Q. What types of resource capping does Windows System Resource Manager (WSRM) use?

A. Traditionally, two types of resource capping exist: hard and soft. Hard caps set a resource limit that can't be exceeded; for example, setting a hard cap of 20 percent of CPU means that the process never can use more than 20 percent of CPU resources. A soft cap sets a limit that can be exceeded if no other processes are competing for the resource. For example, in the previous example, the process can use more than 20 percent of CPU if other processes on the system aren't using their allocations.

WSRM uses soft capping, which is the most efficient method and lets processes use hardware as much as possible while allocating resources efficiently to competing processes. When hard caps are used, a resource is limited to its allocation although the CPU has spare resources. With soft caps, the CPU is more efficiently utilized because a cap can be exceeded if necessary and as long as processes aren't competing for resources.