Why Does AvastSVC.exe Use So Much Memory?

[Redneck Champ]

This application is taking up around 85,000KB of memory.  Why is it so large?
Thanks for the help!

[Hermite15]

well that's weird... no idea, it's using currently 6172 KB here. What's your OS?

[Redneck Champ]

I am using Win7.  I am also using Avast Internet Security so there is more options with it than the Free version.

[ArtemisF0wl]

3192K here on Win7 x64. your situation is definitely not typical. are you using a bittorrent client with several downloads going at once, or something like emule?

[sded]

Which memory are you looking at?  Working set?  The memory allocation will go up and down dramatically as avastsvc.exe does its thing, and then the memory will be given back.   Windows 7 Memory Manager takes care of that.  My peak working set in Task Manager is ~365M; currently 2-5M.  Usual trade between time and space.    Unless you are stuck at 85K, which would indicate either a problem or something ongoing that takes a lot of memory.

[Redneck Champ]

I never run a Bittorent in the back ground, have Steam turned off unless playing something, and the only other things running would be things like Sony Vegas Pro.  I have 4Gb of memory and get errors all the time with too low of memory from Vegas.

I am reading this from the Commit Memory as around 88000.  The work set memory shows 24000.  Sharable is around 15000.

[BTCentral]

This application is taking up around 85,000KB of memory.  Why is it so large?
Thanks for the help!

Are you looking at commit size? If so that's not so far off mine (I also use AIS6). If not, that's not normal.



Edit: Looks like you posted you were while I was taking the screenshot
In that case, yes that is a reasonably normal commit size.

You might want to bear in mind that Commit Size is the potential Pagefile useage (unless you have disabled the pagefile - which would be a bad idea) for a process and is not the amount of physical memory actually being used by a process.

If you did not know that already, you may want to give this a read, click the "Monitor how much CPU and memory resources are being used" link and then read up on what the memory columns actually mean.

For a more detailed description on how it works, you can see this Wikipedia article.

The short answer is, it's not actually using that much memory.

[DavidR]

This application is taking up around 85,000KB of memory.  Why is it so large?
Thanks for the help!

Since the avastSvc is the main scanning engine and controls all of the avast Shields, if you are downloading a p2p, browsing, etc. etc. then you can expect to see it increase.

What were you doing at this time ?

Mine in XP is much lighter right now, even the peak usage is lower that what you report.

[BTCentral]

Mine in XP is much lighter right now, even the peak usage is lower that what you report.

XP and Windows 7 memory management is rather different. Even more so for the 64bit version - so you should not expect them to be the same.

[sded]

I am not using AIS, just Pro, so my commit size is only ~47M,  A firewall looks at packets, while an AV usually looks at the files, so the memory requirements are a bit different.  Does your memory go up and down while you are watching Task Manager for a while?  Don't know how XP and 7 compare, but have heard 7 has a much improved memory manager.  What happens when you turn off Vegas?  One reason for having lots of memory is to be able to run programs much more efficiently and not needing to use virtual memory and shuttling things in and out.

[DavidR]

Mine in XP is much lighter right now, even the peak usage is lower that what you report.

XP and Windows 7 memory management is rather different. Even more so for the 64bit version - so you should not expect them to be the same.

Yes they are different but I also find that resource use for me in avast 6 to be lighter than avast5 so it was just strange to see that yours differed so much when win7 is meant to be better on memory control/usage, etc.

[BTCentral]

Mine in XP is much lighter right now, even the peak usage is lower that what you report.

XP and Windows 7 memory management is rather different. Even more so for the 64bit version - so you should not expect them to be the same.

Yes they are different but I also find that resource use for me in avast 6 to be lighter than avast5 so it was just strange to see that yours differed so much when win7 is meant to be better on memory control/usage, etc.

As I mentioned above "commit size" (which is what Redneck Champ was looking at) is not in fact actual memory usage at all.

Put simply the commit size is maximum amount of memory which Windows has promised could be backed by either physical memory or the page file (and is not what is actually being used by either).

The easiest way for someone to see how much physical memory they have left free when using Windows 7 is to open task manager, click the Performance tab and then look at the "Available" value (not Free, which is a common mistake) under the Physical Memory (MB) section.



When it comes to memory use and Windows 7, there are only really two values you should be concerned about - firstly as already mentioned is Available under Physical Memory - if that is constantly low then it's time for an upgrade.

The other thing to look at is Commit (GB) under System. In my example 2 GB of 12 GB. Why 12 GB as I only have 6 GB RAM? Because it's physical memory (6 GB) + pagefile size (6 GB) = maximum commit.
If you know anything about pagefiles on XP you may be confused by this, but recommended pagefile sizes are also something that changed with Windows 7 and the 6 GB pagefile is the system default in my case.

If commit is higher than the amount of total physical memory in your system (so say, for example it said 7 / 12) then you are making constant use of virtual memory which can have a considerable negative effect on system performance.

As Ed Bott puts it in the first sentence of this article - Windows memory management is rocket science. And don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
If you fancy knowing a little more about how it all works for Windows 7, I would strongly recommend reading that article - it is very well written and in plain English so even any non-techies that happen to browse the forum should be able to understand.

Anyhow, I hope this helps you understand why this is a bit more.

[Hermite15]

that's right commit size (cumulated for RAM + page file) for AvastSVC.exe is currently about 25000 KB here, which can obviously change all the time and reach peaks. While my RAM values and 2800KB and 1800KB (currently). First value being the RAM used by the process, including some of it that can be shared with other processes, and the second value (private) the one dedicated to avastscv.exe.

[Redneck Champ]

My current available with only Task Manager and Firefox running is a little over 1900.  I need another 4Gb of RAM I know, but I have to get the same type of RAM.  I'm currently waiting on a prize I'm supposed to be getting from a contest I won, which is an Intel i7 Processor so a good portion of my computer will need graded.  I guess I'll just wait until then!  Thanks everyone!