Overview of System Cache in Windows 2000 Task Manager (243325)

MORE INFORMATION

When you use Task Manager to compare the performance of a Microsoft Windows NT 4.0-based computer to the performance of a similar Windows 2000-based computer, Windows 2000 Task Manager reports the amount of system cache memory in use, and Windows NT 4.0 Task Manager reports the amount of file cache memory in use. Also, the amount of memory used by the Windows 2000 system cache may be significantly larger than the amount of memory used by the Windows NT 4.0 file cache.

Because the Windows 2000 Task Manager System Cache field includes the size of the transition list, this field is a more accurate report of caching information. The transition list is memory which has been reclaimed by the operating system from working sets, including the file cache, memory that was used by programs, and other operating system memory usage. The transition list is not counted by Windows NT 4.0 File Cache.

The File Cache field only counts the size of the file cache working set, or that amount of memory which is currently in use by the cache manager. The File Cache field does not count the number of cached memory pages that are in transition.

For these reasons, the system cache entries in Windows 2000 Task Manager will appear larger than the Windows NT 4.0 Task Manager file cache counterpart. These differences do not indicate that a Windows 2000-based computer is using more system memory than a similar Windows NT 4.0-based computer.