Windows 8: Never uses all of my memory

nikoo21

New Member
Messages
2
Hi,

Below is a screenshot of my task manager. I have no idea why my machine does not use all of its RAM even though it knows the full 12GB are there, nor how long it has been doing this, but I think since I purchased the laptop.

It is running windows 8 and I have not updated to 8.1, could an update make any difference? I assume there may just be a setting somewhere but have no idea where

Any help is appreciated, and sorry if I missed any details.

54583-never-uses-all-my-memory-mem.png


54584-never-uses-all-my-memory-spec.png
 

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Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I don't think one wants ALL the memory being used.
That might lead to a freeze up.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Maybe not all

But it's using half all the time, wouldn't an increase to 10GB speed up the entire machine significantly?

Edit:
Actually, it occasionally does freeze up because it's using 6GB as the maximum, it never goes over what it's currently showing, but does go below when not required
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I have no idea how to force a computer to use more RAM.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
You can run a benchmark program and follow RAM usage while it's working.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I have 6GB of RAM and my ram usage display looks just like yours (percentage-wise) all the time. I have tried starting multiple programs yet the approx. 50% usage never budges. I think the display is a fake by MS. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 consumer 64 bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire M5 481PT-6644
    CPU
    Intel Core I5
    Memory
    6 GB
    Hard Drives
    Spinning/SSD hybrid 500GB/20GB
    Mouse
    ELAN Trackpad
    Internet Speed
    18mbs/5mbs
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
I have 6GB of RAM and my ram usage display looks just like yours (percentage-wise) all the time. I have tried starting multiple programs yet the approx. 50% usage never budges. I think the display is a fake by MS. :)
Don't forget abut swap file, windows is writing to disk some of it. Kill PF if you have enough physical memory and see than.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Also, something like a game might use quite a bit while playing but when you quit the game, the memory is freed up again. You go to task manager and it looks like it was never used.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
To me 54% is a lot being used, unless like popeye saying running a game. Is this when it is idle ? Your concerned about it using more RAM and why is doesn't, meanwhile it's using kind of a lot of RAM in your pic. I am here on internet on Firefox mine is using 9%, 1.4GB of 16GB.
Think you need check what is running on your PC be little more concerned why it is using so much at once, unless you know.Rather then being concerned how to use it all. Check startup tab in task manager.

Check your Pagefile ,right click Windows start button, select System, then Advanced System Settings, then click Settings and Advanced Tab. See how much Virtual Memory it is using as could be this.

Some possible reasons for crashing.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme 1502 (GX1502)
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 5820K 3.30 GHZ 64 bit 6-Core Processor
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte GA-X99-UD3
    Memory
    G.Skill 16GB Quad Channel DDR4-2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0+ DDR5 4GB
    Sound Card
    Creative Sound Blaster ZxR 5.1
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS PA24Q 24" Pro Art IPS LCD/LED Backlit 1920x1200
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1200 16:10
    Hard Drives
    SAMSUNG 850 EVO 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    Crucial MX100 512GB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD,
    WD WD10EZEX-00RKKA0 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 3.5 Internal HDD
    PSU
    EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2 750W 80 Plus Gold Full Modular
    Case
    AZZA Cosmas Black Gaming Case
    Cooling
    Cool Master Hyper 212 Evo Dual 120mm, ( 2) Noctua PWM 120mm Case Fans (1) Gelid PWM 120mm Blue LED
    Keyboard
    Logitech K800 Illumiated Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball
    Internet Speed
    84mbps /94mbps
    Browser
    Mozilla Firefox 41.0.1 / Microsoft Edge/ IE 11
    Antivirus
    Norton Security 2015
    Other Info
    Pioneer BDR-209DBK 16x Blu-Ray Burner, LG 24x Dual Layer DVD Burner,
    StarTech Front Bay 22-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Multi Media Memory Card Reader,Logitech Z906 5.1 Speaker system
There is nothing to worry about. The OS actually uses relatively little RAM. On systems with a lot of RAM, most is used for caching (Standby). But for that you have to have run a lot of programs.

My currnet use of the 8GB is 2GB for the OS and 1.5GB for caching - after running all day. More than half of my 8GB is currently unused. I have really only seen it all used when I run a couple of virtual machines on top of the OS.

2014-11-30_1703.png
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
^Off what whs said,

12GB is often more than a computer will use. RAM is not your processor. Your processor will often spike to 100%, and back down, and around...
But RAM depends on the application/system. It rarely fluctuates (much), so with a lot of RAM, it just means you are ready for more Memory sucking applications to be open at the same time. 4-6GB often does the trick (for fast systems), and 8GB may be perfect for heavy gaming. I bought my computer when I was naïve, so I have 16GB with 8% in use, up to about 12... lol

XBOX One comes with 8 GB Ram... you can also buy faster RAM...

I'm not saying more RAM is BAD, just most of the time you won't (ever) use it all. :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3820 CPU OC @ 3.80GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1.Assassin2
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 16GB Quad Channel DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia by EVGA - GeForce GTX 670 4GB
    Sound Card
    On board Creative SB X-Fi
    Monitor(s) Displays
    acer 24" H243H
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    Main 500GB Hybrid Drive @ 7,200RPM
    Secondary OCZ SSD Vertex 3 Max IOPS
    PSU
    Silent Pro 1000w gold 80+
    Case
    Azza Hurrican 2000
    Cooling
    Liquid CPU cooler & fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000
    Mouse
    Tek Republic Wired Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    5ms Ping 5.15Mb/s Download .64Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer
    Antivirus
    Defender, Malwarebytes
I wish I had 16GB. Then I could run all my virtual partitions in parallel.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
I wish I had 16GB. Then I could run all my virtual partitions in parallel.

Remember the oft criticized "XP Mode" with Windows 7? I used that for a moment till I realized I hated XP, and there were better ways to get XP in a virtual environment.

If you'd like to borrow my RAM sometime, I've little use for it ... :D
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3820 CPU OC @ 3.80GHz
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte G1.Assassin2
    Memory
    Corsair Dominator 16GB Quad Channel DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia by EVGA - GeForce GTX 670 4GB
    Sound Card
    On board Creative SB X-Fi
    Monitor(s) Displays
    acer 24" H243H
    Screen Resolution
    1920 X 1080
    Hard Drives
    Main 500GB Hybrid Drive @ 7,200RPM
    Secondary OCZ SSD Vertex 3 Max IOPS
    PSU
    Silent Pro 1000w gold 80+
    Case
    Azza Hurrican 2000
    Cooling
    Liquid CPU cooler & fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000
    Mouse
    Tek Republic Wired Laser Mouse
    Internet Speed
    5ms Ping 5.15Mb/s Download .64Mb/s Upload
    Browser
    Internet Explorer
    Antivirus
    Defender, Malwarebytes
I see nothing unusual or cause for concern in either screenshot. I wouldn't change anything. It is all a matter of proper interpretation.

The 54% usage reported is rather misleading in that it doesn't account for all usage. It was never meant to. Look at the "Memory composition" display in either screenshot. The item that is second from the right is the standby list. This is not part of the 54% but is very much in use. It acts as a kind of cache and is a major contributor to overall system performance. Only the rightmost item is free and doing nothing. This is less than 1/6 of the total or about 15%. In actuality more than 10 GB is being put to a useful purpose. In a system with 12 GB RAM that is good by all normal standards.

The ideal would be zero free memory at all times. But we are not there yet. At the present time there is no OS in use that can achieve this at all times, particularly in systems with a large amount of memory. With 12 GB RAM it takes a very heavy workload to achieve this. The reason why full usage is not reported is that in systems with 4 GB and less RAM usage would approach 100% much of the time. This obviously would not be very useful. But the portion shown is by no means arbitrary but very closely defined. But it is not simple and I will not attempt to describe it.

Without much more information (which would take considerable effort to provide) there is no way to tell if the current usage is "normal". That is if "normal" has any real meaning, which I would question. There are a large number of legitimate explanations for the usage being what it is. Memory management in any modern OS is enormously complex, such that even many computer professionals do not understand even the basic concepts.

Edit: Within reasonable limits adding memory will improve performance. But there is always a point of diminishing returns where adding more memory provides little benefit. That point is heavily dependent on the workload but is typically between 4 and 8 GB. When running multiple virtual machines it can be much higher. With 4 GB RAM running even 1 modern OS in a virtual machine is constraining to either the host, client, or both. My experience tends toward the latter.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
There is this common misbelief that a lot of RAM will make a system run faster. There are few circumstances (e.g. CAD or Video encoding) where that is true. For normal bread and butter applications 4GB are completly sufficient with 6GB or 8GB as 'nice to have'. And going from 7 to 8.1 to 10 it looks like the footprints are getting smaller.

If you look for performance, it is usually better to invest into a good SSD than into acres of RAM.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
There might be some other benefits of having more physical RAM but up to a point. With a slower HDD, if you have more RAM you can turn PF off so it would do less swapping to disk. You can also make a ramdisk to use as scratch file for some programs and so speed them up. Photoshop for instance, makes use of scratch files a lot. Autocad too. There are other uses for ramdisk, like for temp files, even PF in some cases. Of course there is a price to be payed for that, longer boot time, having to set programs to do that etc., but once you start working with it, it may make a difference. SSDs made ramdisk almost passe though but there could be some uses for ramdisk still.
In normal use, 1GB of RAM per processor core is about minimum with 2GB per core I (and many others) have found to be a "sweet spot".
Large games (for now) that require 8GB are somewhat different "animal" bat rarely will somebody use such a game and do some normal work at same time, so even in that case some 8GB of RAM should be more than enough.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Where does page file come into play ?

Virtural memory should play a part in memory usage,?

Perhaps one could speak about this RAM/pagefile relationship ? :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
Virtual memory, paging file can be set to ramdisk so it runs in memory instead on HDD. Drawback: takes longer to BOOT as it has to set ramdisk first and set PF on it.
Used to do that many moons ago, when HDDs were really slow, largely outdated with SSDs.
A program like this can make it easier to set up: https://www.softperfect.com/products/ramdisk/
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
i have only 4G ram ,and my ram used 56 percents too, maybe its the windows merchanic that keep a half of ram usaged to keep the system stablely to run.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
i have only 4G ram ,and my ram used 56 percents too, maybe its the windows merchanic that keep a half of ram usaged to keep the system stablely to run.

There is no mechanism in Windows to use only 50% of memory. In this case it is simply coincidence. In the screenshot in post #10 the usage is about 25% and I have seen less. My system has 4 GB RAM and usage is currently at 73% (with a virtual machine and a number of programs running) and I have seen it higher. On an old computer I have running Windows 2000 with 256 MB RAM I have seen it over 95%.

Windows will always try to maintain a reasonable value for available memory, but always considering the needs of applications. The goal in Windows memory management is to provide the best overall system performance, not to maintain some arbitrary percentage or value for available memory.

As I said in my previous post this is enormously complex.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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