Why does the Solidworks Resource Monitor warn me about 'Low System Memory '

Why does the Solidworks Resource Monitor warn me about 'Low System Memory '

In Solidworks there is a resource monitor that checks your system resources for any possible errors like this,
Some variants of this warning include :
  1. Available system memory is low.
  2. Available system memory is critically low.
  3. WARNING! Your system is running critically low on memory.

The system memory Solidworks is specifically referring to is RAM and there is a solution however you may find that your machine still runs fine even though this error occurs. 

Background

First some technical background information,
One of the resources that Solidworks monitors is the Commit Charge counter. The commit charge is the amount of memory that Microsoft® Windows® commits for process running on the computer, including Solidworks Design and web browsers.

Windows establishes a commit-charge limit, which is the amount of physical RAM plus the size of the paging file. If your computer has 32 GB of RAM and your paging file size is 8 GB, your commit charge limit is 40 GB.

Windows commits memory space only to running processes that it can fulfil. Once Windows nears the commit-charge limit, any process can become unstable. Solidworks detects this condition and displays a series of warnings starting at around 80% of the Windows commit-charge limit.

Validating the Configuration of the Paging-File Size

Using a paging file ensures that Windows has access to more usable memory and other processes. If you do not have a paging file, Windows must commit physical RAM to the running processes. For example, assume that you have a process on your computer that requests 2 GB of memory and only uses 500 MB. Windows must commit 2 GB of physical RAM that no other process can use, leaving 1.5 GB of physical RAM unavailable but unused.

To validate the configuration of the paging file size:
  1. In the Windows search bar, type “settings.”
  2. In the Settings dialog box, in the left pane, click System.
  3. In the right pane, click About.
  4. In Related links, click the Advanced system settings link.
  5. In the Advanced tab, in the Performance group, click Settings.
  6. In the Performance Options, click the Advanced tab.
  7. In the Virtual memory group, click Change.
  8. Ensure that Automatically Manage Paging file size for all drives is selected OR that System managed size is selected for at least one drive.
Note: Solidworks recommends that you use the System managed size option.

Determining Which Processes Consume the Most Committed Memory

Use the below to understand and manage processes that consume the most committed memory. You can end the processes that you do not need and should be considered first before reaching out to different teams or looking to upgrade RAM

To determine which processes consume the most committed memory:
  1. Open Windows Task Manager.
  2. In the left toolbar, click Performance.
  3.  Click the … menu and select Resource Monitor.
  4. In the Resource Monitor, click the Memory tab.
  5. Click the Commit (KB) column heading to sort it in descending order.
  6. Processes that consume the most committed memory appear at the top.
From here you can start to look at processes that can be ended or if you believe they are taking up too much RAM investigate why, either yourself or reach out to the support team for that process. 

If you deem all the processes to be necessary and cannot be reduced then you'll be considering adding additional RAM. 

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