Question Why is my laptop using this much ram?

[rp231]

Hi! I have a gaming laptop (ROG STRIX) with 16 gigabytes of ram, but I've been checking my ram usage often and it shows numbers like 40-50% with nothing open except apps like Discord, Spotify, and my browser. I checked the users tab and it shows that my user is using only 2gb and that counts as 40%?? I have 16 gigabytes.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What is the exact model of your laptop?

Part of it will likely be reserved for the integrated graphics, which won't show up on that resource usage chart, and part will also likely simply be "hardware reserved". I don't know about 43% though.

What were you using to pull that data? Try using HWinfo. Install it, run "Sensors only". Make sure there is no check next to "Summary".

 

[rp231]

What is the exact model of your laptop?

Part of it will likely be reserved for the integrated graphics, which won't show up on that resource usage chart, and part will also likely simply be "hardware reserved". I don't know about 43% though.

What were you using to pull that data? Try using HWinfo. Install it, run "Sensors only". Make sure there is no check next to "Summary".

Hey! Thank you for the quick response, I did exactly what you told me to do and here is what I found on HWINFO. I have basically no idea what these readings mean but it's definitly using more RAM then it shows in the task manager, is there anyway to reduce this or is this needed to run the system?

By the way, my laptop model is the Rog Strix G17 (G713QM)

 

[Darkbreeze]

What Windows version are you running?

It's probably correct especially if you've installed any software that runs in the background along with the normal Windows processes. With only HWinfo, one Firefox tab and Clipboard manager running, I'm using like about 7100 MB of memory myself, so you're not far off from that from what I see there.

Even with nothing open except HWinfo I'm using about 5000+ MB in Windows 11.

 

[rp231]

What Windows version are you running?

It's probably correct especially if you've installed any software that runs in the background along with the normal Windows processes. With only HWinfo, one Firefox tab and Clipboard manager running, I'm using like about 7100 MB of memory myself, so you're not far off from that from what I see there.

Even with nothing open except HWinfo I'm using about 5000+ MB in Windows 11.

Yeah, I can see how it can be normalized, I guess there's nothing to worry about, However, it leads me to questions like if I'm using 7000 gigabytes, how does my friend with a gaming pavillion with only 8 gigabytes not suffer? I am running Windows 11 22H2 by the way.

 

[Darkbreeze]

So, Windows has gotten very good at memory management compared to past iterations of Windows. And, that's not to say that maybe there isn't something hogging some memory somewhere, but in that comparison at least you have to understand that at least to a point, the more memory that is available to Windows and applications/games, the more Windows (again, to a point) will allocate to it. So you could have a system where running a specific set of tasks, with an 8GB memory configuration, the system is using only 6GB of RAM, but, put 16GB of RAM in that same system running that same set of tasks and Windows might allocate 8 or 10GB for the same exact processes.

What's the difference? One of the system is going to complete it's tasks faster, smoother or simply more background tasks at one time, than the other system. Windows tends to not allocate more RAM than it reasonably can based on what's installed so that it has enough to leave a buffer when possible. If there is more available, it can allocate more without fear of running short on memory.