Why is my RAM usage so high? (50%/4gb win8.1)

[Gorgodeus]

Windows 8.1 64 bit requires 2GBs of RAM, and you only have 4GB total, so it's not that hard to figure out why you are at 50%.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...m-requirements

[skatblast]

Its not high, you just have 4 gigs. That would have been pretty kickass in 2005.

[JForny]

Because of blatant disinformation.

Googling for "windows automatic update ram" turned up few hits of memory leaks happening on XP and they didn't recommend turning it off, instead the solution was a known update to the Windows updater thingy to fix the leaks

Care to tell exactly what are you googling for when you find something relevant to Windows 8.1?

ps. "just google it" is bannable here btw, because it's a jerk answer :P

No you are right, that was for high disk usage... And there are memory leaks from windows defender and gaming... And I didn't say just google it.... I said google man(as in that's where I found it). And it's not bad to turn off defender or auto updates... When you get you your log into windows screen, it tells you in the bottom right corner you have updates. You guys are seriously angry on this forum...

[Lathais]

When you get you your log into windows screen, it tells you in the bottom right corner you have updates. You guys are seriously angry on this forum...

Only if you have it turned on to notify you. There are different levels of "turning off automatic updates." You can leave them on, have them download and notify you they are ready to install, have it notify you when they are available or just leave automatic. I admit, in the past, leaving them off or prompting you was not a bad idea. Every once in a while Microsoft would fuck up and push out a harmful update. This has not happened for quite some time now and they are pretty safe. The urgent ones typically shore up vulnerabilities and leaving them off completely and not even knowing they are there can be quite harmful to your system. Leaving them on automatic prevents you from having holes in your systems security and the updates will only happen when the system is idle. There is no good reason to turn them off.

Yes, people around her get angry when people tell people to do things that will either waste their money or risk their system. Pretty understandable.

[DeltrusDisc]

Google man... Don't attack me over what Microsoft themselves told people to do... Seriously... Why is everyone on this board such jerks? Attack others constantly and harass them?

Link this time they told someone or shut up.

Windows Update, I personally keep on manual, yes, BUT Windows defender? Dude, look at what his screenshot shows! BitDefender and, of course, Chrome and all of its tabs.

(BitDefender is something different than the Windows one you mentioned.)

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Chrome

I had Chrome using 25GB of my 32GB a few weeks ago, it has become a real hog.

lol... well, sounds like you have well over 50 tabs open.

Close some, you don't need them.

[Erous]

Chrome is a huge memory hog. I'm a Chrome fan, but people who say it's 'lightweight' are not speaking the same language as me. Chrome will eat your RAM period. And please don't listen to the individual telling you to disable your antivirus. I'm not sure why anyone would recommend this to anyone tbh.

[JForny]

Only if you have it turned on to notify you. There are different levels of "turning off automatic updates." You can leave them on, have them download and notify you they are ready to install, have it notify you when they are available or just leave automatic. I admit, in the past, leaving them off or prompting you was not a bad idea. Every once in a while Microsoft would fuck up and push out a harmful update. This has not happened for quite some time now and they are pretty safe. The urgent ones typically shore up vulnerabilities and leaving them off completely and not even knowing they are there can be quite harmful to your system. Leaving them on automatic prevents you from having holes in your systems security and the updates will only happen when the system is idle. There is no good reason to turn them off.

Yes, people around her get angry when people tell people to do things that will either waste their money or risk their system. Pretty understandable.

Why are you bringing up shit from another thread now... And risk your system how? What everyone just uses windows defender? No... Yes you can adjust your windows update settings... But if you leave it set to automatic and then notify ton what updates you want, it still initializes the installer in the background and eats up a lot of disk space(which, I confused ram and disk usage and apologized for it) So stop being a condescending dick again as usual in anything I post on.

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[QUOTE=DeltrusDisc;33164893]Link this time they told someone or shut up.

Windows Update, I personally keep on manual, yes, BUT Windows defender? Dude, look at what his screenshot shows! BitDefender and, of course, Chrome and all of its tabs.

(BitDefender is something different than the Windows one you mentioned.)

Yes as you can tell, I also retracted what I said and realized I confused a few things... And why shut up?

[TaurenNinja]

There's rarely an easy answer with this. It can be many different factors, and there are also lots of good reasons for programs to use more RAM.
Keep in mind that unused RAM is essentially wasted. You might think of it like some sort of trash can, where you want it to be filled as little as possible. But that's not (always) correct. RAM is used by a lot of programs (including your operating system) to pre-load (cache) content that you *might* need very soon, in order to speed up things when you need them. That's a good thing. Of course there also exist programs that have memory leaks or simply bad memory management that essentially waste some of your RAM with little to no benefit for you. That's the bad case.
For the end user it's pretty much impossible to tell which case it is exactly, so don't even try. Just stick to well-known programs which have a high chance to be written efficiently, turn off plugins or extra features in programs that you don't need, and quit programs you don't need if you have issues with too little available RAM.
Also, don't underestimate the complexity of modern web browsers (or other modern applications), they're like operating systems inside your operating system. The days where your browser was just like a viewer for simple HTML/CSS pages are long gone.

[Master Guns]

4GB of RAM was great when TES IV Oblivion came out 10 years ago, but that's very low in 2015. 8GB is the absolute minimum I would recommend to anyone for anything. And GG @ those Chrome tabs.

[Meintastic]

actually, if I remember correctly from when I was fixing my ram usage on my 8.1 computer, there is a bug that forces extra ram to be used, and you have to go into the system registry and change a value, which then fixes everything.

search up how to fix memory leaks in windows 8.1 on youtube, there should be a few videos on how to do it.

[fixx]

actually, if I remember correctly from when I was fixing my ram usage on my 8.1 computer, there is a bug that forces extra ram to be used, and you have to go into the system registry and change a value, which then fixes everything.

search up how to fix memory leaks in windows 8.1 on youtube, there should be a few videos on how to do it.

"Just google for it" is not allowed answer here.

How about you search for it and give links to something credible. It sounds kinda dumb that random youtubers would have some special knowledge that you can't verify from any other place.

[Deleted]

I have Windows 8.1 64 bit and with opera(several tabs), skype ,spotify, outlook and steam open my OS is only using 2,5 GB ram.

Id suggest you to look into your startup software list. You can do it in task manager -> startup . Avarage user tends to install a lot of trivial software and by default they are configured to run when Windows boots. Also check your installed software list and see if theres something that you dont use and uninstall it. You can do so by going to control panel -> programs and features
4GB of ram should be enough for win 8.1 64bit if you are only doing basic media usage (browsing, listening music, watching videos ect). For gaming its not enough.

Also i suggest you dont go and edit your system registry or config files manually unless you are an IT proffessional that knows what he is doing. You might end up breaking your OS in a way where the only way for fix is full reinstall.

If problem persists id suggest to take your computer to IT shop. Make sure that the IT shop has needed certificates to support your PC (for exampel if its dell make sure its certified dell partner.). There are a lot of third party IT shops that scam people.

[Aleksej89]

Honestly get more RAM, and some decently fast DDR3 ram (1866MHz CL9).
8GB of such ram is cheap these days, at least where i live.

Also you probably have a lot of other stuff and fluff, like the fancy WindowsAero effects (or whatever it is called in Win8.1).
On my PC chrome tends to use SIGNIFICANTLY more RAM/CPU than the latest firefox, but that is your choice.

Anti-virus/malware is yet another RAM and CPU hog, older PCs just die from those.
Windows has a LOT of services and startup programs you can tweak in "msconfig.exe" and "services.msc" - but be careful in there.

[fixx]

Honestly get more RAM, and some decently fast DDR3 ram (1866MHz CL9).

RAM speed doesn't make much difference at all going up from 1600MHz, especially on Intel. It does make some difference on AMD APUs though (A6/A8/A10). No point paying a cent extra for faster clock speeds, CL9 is more important.

Also you probably have a lot of other stuff and fluff, like the fancy WindowsAero effects (or whatever it is called in Win8.1).

There is no Aero in Windows 8, that's why it uses only half as much RAM as Windows 7 does and runs much faster on crappy computers.

On my PC chrome tends to use SIGNIFICANTLY more RAM/CPU than the latest firefox, but that is your choice.

Chrome is known for using crazy amounts of RAM on Windows for everybody.

Anti-virus/malware is yet another RAM and CPU hog, older PCs just die from those.

Being without any antivirus is not an option either so this is necessary evil.

Windows has a LOT of services and startup programs you can tweak in "msconfig.exe" and "services.msc" - but be careful in there.

Very few of those make a notable difference for RAM usage so it's better not to touch anything unless you know what you're doing. It's better to remove stuff from "windows features" from the uninstaller. Such at touch support is unnecessary unless you have touchscreen monitor but installed by default.

[Baracuda]

Maybe because 8g is the standard today and maybe soon 16gb?

[Twoddle]

Being without any antivirus is not an option either so this is necessary evil.

It is most definitely an option, no one has the right to tell me otherwise. I keep my machine clean manually with various tools and I'd much rather do that than place my faith in an AV and have it running pointless scans constantly even when told not to. If I want to scan a downloaded executable against every single AV out there I can still do that online if I want.

The other argument is that AVs prevent zero-day malware and backdoor downloads, but do they really? I've never ever had one in all my years of computing. Windows is patched to deal with these faster than the AVs are. AV comparison sites will try to tell you otherwise but they are completely flawed because the tests are purposely rigged up and then targeted with specific malware which they tell you are real world scenarios. The machines are put into scenarios that my machine will never be in.

It is an option, I'm not saying the average user should not run one, they need some kind of barrier to protect them from phishing sites and from clicking dodgy links in their email after all but for people like me it is an option.

[Mirishka]

I have Steam, Skype, Media Player, and a browser with 20 tabs open (Windows 8.1) and I'm already at 2.8GB out of 8GB used. 2GB is nothing...

2GB out of 8 is nothing. 2GB out of 4 hurts a bit.

I run with 8GB myself, and my next PC will have at least 16.

[angrys13]

Windows 8.1 64 bit requires 2GBs of RAM, and you only have 4GB total, so it's not that hard to figure out why you are at 50%.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...m-requirements

I was going to point this out.

Windows 8.1 is your biggest factor. It's absolutely your culprit.

Chrome is your next obvious one. Hell, you pointed that one out.

But like others said, all in all, it's only utilizing 50% even with your 20 tabs open. You're fine with 2 free.

[Belize]

Chrome is a massive memory hog.

[fixx]

It is most definitely an option, no one has the right to tell me otherwise. I keep my machine clean manually with various tools

So you arent using "any antivirus tools" but you're using "various tools"... Did you really fool yourself with that logic?

The other argument is that AVs prevent zero-day malware and backdoor downloads, but do they really? Windows is patched to deal with these faster than the AVs are.

AV doesn't really protect against zero day malware, and neither do OS patches. Nothing does, that's why those are called zero day exploits. And to claim Windows is patched faster (Microsoft deploys patches on tuesdays vs paid AV companies doing daily or even immediate patches) is bullshit.

Biggest advantage of AV programs is protecting users against accidential stupidity.

Windows 8.1 is your biggest factor. It's absolutely your culprit.

Windows 8 (and 8.1) uses less RAM than W7 or Vista.