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Solidworks 2016 tells me I low/"critical" available system memory despite excess of RAM and VRAM

Question asked by Rohin Galhotra on Mar 18, 2017
Latest reply on Mar 27, 2017 by Ryan Dark

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And yes, I already made sure to allocate more GDI objects to it and it does not appear to be maxing those out. I have 8 GB of RAM and a 4 GB RX 480, and am doing mostly simple projects for my class. Task Manager shows that Solidworks only uses about 200 MB of RAM and that I have tons of free RAM left over. It's really starting to get really bothersome. As far as I can tell by searching, nobody else seems to have my specific issue. Are there any fixes?

Edit: OS is Windows 10, SWX version is 2016 SP5.0

Ryan Dark Mar 27, 2017 10:05 PM

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Hi Rohin,

Thanks for the images. They seem to lay out exactly what your issue is. You are out of RAM. When you reach 2 GB below the amount of installed RAM the resource monitor will activate and warn that you are low on RAM. You probably need to put more RAM into the system if you want to stop seeing this warning. 16 GB installed will get you up to ~14 GB of useful RAM.

I don't always say it but it looks like the message warning that you are low on RAM is absolutely correct.

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John Layne Mar 26, 2017 8:48 PM
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Ditto we are getting same thing. No obvious reasons for this, small assemblies very little else running (Chrome and Outlook)

Windows 10 64Bit
SolidWorks 2016 SP5
16GB RAM
NVIDIA M4000
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- Rick McDonald @ John Layne on Mar 27, 2017 12:29 AM
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  Rohin Galhotra and John Layne
  Try searching on the SWX Forum instead of in addition to Chrome (or other browsers) - and I would suggest the SWX forum first as it is going to be the most likely place to find an answer to this that are related to SWX.
  Also Try looking on the right side of your posting page under the "More Like This" section.
  There are already similar posts that may answer your question.
  
  I have not specifically noticed this problem on my system but I tend to re-boot if I have any problems for the system hanging up.
  SolidWorks is know to Not Release Memory when the files are closed.
  This may be your problem or you may get the answer - or other possible causes and cures from other posts.
  Try to exit and then restart SWX and see if that fixes it - if not try a reboot .
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  - Rohin Galhotra @ Rick McDonald on Mar 27, 2017 3:01 AM
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    I have already looked extensively through the forums as well as other sites; almost everywhere the question is either left unanswered or the user is actually hitting the GDI object limit. As mentioned in my original post, this is not the problem I'm running into. This issue happens when opening Solidworks for the first time since a boot, when opening any files for the first time, etc. It's actually starting to get very annoying because it'll start coming up with a pop up whenever I try to perform an action telling me not to perform the action because memory is low (even though it still only uses up 200 MB or so of RAM).
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    - Jason Young @ Rohin Galhotra on Mar 27, 2017 3:48 AM
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      my VAR maxed out my GDI limit, in my registry.
      hardly ever get this message anynmore.
      
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      - Chris Clouser @ Jason Young on Mar 27, 2017 4:28 PM
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        Thanks Jason, I tried the same but no luck!!
        
        What OS are you running? I'm guessing 10?
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John Lhuillier Mar 27, 2017 7:20 AM
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I find that this is more an issue with Solidworks running on Windows 10 rather than Windows 7. The system I have at home is Windows 10 with 24GB of memory & I'm lucky if I have Solidworks & Firefox open & get the resources low message & I have the GDI limit maxed out in the registry. I have Windows 7 at work with 16GB of memory & I can have Solidworks and 3 or 4 other programs including NX & Solidedge open and very seldom if ever get the out of resources message. I also thought that I read that this was also related to the LCD display manager from a 3DConnexion driver but can't find that post now.
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- Chris Clouser @ John Lhuillier on Mar 27, 2017 4:27 PM
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  I'm noticing this to be a Windows 10 problem as well. I have a similar situation to you, home system is W10 and 24 gig and work is W7 with 16 gig. Never had the message on W7 except when the RAM was actually full. On W10, all the time, low ram and low GDI. I jacked my GDI's up to 50,000 each and still have issues.
  
  No 3DConnexion here.
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Chris Clouser Mar 27, 2017 4:24 PM
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A lot of us are having this problem, please tell us your OS and SWX version, etc.
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Ryan Dark Mar 27, 2017 4:38 PM
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Hi Rohin,
When this warning message appears how much total RAM is in use as reported from Windows Task Manager on the Performance tab? Also, since Windows has no mechanism to measure how much VRAM is in use, what does GPU-Z report for how much total VRAM is in use? Can you post screenshots with the results?

I am asking for totals because this warning comes up as a warning for total RAM/VRAM/GDI Object use and not just what SolidWorks is using.
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- Chris Clouser @ Ryan Dark on Mar 27, 2017 7:29 PM
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  Ryan, in my case, there's plenty of RAM left and GPU-Z typically looks fine (on one system, I will have to check the other).
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  - Ryan Dark @ Chris Clouser on Mar 27, 2017 10:08 PM
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    Hi Chris,
    If you don't mind posting images of Performance tab of the Windows Task Manager and the GPU-Z data for the next time you see the warning we could probably pick out what is going on with your system.
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- Rohin Galhotra @ Ryan Dark on Mar 27, 2017 8:38 PM
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  I have a lot of tabs open in Chrome right now so it's a little more used than usual:
  Usually usage is about 6 gigs when I get the warning.
  Edit:
  Still getting the warning
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  - Ryan Dark @ Rohin Galhotra on Mar 27, 2017 10:05 PM
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    Hi Rohin,
    Thanks for the images. They seem to lay out exactly what your issue is. You are out of RAM. When you reach 2 GB below the amount of installed RAM the resource monitor will activate and warn that you are low on RAM. You probably need to put more RAM into the system if you want to stop seeing this warning. 16 GB installed will get you up to ~14 GB of useful RAM.
    
    I don't always say it but it looks like the message warning that you are low on RAM is absolutely correct.
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    - Rohin Galhotra @ Ryan Dark on Mar 27, 2017 10:08 PM
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      Seems like a bad way to judge if the user needs more RAM. I've never seen Solidworks use more than 300 MB of RAM, so it's basically complaining it only has over a gig and a half left over if it ever wants to use more RAM.
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      - Ryan Dark @ Rohin Galhotra on Mar 27, 2017 10:10 PM
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        Rohin,
        RAM is a common commodity on your system so having a warning in place is good so you know before the program crashes from lack of RAM. SolidWorks just happens to be the only program on your system warning you about the impending deficiency it seems.
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        Rohin Galhotra @ Ryan Dark on Mar 27, 2017 10:13 PM
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        Sure, but as a ECE major I also know that 2 GB of RAM as buffer for a single program isn't a scarcity of RAM. I'd understand if it was 1 GB of RAM left or something, but 2 GB is still a decently sized amount. It's a quarter of the total pool, that's not a small amount.
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        Ryan Dark @ Rohin Galhotra on Mar 27, 2017 10:18 PM
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        Rohin,
        It is just a warning. You don't need to stop working.
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Bob Van Dick Mar 27, 2017 4:40 PM
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I am having this issue as well and have learned to ignore it.....

SolidWorks 2017 SP1.0
Intel i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10 GHz
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
16GB Ram
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 graphics card
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- Ryan Dark @ Bob Van Dick on Mar 27, 2017 10:29 PM
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  Hi Bob,
  You graphics card has 768MB of VRAM on it. You might find that if you run GPU-Z on your system the warning comes up as you approach the limit of your VRAM
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  - Bob Van Dick @ Ryan Dark on Mar 27, 2017 5:15 PM
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    Thanks Ryan, I will give it a try....
    
    Bob
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John Layne May 25, 2017 11:34 PM
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Seem to have found a fix, I think.

I turned off the System Managed Virtual Memory and set it to a fixed size 1.5x installed RAM on the SSD. Has solved the problem.

Windows 10 64Bit
SolidWorks 2016 SP5
i7-4790K
16GB RAM
NVIDIA M4000
240 GB SSD
1TB HD
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