Is this normal? High RAM usage when idle on steam

[Lewis]

I've literally got steam open & browsing the library tab when I took this screenshot, surely this much RAM usage is excessive?

https://gyazo.com/a0619b5f7029940eb0a3a28c71369ebb

[Snapjak]

That is not high at all. High would be gigabytes.

[plutone00]

High webhelper usage means you were using steam build-in browser to view a lot of store pages and forums. Just exit the client and start again.

[Lewis]

snapjak if you haven't anything useful to say, don't bother at all. :)

[Lewis]

the term is relative, steam doesn't usually use that much of my RAM whilst I'm browsing my library.

[CSX]

What's the problem? RAM is there to be used, you have no benefit from unused memory. Your screenshot shows only 32% total is used. It's all good as long as you don't hit 100% usage.

[Junior]

Originally posted by CSX:

What's the problem? RAM is there to be used, you have no benefit from unused memory. Your screenshot shows only 32% total is used. It's all good as long as you don't hit 100% usage.

Ehmmm if the memory used is stolen for other applications then it's bad and should not be used, if it's just a cache that the program will free it if other program need then it's fine to use as much as it can... There's a huge difference between cached memory (what windows does) to stolen memory that don't get released. I don't know if the steam browser ram have priority over applications but that's what will define if it's fine or not if it's stealing is bad, if it's just cache that Wil get released or go to page file for a game to use it's fine.


In simple short words

Stolen ram = should be as minimum as possible the lower the better.

Cached ram = should use as much as it can to make the program run faster and avoid using the disk, but should never starve another application if something opened is asking ram it should stop using and don't steal. (this is what windows does with the free ram, and even the used ram alot of stuff can go to page file and leave the physical ram too.)

[Snapjak]

Windows will manage memory far better than you will, and no it is not high usage that is fairly normal now.

If you somehow imagine that you need to keep your RAM free then you're mistaken. Unused RAM is very literally wasting electricity. It is meant to be used and used constantly.

[fhu?]

Nope, it is not normal. Maybe you have a secret miner

[Tharon]

Originally posted by Snapjak:

Windows will manage memory far better than you will, and no it is not high usage that is fairly normal now.

If you somehow imagine that you need to keep your RAM free then you're mistaken. Unused RAM is very literally wasting electricity. It is meant to be used and used constantly.

Unused RAM is used by Windows for caching. The more unused RAM you have, the more your system react quick and remember modified data and opened files.
Keeping the RAM as low as possibile has only benefits, expecially with big games.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Tharon:

Originally posted by Snapjak:

Windows will manage memory far better than you will, and no it is not high usage that is fairly normal now.

If you somehow imagine that you need to keep your RAM free then you're mistaken. Unused RAM is very literally wasting electricity. It is meant to be used and used constantly.

Unused RAM is used by Windows for caching. The more unused RAM you have, the more your system react quick and remember modified data and opened files.
Keeping the RAM as low as possibile has only benefits, expecially with big games.

Are you familiar with the concept of diminishing returns? Having some RAM available for cache is fine good. But more and more cache doesn't yield more and more performance and at a certain point a large enough cache would just be wasted, which is kinda of Snapjak's point: It's OK for applications to use RAM.

All these arguments spiraling into absurdities. In this specific case looks like OP has plenty of RAM where fussing over a few tens of MB is probably a little silly.

[Barking_Death_Squirrel]

The high RAM usage is from valve forcing an imcomplete and utter mess of a beta UI on us that EATS RESOURCES on many systems and is not consistent across all computers.
Basically, it is a horrible programming problem that could be easily rectified by putting this UI back into beta until ALL bugs and resource eating is eliminated, this includes RAM, and reinstate the old and stable UI that will not eat your RAM.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Barking_Death_Squirrel:

The high RAM usage is from valve forcing an imcomplete and utter mess of a beta UI on us that EATS RESOURCES on many systems and is not consistent across all computers.
Basically, it is a horrible programming problem that could be easily rectified by putting this UI back into beta until ALL bugs and resource eating is eliminated, this includes RAM, and reinstate the old and stable UI that will not eat your RAM.

You know people have been whining about Steam resource usage, incessantly, since 2003. So no, the old UI isn't going to solve it your imaginary problem. The problem is users are a miserable unhappy lot, and that's not fixable. Not until god release the Human 1.1 patch.

[wuddih]

yes, since the new library the memory footprint of the client has increased. it has increased quite a noticeable amount - we are talking about 25-40MB more - it makes sense because the library is also a "website" and also more image heavy (atm).

the trade off is good though, Valve can now basically do whatever with it and are no longer technically limited what the old library was. the whole tag thing f.e. was close to impossible to make it usable on the old library.
the library will change ever so slightly in the upcoming future, more stuff will be added, more options will be available. things will get more optimized and so on.

[Tharon]

Originally posted by wuddih:

yes, since the new library the memory footprint of the client has increased. it has increased quite a noticeable amount - we are talking about 25-40MB more - it makes sense because the library is also a "website" and also more image heavy (atm).

The footprint increased by 200, 250 megabytes at least. And there was another increase (around 100 megabytes) caused by the previous Chat UI update. This footprint is usually hidden if GPU rendering is enabled, because CEF (che web engine of Steam) uses the more precious VRAM of the RAM.

This is the reason many users thinks Steam isn't using so much memory, or not more than before.

[nullable]

Originally posted by Tharon:

Originally posted by wuddih:

yes, since the new library the memory footprint of the client has increased. it has increased quite a noticeable amount - we are talking about 25-40MB more - it makes sense because the library is also a "website" and also more image heavy (atm).

The footprint increased by 200, 250 megabytes at least. And there was another increase (around 100 megabytes) caused by the previous Chat UI update. This footprint is usually hidden if GPU rendering is enabled, because CEF (che web engine of Steam) uses the more precious VRAM of the RAM.

This is the reason many users thinks Steam isn't using so much memory, or not more than before.

All RAM is precious or sacred from a certain point of view, especially if you think some program isn't worthy of using it...