated the tests more methodically this morning.
The biggst was that Immediately after starting MEP 2014 Premium, usage was now 218 MB. That's 282 MB less than last night! In between I've rebooted my PC. But it's a shock that this should matter. I'd expect a restart of MEP should always be sufficient to clear its previous RAM usage. Apparently not!
Only one instance of Videodeluxe.exe was present in XP Pro (32-bit) Task Mgr, of course.
Here are my detailed results. All are for 16-tracks. All MEP versions are Premium.
| MX | 2013 | 2014 | |
| After startup | 194 | 180 | 218 |
| Then 'New project' | 203 | 184 | 230 |
| Startup then 'E' to get project settings | 209 | 196 | 234 |
| Then close settings | 203 | 190 | 225 |
| Lost by showing settings | 9 | 10 | 7 |
So the other two surprises for me were:
- Using 'New project' and answering 'Don't save', so that only one empty, untouched project is open, loses RAM. As much as 12 MB for 2014.
- Using 'E' to show project settings and then closing that with no action loses RAM, 7 MB for 2014.
Hi Terry
Interesting figures and experence, and IIRC we have had a similar discusiion about this many years ago in the old forum,.
The Windows memoery cleanup management in XP was a bit hit and miss at times not always releasing the 'freed up' memory until another program requested memory space.
John EB
Thanks John. Can you reproduce my last two issues in 2015 or 2014?
--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Hi Terry
. . . . Can you reproduce my last two issues in 2015 or 2014? . . . .
I presume you mean:
. . . . - Using 'New project' and answering 'Don't save', so that only one empty, untouched project is open, loses RAM. As much as 12 MB for 2014.
Yes - however the memory drop is much more significant 499.5 MB down to 243.7 MB which was within 2 MB of the original startup values
- Using 'E' to show project settings and then closing that with no action loses RAM, 7 MB for 2014. . . . .
Yes, but my memory returns back very close to the original level before pressing the E key ie within 2MB
I think this again is due to the better memory management of Windows 10.
John EB
Hi Terry
. . . . Can you reproduce my last two issues in 2015 or 2014? . . . .
I presume you mean:
. . . . - Using 'New project' and answering 'Don't save', so that only one empty, untouched project is open, loses RAM. As much as 12 MB for 2014.
Yes - however the memory drop is much more significant 499.5 MB down to 243.7 MB which was within 2 MB of the original startup values
I'm thinking we may have a misunderstanding here? My point is that RAM increases (thus losing available PC RAM permanently in that session) when I replace one empty project with a new empty project. Logic says they should remain the same.
I'm not clear what you do to get 499 after starting MEP to a default empty project? Or are you perhaps opening MEP to the wizard screen?
- Using 'E' to show project settings and then closing that with no action loses RAM, 7 MB for 2014. . . . .
Yes, but my memory returns back very close to the original level before pressing the E key ie within 2MB
I think this again is due to the better memory management of Windows 10.
Thanks, understood and agreed on that one.
--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK
Hi Terry
. . . . I'm thinking we may have a misunderstanding here? My point is that RAM increases (thus losing available PC RAM permanently in that session) when I replace one empty project with a new empty project. . . . .
You are correct - I understood this to mean from any existing project with changes, start a new project not saving the previous changes and oserve the memory difference.
The figures I get, following the procedure as you describe above are 250.5MB changing to 263.3MB ie a usage increase as you have observed, however the variation is very small in comparison to the actual amount of free RAM available - see next paragraph.
This is further complicated by the Windows page file where the data held in RAM that is not in immediate use can be written to the hard drive and the reread when required by a prgogram.
For XP this page file is (IIRC) by default 1.5 x the amount of RAM in the system and again this can expand / contract within limitations, and is controlled by Windows. Note: you can manually set the lower and upper limits for the page file size, however it is recommended that Windows is allowed to control these.
I would disagree with your statement . . . . thus losing available PC RAM permanently in that session . . .
The RAM is not lost in the sense that it cannot be used - it is still available, reserved for and used by MEP as required until such time as the program releases it because it does not need it.
When memory is released, at some point in time Windows will take back that block of memory and reallocate its as necessary. In other words memory 'never' gets lost it is always recycled.
The only exception to the above statement is when a poorly designed program has a memory leak - this results in more and more memory being consumed and never released properly so Windows can recycle it - the net result of a memory leak is that Windows eventualy does run out of free memory to allocate to programs.
HTH
John EB