Win 10: 50% RAM usage when idling

[Butt Spenza]

Hey guys,
I recently noticed that my PC uses a lot of RAM when idling, even right after startup.
If I add up all the programs listed in the task manager the machine uses about 1.5 - 2 GB of RAM which sounds reasonable.
For some reason more than 4 GB of my 8 GB are used though, which leads to a lack of available RAM when playing RAM-intensive games.
Is there any way to find out what causes this problem?

Here are some screenshots of the task manager:
https://imgur.com/a/MuVLoCo
https://imgur.com/a/xC0sBxQ

My system:

Windows 10 64 Bit
8 GB DDR3 RAM
i5 4670 3,4 GHz
RX 480 4 GB

If you need more information just tell me.

Thanks!

[Omega]

It is normal for Windows 10 to use 4-5gb of RAM.

Nothing is wrong here.

[Butt Spenza]

But what are the 2 GB used for that don't show up in the task manager?

[Omega]

Originally posted by Butt Spenza:

But what are the 2 GB used for that don't show up in the task manager?

I don't know. Stuff. This is normal.

[Kaihekoa]

You sure you don't have a bunch of crap running in the background? Check task scheduler and msconfig to see what is automatically starting.

[⛧EyMi Mayhem⛧]

Originally posted by Butt Spenza:

But what are the 2 GB used for that don't show up in the task manager?

Possible idle memory.

You can use "Resource Monitor" for more details.

[TehSpoopyKitteh]

Originally posted by Butt Spenza:

But what are the 2 GB used for that don't show up in the task manager?

Everything from Windows Defender to Automatic updates, to basic system functions all use, at the most, 4GB system RAM. The rest will ultimately be added from things like anti-malware, Steam, GeForce Experience (though not in your case), and other commonly used software and apps used as control pannels made by manufacturers (ie MSI Afterburner, ASUS GPU Tweak II).

The basic 2GB is used to boot Windows 10and to get everything started before the login screen show up.

[Azza ☠]

CTRL + ALT + DEL -> Task Manager

Click on "Performance" (tab) -> Open Resource Monitor

Click on "Memory" (tab) and check the "Physical Memory" box.

Check the "In Use" vs "Standby". Windows uses memory and doesn't discard the DLLs from memory after that app/game has been exited. Rather it keeps them still in memory, but merely marks it as "Standby". When another game/app needs more memory it can request the "Standby" memory to be released to it.

You shouldn't worry about RAM being used up. It's the way it works these days, used memory is better than idle memory. Just make sure it's "Standby" memory and not the "In Use" memory slowly increasing over time (which in that case is a memory leak of one of your apps/games).

[Butt Spenza]

Alright, thanks! :)

[upcoast]

I think you guys have a lot of crap open because just idling I'm hard pressed to use 1.8-2GB with a few things open right now I'm at 3GB.

[Butt Spenza]

As I mentioned, the usage is that high right after booting.
Just the usual programs are running, like different drivers, Steam, Antivir and a lot of Windows stuff.

[upcoast]

Originally posted by Butt Spenza:

As I mentioned, the usage is that high right after booting.
Just the usual programs are running, like different drivers, Steam, Antivir and a lot of Windows stuff.

What is it after booting and settling down? At booting just doesn't matter.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Well, theres a number of processes you can stop from running at startup that arent important

The 17 chrome processes doesnt help much either

basically, close anything that you dont need to be running before gaming
As for the RAM, it'll recover automatically when its needed

other than that, get an additional 8GB RAM and you wont have this problem

[tacoshy]

I mostly use around 3.6-4.2GB RAM when not starting to RAM Cache and that also only when running without pagefile (tho my pagefile is constantly below 110MB). If I cache an entire OS then I might go up to 10-11 GB RAM usage.

[[☥] - CJ -]

My normal usage with nothing open is around 1.8GB
And thats because i keep my system clean and dont have a bunch of crap running in the background

[tacoshy]

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

My normal usage with nothing open is around 1.8GB
And thats because i keep my system clean and dont have a bunch of crap running in the background

all a question of settings and unused RAM is useless. You only need to keep your RAM suage low when not able to dump it fast enough in a pagefile for example. But to speed everythign up I heavily cache and getting then to ~4GB RAM usage when not going completly rampage and caching everything´. Doesnt mean I have bunch of crap running in the background.