how to interpret Memory settings and relation to actual usage?

Am running the Parallels 17 trial version on a Macbook Pro 16 inch 32GB RAM;
As below, see that:
a) actual RAM usage of Windows 11 is 16-17 GB;
b) the Hardware settings of Windows 11 are set to Automatic - 4CPU's and 8GB RAM;
c) the Optimisiation setting is set to "No Limits";

Not sure how to interpret the settings and understand how they interact with each other to result in the Usage. Can anyone clarify?

 

Are you still using Big Sur? Then it's a known bug and the actual usage is lower. https://kb.parallels.com/en/128437

 

Sorry, should have stated. Am on Monterey 12.0.1.

Well that's super interesting... It's exactly as you say (via the KB article). So I guess it hasn't been fixed yet. (command/results below)


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for pid in $(ps ax | grep prl_vm_app | grep -v grep | awk '{ print $1 }'); do sudo footprint -p $pid; done

Password:

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prl_vm_app [56480]: 64-bit Footprint: 8711 MB (16384 bytes per page)

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Dirty Clean Reclaimable Regions Category

--- --- --- --- ---

8009 MB 0 B 0 B 110 untagged ("VM_ALLOCATE")

535 MB 0 B 0 B 1656 IOAccelerator (graphics)

71 MB 0 B 0 B 4 MALLOC_LARGE

32 MB 0 B 0 B 1 IOSurface

19 MB 0 B 96 KB 128 MALLOC_MEDIUM