Solved Private Bytes vs Working Set

[Dieselman]

Since it was brought up earlier I found a good article for all to read.

Private Bytes are a reasonable approximation of the amount of memory your executable is using and can be used to help narrow down a list of potential candidates for a memory leak; if you see the number growing and growing constantly and endlessly, you would want to check that process for a leak. This cannot, however, prove that there is or is not a leak.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1984186/what-is-private-bytes-virtual-bytes-working-set

I found another article also. So if you are looking for a memory leak then use Private Bytes. If you just looking for average memory usage then use Working Set.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2267427

 

[Dieselman]

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ricom/archive/2005/08/01/446329.aspx

http://shsc.info/WindowsMemoryManagement

http://cybernetnews.com/cybernotes-windows-memory-usage-explained/

 

[bogdan]

Another thing to mention is that Task Manager under Windows XP shows Working Set as RAM usage, while the version of Task Manager from Windows 7 shows Private Working Set.

From CyberNotes:

The private working set is the amount of memory used by a process that cannot be shared among other processes, while working set includes the memory shared by other processes.

 

[Dieselman]

Yes so rule of thumb for normal memory usage is go by "Private Working Set". When looking for a potential memory leak go by Private Bytes.

 

[LaserWraith]

Okay, thanks for the articles. I use the "WS Private" column in Process Explorer, which is, I guess, the best one (since I'm not searching for a memory leak).

BTW, this is a very technical article I found from one of those links: http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx

I didn't understand a lot of it.

 

[bogdan]

Mark is the author of Process Explorer (and all other Sysinternals tools) all his blogposts are interesting. Thanks for sharing/reminding.