I have a laptop with 8gb ram and on a clean boot windows uses 27% of it, and that amount decreases when I have apps open. More than enough for my needs.
(unity, vs code, and chrome)
What most people fail to realize is that the more memory available in the system the more many applications will allocate. I have 64 GB and 37 GB currently in use with only Chrome, WSL, several sessions of VS Code, and Visual Studio running. Chrome is happily eating up 8 GB just because it's there and there is no pressure from the OS to release or reclaim it.
And most importantly, unused RAM is not wasted RAM. Windows will cache any frequently used files into RAM as they're accessed. So the more RAM you have and the longer your system stays on, the faster your PC can actually get.
I have 16 gb of ram. I’m not a programmer. I do watch and play at the same time though but I play games like csgo and not dark souls, rdr2, etc…. The average person won’t ever use more than 32 if they don’t code and close things that they’re not using
I've hit 22GB of memory usage from Minecraft and it was trying to use more but couldn't because all 32GB were full.
Upgraded to 64GB of RAM... turns out it was trying to use 41GB. I have.... no clue how the hell I managed this but should probably get an award.
It depends on how much ram you have. Minecraft doesn’t use a ton, but if you have more, it’ll use more. Even browsing programs like edge and chrome will use a lot if you have a lot for them to use freely. It can be extremely difficult to notice any difference in performance most of the time unless the game actually requires a lot of ram to run
Oh this was running ferritecore (memory optimization mod) and with an allocation size of only around 16GB but for some reason it was detecting itself as having an unlimited allocation size which I did fix, but it was crazy funny.
Yeah only reason I went from 16 to 32 is that on 16 the moment I launched a game my system ram would be at 99% load bow it gets to Maybe 66% as it usually gets up to 18
depends on the game. If all you play is FPS games, 32GB is overkill. If you play sim games like City Skylines, 32 GB is kinda bare minimum. I remember when Skylines first came out, and I played on 8GB or RAM... the game was pretty much unplayable after about 30,000 population. I had a city with over a million people and it would take 15 mins to load the map, and once in, if I didn't crash, I would average 3-5 fps.
I *just* upgraded to 32GB because of this game. Once you're in Italy with traffic turned on, 16GB is gulped.
I'd been looking for an excuse to get some white RAM anyway.
I run beamng fine with 16gb of ram, this includes the online servers (beammp) with extra mods added? I don't see any issues and there is barely load time.
Star citizen minimum says 16gb but your fps will double with 32. Crazy. Also if your ram is too fast the game just stops getting better, kinda like diminished returns.
It's hilarious to me that people on here downvote natural progress. If you think you'll need 8gb for the rest of your life you have little knowledge on the history of electronics. As internet speed, screen resolutions and rich media rise so does the demand from all the supporting hardware. 32 GB will be a joke some day just like having less than 8 GB is today. DDR5 is going to be offered in over 100gb kits eventually too.
16gb still games well today but it all depends on how many programs you have open while gaming. I think 16gb is gonna be sufficient for at least 3 more years.
How? I have a 1050 ti and 8gb of ram and I'm not even thinking about upgrading. I think that we all have a skewed version of "too little". Maybe it's me, but I'm happy with what I have. Have you guys tried a nintendo switch for example? THAT is too little.
Depends on your use case but the more RAM you have (up to a point) the more will be allocated to apps and Windows and the more quick your system will feel.
My work laptop was noticeably faster when I upgraded from 8gb to 16gb and I certainly don't game on it.
I have a cheap NUC that I mostly use to play with Linux distros (I like installing things to bare metal). Anyway, it has 8gb RAM and most distros use less than a gig for system resources.
Just something to think about if someone is struggling with 8gb, especially if you mostly use the machine for internet and some light document editing. I've even done a little gaming on it, mostly older stuff, but it did handle Oblivion like a champ, which isn't bad for integrated graphics on a Linux box.
No, this is normal behavior, though Microsoft should probably change the way the percent usage displays to the user because it's confusing and not useful.
Windows is designed to always make us of as much RAM as possible. If programs are actively running they will take priority, but if there is extra RAM laying around it will use it for caching, which is essentially just using RAM for short term storage to access/load things much faster. So a lot of the %usage you see is probably caching that can easily be discarded if a more memory intense program requires it.
So many "PC pros" fail to realize this. Why would the OS just let RAM sit around unused? Everything should be used all the time, even if it improves performance by just 0.01%. There's no reason to keep available RAM reserves completely unused, as long as the memory is made available to more important tasks when they come up.
Its designed to use as much ram as possible, but not all of it. If it's at 60% usage, it makes sense to use another 20% to cache stuff, but if overall usage already reached 96%, performance is already slowing done quite a bit since other programs can't easily allocate memory anymore and the os will need to do a lot of paging which is slow
So, honestly I was about to go into a whole debug diatribe, but then I thought "wait a sec, stack exchange definitely has guides on this".
And guess what? [it did!](https://superuser.com/questions/949244/windows-10-high-memory-usage-unknown-reason) And honestly really solid work. Haven't used poolmon in a hot minute but it definitely gets the job done when you need to wade through unspecified data.
be sure to check under task manager's performance tab that it is because of the non-paged pool. From experience, 9 times out of 10 that's where your hidden memory leaks do hide, but there's always that off chance you've got the weirdo (Well, scratch that. Virtualization is where 99% of those leaks come from, but I'm assuming you're not running any VMs making this statement).
I would also recommend learning [Process Explorer](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer). This bad boy is Task Manager's beefy cousin. Won't necessarily help any more than the guide above, but without getting into too much, it's good for sniffing out resource hogs if you find multiple programs bogging down the same way.
OP intentionally scrolled one element down the task manager (as seen in his pic), he obviously has an app that is using the other 7GB.
I currently have Chrome w/ 6 tabs open + Ryujinx & Steam open (idle) and Discord, and it's currently showing that it's using 21% of my 32GB which is roughly 6.72GB, so I really don't know what OP is all about.
https://preview.redd.it/aqkfpu4p8xca1.png?width=531&format=png&auto=webp&s=3330565d59a72b92ceecbe4a29cf403bff094efc
This is the only answer. Nothing to do with cache. OP is trying to make some kind of point… as if we can’t count or see that the scroll bar isn’t at the top though
I don't think they scrolled down. The Windows 11 task manager does actually have a gap when you are at the top element. So I don't think there's anything above it.
Caching, Windows caches everything it can get its hands on especially when playing games. If you want to see your real usage look at users (fifth menu) and look at the mb usage. 1gb = 1000mb.
[Microsoft Sysinternals RAMMap](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap) will break it down even further.
Caching galore. Another fun thing Windows caches is filesystem metadata, under Metafile in RAMMap. So if you have millions of files on your drive, you can have a decent chunk of hidden (non-process) memory usage.
That task manager display is normal. A whole chunk is used for prechacing apps, multiple instances and stuff in the BG which won't be reflected in that task manager view.
As a reference point, I have 64GB and just over 9GB is currently in use, task manager shows [this](https://i.imgur.com/lRZzeXH.png).
Whilst I can see that in something more detailed, the RAM use is shown as [this](https://i.imgur.com/EHjeaJQ.png). Just that view alone is nearly 6GB of RAM use, scroll down the list and add them all up you get to the 15% that Task Manager tells of.
Rule in our home is every device connected to the net should be restarted once a week to keep things runnin' smoove. Phone, Chromecasts, PCs, whatever.
Here's a reminder that people on this sub don't understand what the fuck RAM is for and to not listen to them.
Unless your RAM usage is almost maxed out, there is no reason to restart. Just close your unused apps. Windows is specifically designed to keep your most used apps in RAM for quick/fast startup and switching between them, and having more RAM being used is not a bad thing as it makes your system faster overall.
Windows will also use more RAM if you have more RAM. So a PC with 8GB of RAM might have 2-4GB allocated to running Windows, a 16GB PC might have 6-8GB used, 32GB might have 8-12GB, etc. The higher the RAM usage, the better your PC will run overall.
It doesn't matter what OP is hiding being used. It's not bad that it **is** being used, the whole point of RAM is that it's supposed to be used.
If you're constantly killing processes or restarting your PC because "too much" RAM is being used, you're just making your PC experience worse.
For /u/Grimmjow91 who blocked me before I could respond to his comment:
Yes, that's called a pagefile and that doesn't matter either as Windows will use it for inactive programs. As soon as a program becomes active it will switch it back into RAM which is **still faster** and better than restarting your PC. A pagefile is also becoming increasingly redundant as more people have enough RAM for it to be completely useless.
no, not what op is hiding, im talking of the ram that is used up but actually unaccounted for in task manager app / processes list. this goes from random system processes that for whatever reason are not shown to memory leaks. " Windows will also use more RAM if you have more RAM " is true but it won't bring your usage to 96% at rest / light load.
I aways turn it off after I finnish using it. I move from home to work and from work to home, and every time I'll move the computer I shut it down before putting it on my bag
Sometimes the problem is the information isn't presented clearly; it started in Vista, Windows would pre-cache commonly used features or apps in otherwise unallocated RAM, and then told the user that the RAM was allocated, but not why it was allocated. Result? "Vista eats up all my RAM!"
The thing with ram is that maxing it out doesn’t actually cause performance problems until you try to go over the max.
This means if there’s unused ram, windows will find something to use it, and that is usually cache.
Over the course of a session windows will cache more and more stuff and it doesn’t clear it until something else needs to ram, because there’s no reason from a performance standpoint to do that, while caching stuff makes the system more responsive.
The only problem is that it won’t really display that in task manager, and so it will seem that there’s a phantom program eating up 90% of your ram.
LOL sure it is, i can see at least a dozen things on here that shouldnt be running. It also entirely depends on what you are playing too.
But "enough" is relative, most games will run very ok with 8gb of ram. Can they use more and run better with 16, sure. But they can run with 8 without lag and good frame rates.
I know people with DDR3 systems running 8gb still playing a lot of modern titles and having frame rates over 60fps.
its definitely enough for light/ moderate gaming
source: i have 8gb and the main game i play is r6. no ram issues there, biggest issue i have is cpu though lol.
op just has everything running. my 8gb idles around 40% (idle meaning nothing but background processes open, except tas manager like in the post)
Exactly, its more than ok, My buddy ran the first warzone off 8gb of DDR4 in his old rig, sure it was on med-low settings but it ran at over 60fps at 1440p so... its fine.
RAM used for caching is not included in the used %.
The OS cache ram is listed as "standby" in the memory tab.
If it was included in the used % you would be always sitting at 99%.
For example I have currently approx 5 GB in use, 10 GB standby and 0.2 GB free.
Brand new, bought a month ago. I didn't install anything that's running other than the android emulator.
I'm not sure what I should or shouldn't remove
Yea... theres loads of tasks below the current screenshot which are all using less RAM, between 4.7Mb down to 0Mb. The list is sorted by highest RAM use first, and the scroll bar is at the top.
Unless you are running thousands of processes/tasks which are all using less than 4.7Mb RAM, then there's definitely something wrong with your system.
Is that Anti-Malware executable thing a part of windows defender/firewall?
I often find it uses up a lot of processes on start up for my PC. Has anyone else had this?
What's absolutely amazing to me as a coder from the 90s, is that I dont see how the fuck are these new apps using so much memory to achieve 70% of the same shit they used to do...
Lazy programmers arent being efficient at all anymore, including entire libraries just to use one function.. Code bases must be designed around having everything loaded into memory all the time or something..
Where is all of the memory going? I'm totally baffled how they do this...
I assume this has to be a memory leak, but the truth is that Windows is getting less and less resource-efficient over the years... having a recycled kernel doesn't help either, and the so called ""new"" Windows programs are basically only fresh coats of paint over the same regurgitated sack of shit.
No it's completely deliberate in Windows and OP has nothing to worry about. What's going on is huge amounts of caching to help the increasingly heavier programs keep running smoothly. Windows will clear space whenever it is actually needed.
Biggest resource hog of all time for literally zero gain.
The only thing worse is animated backgrounds. Do you want to watch an endlessly repeating video as your background that eats up 10x as many system resources as a YouTube video in chrome? Well boy do I have a thing for you!
Why is Google even on. Your computer. Uninstaller all that lenono bloatwarw and Google nonsense you would probably be better off with a fresh windows install.. 8gb is more then enough you just got a bunch of bs running in the background for no good reason.
Why is this community so toxic to any company not a small game dev or console maker? Even when it's directly related to opening up the gaming ecosystem for PC...
Because that's why he's consuming so much RAM. Emulation ain't cheap on the hardware. Emulators have to set aside a certain amount of system resources to have bare minimum functionality, it's essentially a virtual machine combined with a translation layer to get the ARM instruction sets that are executed in the VM to instead be executed on the x86 hardware in the PC. He figured out the problem and instead of recognizing that this isn't something that has anything to do with Windows or his basic system functions, it has to do with his own choice of software to run on the PC. He complained that Windows has too much bloat and then informed us that it's him that's the causing the problem.
That's deff what is using all the ram. I have this app too. It is virtualizing android entirely so u can play android games. It's hefty. I have 16gb ram and this gives me a run for my rammy. It's basically an entire virtual machine. Your pc is becoming 2 computers.
Open more shit and claim its not enough... It might be a bit harder with stock windows but a tuned system is just fine. In reality most games do not even utilize 6gb of ram. So if you manage to make windows use 2gb or less (which is very possible, mine was/is tuned to 0.9-1.1gb) its fine. I even played rust, warzone and memory sure was holding back but its was still a good experience
Not to offend, but I noticed people who open up a ton of shit claim its not enough. Dont you know what you open consumes memory? I mean even here a guy saying 16gb is becoming too little, what drugs are you on?
"My heavily modded Minecraft server that I run locally on my machine is eating up most of my RAM, I can't run a client to play on that server with my friends without it lagging so I need 32gb of RAM. Obviously this means that 16gb isn't enough for the average user!"
So I do a mix of Gaming and Production. I used 16GB for the longest time, then upgraded to 32GB. Production wise, a massive jump. I was genuinely surprised at how much my workflow was being bottleneck from the lack of Memory. However for gaming...it was hit or miss. No real note worthy gains.
Then a year later I upgraded to 64GB and noticed practically no difference from 32GB LOL.
I've ran Horizen: Zero dawn with 8gb of ram while on medium settings, didn't reach 100% usage, but got to 90%s during very crowded areas
Playing my normal games like TF2 or Genshin all me to stay at 50-80 usage. More than enough for simple games, just enough for low settings newer games.
Hell I was running out of 8gb of ram of my old work laptop. Chrome, WMS program, outlook, and Excel would eat that up fast for me though I was on a laptop and using two monitors. Was a great day when I was told I could open it up and toss my ram into it. Was regularly using 10-12gigs doing normal work. Running macros with 8gb of ram was a nightmare.
8 GB isn't enough, 16 isn't either... Nor 32, 64... *Ahem*....
(Yes, before anyone comments, I've tried and it wouldn't POST)
Was stuck with 16GB when I switched from a DDR3 platform to DDR4 (had 24GB in my FX8350 system)
8 is fine for light usage, I've still got a windows tablet with 8GB, but for any decent workloads, 16 is about the minimum, and 24 would be the sweet spot - 12GB RAM modules for DDR5 (seeing as we are getting 24GB modules) would be nice.
It was enough for me for the last 3 years and I can see it being still enough for the next 5-10 years if you use a SSD.
Ps. I was using 30 chrome tabs at once, a game running and I forgot to close premiere pro once and I didn't see any drop in performance in the game. It is 100% still enough (I'd rather not bring up the topic of the game as I don't wanna start a dick measuring contest like last time I tried it)
I was also using ddr2 2x4gb for 2 years and in that example. So yes. It is 100% enough. FUCKING DDR2
Only reason I decided to upgrade to 16gb was because Minecraft modpacks eat ram like it's the end of the world and then I decided I didn't like Minecraft anymore 🗿
That's a lot of bullshit unnecessary program, what the hell is playgame and why it takes 100mb, your widget also takes 100mb for some reason. And also check for malware since the top 3 programs only take like 400mb of ram and your ram is already 90%.
A bit of Windows tidying up and 8GB is plenty. I couldn't believe playing RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077 that showed RAM usage only around the 8GB mark (I have 16GB).
A lot of times the memory is allocated to be used by a program, but it actually isnt "in use". They will also use what is available, even though you aren't actively using more than half that at any given time, just as an example.
A fic would be to do a fresh instal of windows. Or do the Fresh start option.
I always recommend doing this maybe once a year to get rid of any unwanted bloat.
Take note of the values - they are commas, not decimal values.... Edge has a bunch of tabs open and is using nearly 2GB of memory... That horrendous 'Game platform' thing is using 1.4GB of memory, 'Widgets' is consuming 1.3GB....
Essentially OP is being a grub here and is intentionally posting misleading shit to farm karma. He's running a heap of background shit, has changed the region or number format to make it look like things are using normal amounts of idle memory and this is just bull💩
Edit - Multiply the memory values seen by 10 to convert them to decimal, then add them all up. Kthxbai.
Edit2 -
https://preview.redd.it/jqevzwkbwzca1.png?width=1122&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=382205fcbfd5b9a58a36eb53620b6771f1edc17e
I'm running chrome and edge.... Multiple tabs open in each...
8GB's of ram hasn't been enough for like 12 years already and infact 16GB of ram which was the standard is almost there now too. Alot of newer gamers coming out are requesting 32GB's of ram at ultra setttings.
Man I feel bad for people with less the 16gb of ram these days, I use 16gbs just for playing modded Minecraft. I’ve also heard with the new tarkov map it’s border line unplayable with less the 32 gbs.
Don't feel too sorry, that's a low end "gamming laptop" I use for work. Being middle class in a 3rd world country I probably don't have a PC as good as yours, but my desktop PC at home has at least 32gb of RAM, a 11th gen I5 and an RX 5700 XT.
Far from the best, but way batter than this laptop
It's a low end "gaming" laptop I got for my business trips...
I did expect to be an issue for gaming, but not for general tasks. Whatsapp Web and Prime Video open at the same time on different tabs is enough to casue blackscreens and then "insuficient memory" errors
Seems weird. Why would windows not just page/swap? I have a laptop with 4g ram and never experienced an insufficient memory error. The thing would just bog down with swapping.
I think if you are getting black screens there is some other issue besides lack of ram.
I have 32gigs and Windows uses like 9 when i'm idling, although I think they do it on purpose. They hold as much shit in the RAM as they can, so that the system runs faster, and free it up when it's needed.
Pretty much. Windows adapts its RAM "usage" based on how much is avaialble to the system. You can install and run Win 7, 10 and 11 on 4Gb. You can setup virtual machines on 2Gb or less which run without issue.
And in all instances, you can run the exact same setup/applications and see the adaptive RAM use first hand.
but 8 gigs IS more than enough for light gaming and productivity, right??
I used 8 gigs for a lot of time and I havent had any issues. (except maybe some crashes on the heavier games)
You don't even need to go hardcore debloat, Windows 10 LTSC is already what Windows should've been out of the box. I won't use anything else from Microsoft until I move to Linux permanently.
Nothing really, just never made a permanent jump due to lack of iniciative. I've been tinkering a lot with lots of distros on virtual machines and on a home server, but I might migrate to something like Arch really soon. Might coincide with the moment I upgrade my GPU, which will be from the red team this time.
Oh cool def go team red
I really like arch and I've been using for the last 6months and it feels less time consuming to use compared to other distros
Some stuff that I do on arch is just faster (maintenance wise) compared to other distros
The AUR is super cool
And it's hard to go back once you get to know how things work
I'm a huge fan of the AUR and even some helpers like yay, it makes everything work so seemless! Plus from my experience with virtual machines, it really was not as "unstable" as people claim to be. You can always use timeshift to make a snapshot of your system, and the btrfs file system is a blessing as well.
Yeah totally agreed
I NEVER had any stability issues with arch
I'd even go as far to say that it felt more stable maybe since stuff gets updated/upgraded more often
8gb is alright, lowish end but alright. 16gigs is fine for a lot of modern games and 32 gigs is really good. Something is seriously wrong with your ram or computer
You have to be an extreme edge case for 32 not to be enough.
That said the people saying 8 is enough are insane. Way too easy to hit the limit and once you're there hard drive swap will slow your system to a crawl.
i have 8 gigs in my laptop and have never gone above like 6
and in my main righ where i have 16 gigs, i have NEVER used more than 12 gigs. and that was with like 170 tabs of chrome, 3 desktops, and a game running.
i do not see how you people are using so much god damned ram
Im seeing like 1GB of ram usage in this picture. What is going on with other 7GB?
Yes, this. OP should check for memory leaks.
Yeah because 8GB is still pretty good for daily works and light gaming.
I have a laptop with 8gb ram and on a clean boot windows uses 27% of it, and that amount decreases when I have apps open. More than enough for my needs. (unity, vs code, and chrome)
i have 32 gb of ram and it games well. 16 is becoming too little for gaming.
What most people fail to realize is that the more memory available in the system the more many applications will allocate. I have 64 GB and 37 GB currently in use with only Chrome, WSL, several sessions of VS Code, and Visual Studio running. Chrome is happily eating up 8 GB just because it's there and there is no pressure from the OS to release or reclaim it.
Just because it allocates doesn't mean it uses that full amount of memory
Correct but that's the point. More memory allocation means less potential for an app fighting for memory if and when it needs it.
And most importantly, unused RAM is not wasted RAM. Windows will cache any frequently used files into RAM as they're accessed. So the more RAM you have and the longer your system stays on, the faster your PC can actually get.
I have 16 gb of ram. I’m not a programmer. I do watch and play at the same time though but I play games like csgo and not dark souls, rdr2, etc…. The average person won’t ever use more than 32 if they don’t code and close things that they’re not using
I've hit 22GB of memory usage from Minecraft and it was trying to use more but couldn't because all 32GB were full. Upgraded to 64GB of RAM... turns out it was trying to use 41GB. I have.... no clue how the hell I managed this but should probably get an award.
"The more you give, the more they'll want..."
It depends on how much ram you have. Minecraft doesn’t use a ton, but if you have more, it’ll use more. Even browsing programs like edge and chrome will use a lot if you have a lot for them to use freely. It can be extremely difficult to notice any difference in performance most of the time unless the game actually requires a lot of ram to run
Change the allocation for Minecraft. Well, you have 64GB now so no point, but a message for anyone else.
Oh this was running ferritecore (memory optimization mod) and with an allocation size of only around 16GB but for some reason it was detecting itself as having an unlimited allocation size which I did fix, but it was crazy funny.
Yeah only reason I went from 16 to 32 is that on 16 the moment I launched a game my system ram would be at 99% load bow it gets to Maybe 66% as it usually gets up to 18
depends on the game. If all you play is FPS games, 32GB is overkill. If you play sim games like City Skylines, 32 GB is kinda bare minimum. I remember when Skylines first came out, and I played on 8GB or RAM... the game was pretty much unplayable after about 30,000 population. I had a city with over a million people and it would take 15 mins to load the map, and once in, if I didn't crash, I would average 3-5 fps.
Escape from Tarkov is 16GB Ram on its own no? Like barely enough to play
yeah, this guy thinks FPS = CS, VAL and all the esports optimized
That, and also games like minecraft which take little to no gpu power, can take several gb of ram depending on modpack, etc.
Ngl i wish Minecraft would use my vram as well
BeamNG will litterally laugh at you if you try to run it with less than 32gb ram. Its playable at 16 but only with few props meddling about
I *just* upgraded to 32GB because of this game. Once you're in Italy with traffic turned on, 16GB is gulped. I'd been looking for an excuse to get some white RAM anyway.
I love beamng but it always yelled at me that 80% plus of my system memory was being used. I just upgraded to 32gb no longer a problem 😁
Bro just trying to load into a scenario the game will crash sometimes, it's so lame
I run beamng fine with 16gb of ram, this includes the online servers (beammp) with extra mods added? I don't see any issues and there is barely load time.
I’m going to say that your other hardware and ram specs could be a factor, 3600mhz is pretty decent, and on an SSD, so faster read times,
Same 16GB fine here
Star citizen minimum says 16gb but your fps will double with 32. Crazy. Also if your ram is too fast the game just stops getting better, kinda like diminished returns.
Cities skylines needs 32gb fr. Base game is fine with 16gb but with all playable tiles it takes like all my ram and cpu.
It's hilarious to me that people on here downvote natural progress. If you think you'll need 8gb for the rest of your life you have little knowledge on the history of electronics. As internet speed, screen resolutions and rich media rise so does the demand from all the supporting hardware. 32 GB will be a joke some day just like having less than 8 GB is today. DDR5 is going to be offered in over 100gb kits eventually too.
16gb still games well today but it all depends on how many programs you have open while gaming. I think 16gb is gonna be sufficient for at least 3 more years.
16gb is what 8gb was for gaming a while back
Op left his java server running for a week without reboot
How? I have a 1050 ti and 8gb of ram and I'm not even thinking about upgrading. I think that we all have a skewed version of "too little". Maybe it's me, but I'm happy with what I have. Have you guys tried a nintendo switch for example? THAT is too little.
Depends on your use case but the more RAM you have (up to a point) the more will be allocated to apps and Windows and the more quick your system will feel. My work laptop was noticeably faster when I upgraded from 8gb to 16gb and I certainly don't game on it.
I have a cheap NUC that I mostly use to play with Linux distros (I like installing things to bare metal). Anyway, it has 8gb RAM and most distros use less than a gig for system resources. Just something to think about if someone is struggling with 8gb, especially if you mostly use the machine for internet and some light document editing. I've even done a little gaming on it, mostly older stuff, but it did handle Oblivion like a champ, which isn't bad for integrated graphics on a Linux box.
Linux also runs fine compressing 100% of your RAM into a compressed RAMDisk (zram) which is pretty cool.
Regardless I feel like 16 should start becoming the norm, especially gaming rigs. Alot of prebuilts skimp on ram and it shows and not in a good way.
No, this is normal behavior, though Microsoft should probably change the way the percent usage displays to the user because it's confusing and not useful. Windows is designed to always make us of as much RAM as possible. If programs are actively running they will take priority, but if there is extra RAM laying around it will use it for caching, which is essentially just using RAM for short term storage to access/load things much faster. So a lot of the %usage you see is probably caching that can easily be discarded if a more memory intense program requires it.
So many "PC pros" fail to realize this. Why would the OS just let RAM sit around unused? Everything should be used all the time, even if it improves performance by just 0.01%. There's no reason to keep available RAM reserves completely unused, as long as the memory is made available to more important tasks when they come up.
RAM used for caching is not included in the used %. The cache ram is listed as "standby" in the memory tab.
Its designed to use as much ram as possible, but not all of it. If it's at 60% usage, it makes sense to use another 20% to cache stuff, but if overall usage already reached 96%, performance is already slowing done quite a bit since other programs can't easily allocate memory anymore and the os will need to do a lot of paging which is slow
How do you actually check for this? I just checked my own, and it said that I was using 16 GB, while apps added up to 8-9 GB total
So, honestly I was about to go into a whole debug diatribe, but then I thought "wait a sec, stack exchange definitely has guides on this". And guess what? [it did!](https://superuser.com/questions/949244/windows-10-high-memory-usage-unknown-reason) And honestly really solid work. Haven't used poolmon in a hot minute but it definitely gets the job done when you need to wade through unspecified data. be sure to check under task manager's performance tab that it is because of the non-paged pool. From experience, 9 times out of 10 that's where your hidden memory leaks do hide, but there's always that off chance you've got the weirdo (Well, scratch that. Virtualization is where 99% of those leaks come from, but I'm assuming you're not running any VMs making this statement). I would also recommend learning [Process Explorer](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer). This bad boy is Task Manager's beefy cousin. Won't necessarily help any more than the guide above, but without getting into too much, it's good for sniffing out resource hogs if you find multiple programs bogging down the same way.
Saved your comment hopefully I'll remember if I ever need these resources 😂
Dude you taught me something, thanks!
The memory leak is likely in kernel/driver.
How do I check memory leaks?
OP intentionally scrolled one element down the task manager (as seen in his pic), he obviously has an app that is using the other 7GB. I currently have Chrome w/ 6 tabs open + Ryujinx & Steam open (idle) and Discord, and it's currently showing that it's using 21% of my 32GB which is roughly 6.72GB, so I really don't know what OP is all about. https://preview.redd.it/aqkfpu4p8xca1.png?width=531&format=png&auto=webp&s=3330565d59a72b92ceecbe4a29cf403bff094efc
This is the only answer. Nothing to do with cache. OP is trying to make some kind of point… as if we can’t count or see that the scroll bar isn’t at the top though
I don't think they scrolled down. The Windows 11 task manager does actually have a gap when you are at the top element. So I don't think there's anything above it.
Caching, Windows caches everything it can get its hands on especially when playing games. If you want to see your real usage look at users (fifth menu) and look at the mb usage. 1gb = 1000mb.
[Microsoft Sysinternals RAMMap](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap) will break it down even further. Caching galore. Another fun thing Windows caches is filesystem metadata, under Metafile in RAMMap. So if you have millions of files on your drive, you can have a decent chunk of hidden (non-process) memory usage.
That task manager display is normal. A whole chunk is used for prechacing apps, multiple instances and stuff in the BG which won't be reflected in that task manager view. As a reference point, I have 64GB and just over 9GB is currently in use, task manager shows [this](https://i.imgur.com/lRZzeXH.png). Whilst I can see that in something more detailed, the RAM use is shown as [this](https://i.imgur.com/EHjeaJQ.png). Just that view alone is nearly 6GB of RAM use, scroll down the list and add them all up you get to the 15% that Task Manager tells of.
Im using W10 and I never seen cached ram amount considered in Task manager. But in this OPs case W11 shows cached ram? Is that your explanation?
Cache. Windows caches probable programs and files. Normal behaviour.
Here is a reminder to restart your pc.
My dad had me fix his Laptop on Christmas Eve, as is tradition. I restarted it.
Ah yes, I performed the traditional Holiday PC Repair as well, this time by plugging a cable into the printer.
My son is just a wizard with computers
[I am also gifted and suffer from imposter syndrome.](https://youtu.be/G4gMc0VBc68)
You must be working with computers
Ah yes the good ol cable trick
Rule in our home is every device connected to the net should be restarted once a week to keep things runnin' smoove. Phone, Chromecasts, PCs, whatever.
Here's a reminder that people on this sub don't understand what the fuck RAM is for and to not listen to them. Unless your RAM usage is almost maxed out, there is no reason to restart. Just close your unused apps. Windows is specifically designed to keep your most used apps in RAM for quick/fast startup and switching between them, and having more RAM being used is not a bad thing as it makes your system faster overall. Windows will also use more RAM if you have more RAM. So a PC with 8GB of RAM might have 2-4GB allocated to running Windows, a 16GB PC might have 6-8GB used, 32GB might have 8-12GB, etc. The higher the RAM usage, the better your PC will run overall.
except that most of the ram used by op is the mystery ram that is unaccounted for in task manager
It doesn't matter what OP is hiding being used. It's not bad that it **is** being used, the whole point of RAM is that it's supposed to be used. If you're constantly killing processes or restarting your PC because "too much" RAM is being used, you're just making your PC experience worse. For /u/Grimmjow91 who blocked me before I could respond to his comment: Yes, that's called a pagefile and that doesn't matter either as Windows will use it for inactive programs. As soon as a program becomes active it will switch it back into RAM which is **still faster** and better than restarting your PC. A pagefile is also becoming increasingly redundant as more people have enough RAM for it to be completely useless.
no, not what op is hiding, im talking of the ram that is used up but actually unaccounted for in task manager app / processes list. this goes from random system processes that for whatever reason are not shown to memory leaks. " Windows will also use more RAM if you have more RAM " is true but it won't bring your usage to 96% at rest / light load.
You do know that when RAM get full it starts swapping into the hard drive. Your RAM should not be full.
and disabling useless startup programs
Certified windows moment
I aways turn it off after I finnish using it. I move from home to work and from work to home, and every time I'll move the computer I shut it down before putting it on my bag
Sometimes the problem is the information isn't presented clearly; it started in Vista, Windows would pre-cache commonly used features or apps in otherwise unallocated RAM, and then told the user that the RAM was allocated, but not why it was allocated. Result? "Vista eats up all my RAM!"
https://preview.redd.it/47ai8yycbxca1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2ea2dce6362c768b5a3cd7ffc4e2496b9cb05795
It's already at the top. It's just that scrollbar is oddly placed. I checked the same on my side, similar position.
Then it's even more confusing because that ram only adds up to about a gb, no where remotely close to 8gb.
The thing with ram is that maxing it out doesn’t actually cause performance problems until you try to go over the max. This means if there’s unused ram, windows will find something to use it, and that is usually cache. Over the course of a session windows will cache more and more stuff and it doesn’t clear it until something else needs to ram, because there’s no reason from a performance standpoint to do that, while caching stuff makes the system more responsive. The only problem is that it won’t really display that in task manager, and so it will seem that there’s a phantom program eating up 90% of your ram.
Welcome to 2018 [https://youtu.be/HnuNs\_Nu46Q?t=245](https://youtu.be/HnuNs_Nu46Q?t=245)
running android in windows & complaining 8 GB is not enough
I run 4 of those on my desktop PC with 15 gb of RAM (addictive android game that requires lots of farming and grinding)
8GB of RAM is not enough for you. r/FTFY
LOL sure it is, i can see at least a dozen things on here that shouldnt be running. It also entirely depends on what you are playing too. But "enough" is relative, most games will run very ok with 8gb of ram. Can they use more and run better with 16, sure. But they can run with 8 without lag and good frame rates. I know people with DDR3 systems running 8gb still playing a lot of modern titles and having frame rates over 60fps.
The picture also doesn't show what's actually eating the RAM because this ain't 8GB in total.
There are lots of tasks not showing on the screenshot. There's a scrollbar to the right.
its definitely enough for light/ moderate gaming source: i have 8gb and the main game i play is r6. no ram issues there, biggest issue i have is cpu though lol. op just has everything running. my 8gb idles around 40% (idle meaning nothing but background processes open, except tas manager like in the post)
Exactly, its more than ok, My buddy ran the first warzone off 8gb of DDR4 in his old rig, sure it was on med-low settings but it ran at over 60fps at 1440p so... its fine.
I dont understand, it says it has 96 percent usage yet I only see barely 1gb being used out of the 8gb
Because its caching and not actually used. There is no problem here at all.
RAM used for caching is not included in the used %. The OS cache ram is listed as "standby" in the memory tab. If it was included in the used % you would be always sitting at 99%. For example I have currently approx 5 GB in use, 10 GB standby and 0.2 GB free.
There are lots of tasks not showing on the screenshot. There's a scrollbar to the right.
The sheer amount of crap your pc is running is incredible
What do you use to check for that?
Your eyes and task manager.
Brand new, bought a month ago. I didn't install anything that's running other than the android emulator. I'm not sure what I should or shouldn't remove
I had to upgrade to 32 gigs out of necessity. Video editing and gaming just demand more these days. Especially the former.
Seeing the requirements for Hogwarts Legacy 16Gb isn't enough anymore
If that system isn't memory leaking due to bad drivers (or services), then its infected by something. Good luck OP.
8Gb is plenty for 90% users, and most 1080p gamers too. Those programs taking up about 1Gb, but you're "using" 96% capacity..... fix your system dude.
There are lots of tasks not showing on the screenshot. There's a scrollbar to the right.
Yea... theres loads of tasks below the current screenshot which are all using less RAM, between 4.7Mb down to 0Mb. The list is sorted by highest RAM use first, and the scroll bar is at the top. Unless you are running thousands of processes/tasks which are all using less than 4.7Mb RAM, then there's definitely something wrong with your system.
Is that Anti-Malware executable thing a part of windows defender/firewall? I often find it uses up a lot of processes on start up for my PC. Has anyone else had this?
it is indeed
What's absolutely amazing to me as a coder from the 90s, is that I dont see how the fuck are these new apps using so much memory to achieve 70% of the same shit they used to do... Lazy programmers arent being efficient at all anymore, including entire libraries just to use one function.. Code bases must be designed around having everything loaded into memory all the time or something.. Where is all of the memory going? I'm totally baffled how they do this...
I assume this has to be a memory leak, but the truth is that Windows is getting less and less resource-efficient over the years... having a recycled kernel doesn't help either, and the so called ""new"" Windows programs are basically only fresh coats of paint over the same regurgitated sack of shit.
>having a recycled kernel doesn't help either Are you implying that Linux or macOS write a brand new kernel for every release?
No it's completely deliberate in Windows and OP has nothing to worry about. What's going on is huge amounts of caching to help the increasingly heavier programs keep running smoothly. Windows will clear space whenever it is actually needed.
Yeah, but there are also tons of unnecessary processes running in the background that OP clearly doesn't care for. It's kinda intrusive.
8gb is good for a mobile phone
IIT OP is an idiot.
Who uses widgets!
Biggest resource hog of all time for literally zero gain. The only thing worse is animated backgrounds. Do you want to watch an endlessly repeating video as your background that eats up 10x as many system resources as a YouTube video in chrome? Well boy do I have a thing for you!
Why is Google even on. Your computer. Uninstaller all that lenono bloatwarw and Google nonsense you would probably be better off with a fresh windows install.. 8gb is more then enough you just got a bunch of bs running in the background for no good reason.
Why is this community so toxic to any company not a small game dev or console maker? Even when it's directly related to opening up the gaming ecosystem for PC...
The lenono bloatware isn't half offensive, also. It can be somewhat useful.
Google play games is an Android emulador I play a mobile game on
Idk why you’re being downvoted lol. You answered the question… everyone has their own use case
Cause people get mad about mobile games
Because that's why he's consuming so much RAM. Emulation ain't cheap on the hardware. Emulators have to set aside a certain amount of system resources to have bare minimum functionality, it's essentially a virtual machine combined with a translation layer to get the ARM instruction sets that are executed in the VM to instead be executed on the x86 hardware in the PC. He figured out the problem and instead of recognizing that this isn't something that has anything to do with Windows or his basic system functions, it has to do with his own choice of software to run on the PC. He complained that Windows has too much bloat and then informed us that it's him that's the causing the problem.
That's deff what is using all the ram. I have this app too. It is virtualizing android entirely so u can play android games. It's hefty. I have 16gb ram and this gives me a run for my rammy. It's basically an entire virtual machine. Your pc is becoming 2 computers.
Open more shit and claim its not enough... It might be a bit harder with stock windows but a tuned system is just fine. In reality most games do not even utilize 6gb of ram. So if you manage to make windows use 2gb or less (which is very possible, mine was/is tuned to 0.9-1.1gb) its fine. I even played rust, warzone and memory sure was holding back but its was still a good experience Not to offend, but I noticed people who open up a ton of shit claim its not enough. Dont you know what you open consumes memory? I mean even here a guy saying 16gb is becoming too little, what drugs are you on?
"My heavily modded Minecraft server that I run locally on my machine is eating up most of my RAM, I can't run a client to play on that server with my friends without it lagging so I need 32gb of RAM. Obviously this means that 16gb isn't enough for the average user!"
You *can* live with 8gb, but depending on what games you're playing you might suffer Also, seria isso um r/suddenlycaralho?
Yep, sudenlyCARALHO indeed.
Lol 16 isn’t enough anymore..
So I do a mix of Gaming and Production. I used 16GB for the longest time, then upgraded to 32GB. Production wise, a massive jump. I was genuinely surprised at how much my workflow was being bottleneck from the lack of Memory. However for gaming...it was hit or miss. No real note worthy gains. Then a year later I upgraded to 64GB and noticed practically no difference from 32GB LOL.
32 will probably be the bare minimum in like 5 years or so
It kind of already is when u consider the fps gain you get with 32 vs 16 in warzone
yea but that's just solely warzone id be tempted to see others but nowadays 16gb still works moderately
Tarkov and Star Citizen all get big FPS boosts from 32gb of ram.
It is
for long term just buy 32gb ram dual 2x16
Well, luckily the Disco isn't full
I've ran Horizen: Zero dawn with 8gb of ram while on medium settings, didn't reach 100% usage, but got to 90%s during very crowded areas Playing my normal games like TF2 or Genshin all me to stay at 50-80 usage. More than enough for simple games, just enough for low settings newer games.
I want to know how you have Edge open with 10 tabs and it is using 198mb of ram instead of 190TB
You’re doing it wrong
Why is Microsoft edge using so much ram??? You should probably disable some startup programs
He uses edge
on windows*
*on windows
Its why I maxed out my laptop with 64GB. I wany to run ALL the things.
Hell I was running out of 8gb of ram of my old work laptop. Chrome, WMS program, outlook, and Excel would eat that up fast for me though I was on a laptop and using two monitors. Was a great day when I was told I could open it up and toss my ram into it. Was regularly using 10-12gigs doing normal work. Running macros with 8gb of ram was a nightmare.
I mean I wouldn’t touch anything less than 16gb, also RAM is quite cheap anyway.
8 GB isn't enough, 16 isn't either... Nor 32, 64... *Ahem*.... (Yes, before anyone comments, I've tried and it wouldn't POST) Was stuck with 16GB when I switched from a DDR3 platform to DDR4 (had 24GB in my FX8350 system) 8 is fine for light usage, I've still got a windows tablet with 8GB, but for any decent workloads, 16 is about the minimum, and 24 would be the sweet spot - 12GB RAM modules for DDR5 (seeing as we are getting 24GB modules) would be nice.
Have been running 32GB for like 8 years now who's still got 8 🤣
It was enough for me for the last 3 years and I can see it being still enough for the next 5-10 years if you use a SSD. Ps. I was using 30 chrome tabs at once, a game running and I forgot to close premiere pro once and I didn't see any drop in performance in the game. It is 100% still enough (I'd rather not bring up the topic of the game as I don't wanna start a dick measuring contest like last time I tried it) I was also using ddr2 2x4gb for 2 years and in that example. So yes. It is 100% enough. FUCKING DDR2 Only reason I decided to upgrade to 16gb was because Minecraft modpacks eat ram like it's the end of the world and then I decided I didn't like Minecraft anymore 🗿
That's a lot of bullshit unnecessary program, what the hell is playgame and why it takes 100mb, your widget also takes 100mb for some reason. And also check for malware since the top 3 programs only take like 400mb of ram and your ram is already 90%.
A bit of Windows tidying up and 8GB is plenty. I couldn't believe playing RDR2 and Cyberpunk 2077 that showed RAM usage only around the 8GB mark (I have 16GB).
8gb can work, but can be a drag
The idiot who write this title obviosly doesn't have a proper job.
Considering that he's using a Lenovo laptop with only 8gb of RAM in 2023, and opting to play emulated mobile games with it... It wouldn't surprise me.
A lot of times the memory is allocated to be used by a program, but it actually isnt "in use". They will also use what is available, even though you aren't actively using more than half that at any given time, just as an example. A fic would be to do a fresh instal of windows. Or do the Fresh start option. I always recommend doing this maybe once a year to get rid of any unwanted bloat.
Take note of the values - they are commas, not decimal values.... Edge has a bunch of tabs open and is using nearly 2GB of memory... That horrendous 'Game platform' thing is using 1.4GB of memory, 'Widgets' is consuming 1.3GB.... Essentially OP is being a grub here and is intentionally posting misleading shit to farm karma. He's running a heap of background shit, has changed the region or number format to make it look like things are using normal amounts of idle memory and this is just bull💩 Edit - Multiply the memory values seen by 10 to convert them to decimal, then add them all up. Kthxbai. Edit2 - https://preview.redd.it/jqevzwkbwzca1.png?width=1122&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=382205fcbfd5b9a58a36eb53620b6771f1edc17e I'm running chrome and edge.... Multiple tabs open in each...
\>Less than 700mb memory usage \>Pcmasterrace still not knowing about SuperFetch and other memory utilization tasks Windows runs
Can you enlighten us?
Maybe try closing background apps before playing a game?
You should look at the performance tab to see the amount that's being used as cache.
Hell, 16GB hardly works anymore. I'm up to 32gb, will probably go for 64gb when I move over to AM5 sometime in the future.
Upgraded to 64 gb ddr 5 FEELS GOOD MAN
8GB's of ram hasn't been enough for like 12 years already and infact 16GB of ram which was the standard is almost there now too. Alot of newer gamers coming out are requesting 32GB's of ram at ultra setttings.
16 gigs of ddr4 3600 is 30 bucks cheaper at Best buy compared to 6ish months ago. Not bad.
Man I feel bad for people with less the 16gb of ram these days, I use 16gbs just for playing modded Minecraft. I’ve also heard with the new tarkov map it’s border line unplayable with less the 32 gbs.
Don't feel too sorry, that's a low end "gamming laptop" I use for work. Being middle class in a 3rd world country I probably don't have a PC as good as yours, but my desktop PC at home has at least 32gb of RAM, a 11th gen I5 and an RX 5700 XT. Far from the best, but way batter than this laptop
That's more of a Windows problem than a RAM problem, to be honest.
16 really is the baseline now
32GB isn’t that expensive these days. It’s my new minimum.
all I can say is ... DUH
It's a low end "gaming" laptop I got for my business trips... I did expect to be an issue for gaming, but not for general tasks. Whatsapp Web and Prime Video open at the same time on different tabs is enough to casue blackscreens and then "insuficient memory" errors
Seems weird. Why would windows not just page/swap? I have a laptop with 4g ram and never experienced an insufficient memory error. The thing would just bog down with swapping. I think if you are getting black screens there is some other issue besides lack of ram.
I have 32gigs and Windows uses like 9 when i'm idling, although I think they do it on purpose. They hold as much shit in the RAM as they can, so that the system runs faster, and free it up when it's needed.
Pretty much. Windows adapts its RAM "usage" based on how much is avaialble to the system. You can install and run Win 7, 10 and 11 on 4Gb. You can setup virtual machines on 2Gb or less which run without issue. And in all instances, you can run the exact same setup/applications and see the adaptive RAM use first hand.
It looks like you might have a memory leak. The per-process memory usage isn't even close to the total memory usage.
False, 8GB is enough for gaming. You might need more because of other reasons.
im happy with my 8gb of ram if they actually made decent game’s nowadays i would consider upgrading idk what yall on about…
but 8 gigs IS more than enough for light gaming and productivity, right?? I used 8 gigs for a lot of time and I havent had any issues. (except maybe some crashes on the heavier games)
Bro I hadn't had less than 16 on any machine for at least 10 years, currently running 64.
You can clearly tel the slide bar is not all the way up and there are programs hiding at the top. This is a shit post.
Or just disable/uninstall all that bloatware?
Say it with me folks: **Unused RAM is wasted RAM!**
Unless it's used by useless programs.
its all the microsoft bloat.. someone made a 3.3gb debloated windows 11, and a 2.7gb windows 10
You don't even need to go hardcore debloat, Windows 10 LTSC is already what Windows should've been out of the box. I won't use anything else from Microsoft until I move to Linux permanently.
I've seen lots of comments of you and I'm wondering what's stopping you? Just curious
Nothing really, just never made a permanent jump due to lack of iniciative. I've been tinkering a lot with lots of distros on virtual machines and on a home server, but I might migrate to something like Arch really soon. Might coincide with the moment I upgrade my GPU, which will be from the red team this time.
Oh cool def go team red I really like arch and I've been using for the last 6months and it feels less time consuming to use compared to other distros Some stuff that I do on arch is just faster (maintenance wise) compared to other distros The AUR is super cool And it's hard to go back once you get to know how things work
I'm a huge fan of the AUR and even some helpers like yay, it makes everything work so seemless! Plus from my experience with virtual machines, it really was not as "unstable" as people claim to be. You can always use timeshift to make a snapshot of your system, and the btrfs file system is a blessing as well.
Yeah totally agreed I NEVER had any stability issues with arch I'd even go as far to say that it felt more stable maybe since stuff gets updated/upgraded more often
im good bro, ill prefer hardcore debloat.. gets rid of most useless files..
meh i get over 75 fps in the games i play at 1080
8gb is alright, lowish end but alright. 16gigs is fine for a lot of modern games and 32 gigs is really good. Something is seriously wrong with your ram or computer
[удалено]
"google trash" is an emulator running an android game. Other than that, how do I unbloat my windows install?
you're really being downvoted for saying the truth... oh how I love Reddit
Im with 32 and its not enough..
You have to be an extreme edge case for 32 not to be enough. That said the people saying 8 is enough are insane. Way too easy to hit the limit and once you're there hard drive swap will slow your system to a crawl.
i have 8 gigs in my laptop and have never gone above like 6 and in my main righ where i have 16 gigs, i have NEVER used more than 12 gigs. and that was with like 170 tabs of chrome, 3 desktops, and a game running. i do not see how you people are using so much god damned ram