Question GPU OC software hogs up my RAM!

[miktoma]

I have a EVGA GTX 1060 on a older gaming PC. I upgraded from an older GTX 285 and also increased my RAM from 6GB to 12GB of triple channel Corsair PC1600. That hugely helped my performance, despite the really old mobo and CPU. The 1060 has plenty of VRAM at 6GB. I run Windows 10 home at version 1809. When I run my x-plane flight simulator my video card does not get hot, usually around 40 to 50C. But I like to both mildly OC my video card and run a fan profile.

For some reason a while back, I noticed that EVGA Precision was causing my ram to go up to over 90% usage. I posted in EVGA forums but that was a waste of time. I then tried MSI Afterburner, same results. Then I tried the more obscure Zotac Firestorm OC software, same thing. As soon as I shut down any of the three my RAM usage goes down to 30 to 40% with X-plane running. Nvidia used to have a "system tools" that would install into Nvidia control panel as an option that would allow control of the fan. But they have copped out and now just leave it to the aftermarkets such as EVGA and MSI.

I increased my pagefile to 6GB of space instead of having Windows set it but that didn't help either. If I run at over 90% RAM, my PC starts acting goofy and I worry about crashing. Anyone with any ideas for helping my situation?

 

[miktoma]

To the bump, to the bump, to the bump, bump bump.

 

[miktoma]

One important thing I forgot about is that after this happened the first time, I went to Nvidia website and upgraded to the latest driver And it still did it. Plus I had not upgraded for a long time, so the driver upgrades were months apart. There were four or five updates I skipped. So it's probably not got anything to do with drivers.

 

[miktoma]

An interesting factoid regarding the three best know OC software packages. As far as EVGA Precision X1, MSI Afterburner and Zotac Firestorm, I think Zotac is better in one way if you like to control your fan while the software is not running. I can bring up all three and change my fan speed, but after I kill Precision and Afterburner, the speed control stops. But if I run Zotac and set my fan speed to say, 30%, it will stay at 30% speed after Zotac is killed. And task manager confirms it's not running any more. I really like that because I still can't run any of the three without the ram memory problem but at least I can get my two fans running with Zotac and they stay put running at that speed.

 

[miktoma]

Seriously?!? Nobody has a clue why overclocking software uses up my ram memory when the overclocking software is running? Not even a suggestion?

 

[Ketchup79]

So, you said "bring up all three" and wondering why RAM usage goes up. Install one at a time. They generally all will run something in the background, even if they don't appear to be "running."

 

[miktoma]

No, only one runs in the background right now ( Zotac ). The other two are not set to start upon booting. Plus, I always check my task manager to make sure. Plus, if more than one was running why would my ram usage go back down to 30% ( about normal ) or so after killing the one that truly is running? Also it has nothing to do with any of the games I play because any of the three will slowly bring up my ram usage to over 90% even if I am running almost nothing, not even a web browser or virus scanner.