[SOLVED] Unreasonably high RAM usage with next to nothing running

[Jackyltv]

This problem has been going on for a while, and I've just ignored it, but today I just magically decided that maybe I should do something about it because maybe it could get worse.

The picture I posted is my RAM usage with next to nothing running and 15 seconds after I used the "CleanMem" program to clean up my memory usage. The math just doesn't add up. I'll admit I haven't personally added it all together, but from just looking at what the top 10 are, I doubt the few windows related processes that take up about 1mb really matter considering resource monitor claimed more than 5gb's of memory was being used.

I'll say it now, I'm not a computer hardware or software newbie. I have a CS degree and I'm CompTIA+ certified. I'm not saying I know EVERYTHING about a computer, but I'm at the very least trying to say I know more than the bare-bones basics. Even after restarting my PC, my starting idle RAM usage is around 26-28%, with only 3 startup programs enabled which are Discord, Samsung RAPID Mode, and Lightshot which is a program I use to take screenshots. None of this is making any sense, and after going through 15 different youtube videos that have been of no help, I've almost lost hope.

If you need any other information from me that could help you diagnose this issue with me, please feel free to ask. This is such an odd issue and I don't have any bloatware or crapware that would cause this so I'm sincerely lost here.

Specs:
i7-4790k turbo'd to 4.4GHz
GTX 1060 (6gb)
2x8GBs DDR3 RAM
1TB Kingston SSD with Windows 10 64-bit

 

[Colif]

Do you have fast startup turned on? If so, the PC is never off. Meaning when you restart it the next morning its waking up. It never refreshes ram unless you do the restart command in power options. I generally don't use it as its not as helpful on an ssd - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html

what Cleanmem app? Win 10 compresses programs into ram, it is counter productive to clean ram as then anything you might re open needs to load from storage and that is much slower than ram. Its smart enough to be able to move anything to storage if you should happen to run out of ram, but in top shot you still have 5gb free, its not like you are being squeezed. Free empty ram isn't useful.

 

[kerberos_20]

5.5GB ram usage is normal
windows caches things (alot)
also not all aps shows how much ram they eat
for example steam shows low ram usage, if u force close it, 500MB ram gets free

windows will manage ram for your running apps to keep them fast

or are u experiencing any issues now?

 

[Jackyltv]

5.5GB ram usage is normal
windows caches things (alot)
also not all aps shows how much ram they eat
for example steam shows low ram usage, if u force close it, 500MB ram gets free

windows will manage ram for your running apps to keep them fast

or are u experiencing any issues now?

Trust me I'm aware of this, however, shouldn't my RAM usage be less than 20 after a restart and with literally nothing in the background running except malwarebytes? I can't imagine the default windows processes after a restart taking up more than 3.2GB's of memory.

I'm gonna restart my PC really quick and take a picture of my RAM usage with nothing extra BUT malwarebytes running.

EDIT:

This is my RAM usage after a restart with literally nothing extra but Malwarebytes and Samsung Magician which is a program to help optimize my SSD which is only take up 12mb's. Even if for some reason each program in the top 10 was sneakily taking up 100mbs without showing it, this still wouldn't add up to 4.1GBs or memory usage.

Again this isn't a humongous problem, but when I'm running RAM heavy games, my memory usage jumps up a lot from the game alone, I don't want this problem to cause performance loss in those games.

 

[kerberos_20]

there is plethora of system services, installed apps

run windows in clean mode, see how that goes
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-boot-windows-10

 

[Colif]

Do you have fast startup turned on? If so, the PC is never off. Meaning when you restart it the next morning its waking up. It never refreshes ram unless you do the restart command in power options. I generally don't use it as its not as helpful on an ssd - https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4189-turn-off-fast-startup-windows-10-a.html

what Cleanmem app? Win 10 compresses programs into ram, it is counter productive to clean ram as then anything you might re open needs to load from storage and that is much slower than ram. Its smart enough to be able to move anything to storage if you should happen to run out of ram, but in top shot you still have 5gb free, its not like you are being squeezed. Free empty ram isn't useful.