Question High memory usage on laptop

[ahsun]

My MSI laptop has 16 GB DDR4 main memory and it gets over 40% full without any heavy application (it is 46% full as I am writing this thread).
Right now chrome is taking ~600 MB but it can go over a gig with multiple tabs. This makes me concerned because:

1. VS code takes up ~600 Mbs even when programming something small.
2. My desktop has 16 GBs DDR 3 and at idle it touches about 24% of memory usage.

What I have done till now:
Disabled startup programs.
Shifted development services e.g sql server to another laptop
Got rid of unimportant software

I am a bit confused by this discrepancy between my laptop and desktop. While chrome and windows do take big chunks of memory, I suspect this could be happening due to microservices and endless bloatware by MSI.
What are my options? Should I reinstall windows ? Then let windows get necessary drivers and manually get important stuff like nvidia drivers.

 

[jojesa]

Does your laptop and desktop have the same software and hardware (CPU, graphics, etc.)

 

[ahsun]

here are the specs:

Desktop:
CPU: i7 3700k @ 4.5 GHz cooled by thermaltake ring silent air cooler | 8 MB Cache
main memory: Corsair 16 GB DDR3
Storage: Transcend 256 GB tlc nand(Windows), 512 WD blue SSD, 1 TB Seagate Barracuda
Graphics: Gigabyte GTX 1080
Power: Corsair RM1000

Laptop: MSI GE72mvr apache (https://www.msi.com/Laptop/GE72MVR-7RG-Apache-Pro/Specification )
CPU: i7 7700HQ @ 2.8 - 3.8 GHz | 6 MB cache
memory: 16 GB DDR4
Storage: 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD
Graphics: Gtx 1070

 

[Nemesia]

You just can't do that kind of comparison. Unless you know exactly all the processes that is running on both machine. Your laptop is obviously running more processes than your desktop. Laptops most of the time has more programs running than a desktop.

Do you have a problem with your laptop? Like yes your memory is at 40% but do you actually have a problem with it?

You could take a screenshot of your task manager so I can see what is taking that 40%. Don't forget to click on "Memory" so we can see the biggest memory usage at the top.

 

[jojesa]

The laptop graphics configuration is set to used both the iGPU and the dedicated GPU. The system switches and uses both depending on graphics load. The iGPU on the laptop is using system memory which, depending on configuration, might not be the case on your desktop. On a desktop power saving is not required since the desktop does not run on battery.
Just because your system is using certain amount of RAM is doesn't automatically translate into an issue. If you're laptop start running out RAM and writing to the disk, when it's not supposed to, then that could be an issue.
What would be the point of having RAM seating unused? It won't serve it's purpose. That's the point of having RAM so the system takes advantage of it.