Memory leak

Hey guys.


I recently re-installed my Windows 8.1 on my SSD.
Installed drivers, updated them and everything is fine.


But I am having a slight problem with memory not sure if it's a memory leak?








Basically sitting here with Google chrome open with 2 tabs open and the default Windows 8.1 programs running. I do not understand how 2gb of memory is being used.


I also play a Massive Multiplayer Online game called Wildstar that uses up 2gb of memory because it's such a big game.


I feel as though there's something up with my PC and there's something missing?


Can anyone help, thanks!

I don't see anything unusual or a cause for concern.

Adding up items in the memory usage columns will never equal total usage. It was never intended that it would. The screenshot does not show the full process usage which will typically be much higher. There are also some very significant users of memory that are not processes, not all of which are shown by Task Manager.

For what you have running 2 GB usage on an 8 GB system does not seem at all unusual. Also understand that memory usage in a modern OS is highly dynamic. Current usage might seem high but that is only because there is currently no better us for the memory. Memory was designed to be used, not sit idle. If a large application requires more memory the current usage will be automatically trimmed back, drastically if necessary.

Memory management in any modern OS is highly complex, far more so than most people imagine.

post up the picture of process explorer sorted by committed memory.. ha.

One thing about Windows, it will use all the RAM it can get, usually not a problem. But then if it or programs need more 'room' there's always the Virtual Memory.

You don't want free memory. Free memory is bad. It means your computer is wasting it and wasting your money.

You want all that extra memory to be filled with cached filesystem data, and other nice things. (which it is)

As for you inquiring about a memory leak...

A memory leak is one of the worst programming errors one can make.

Memory leaks when severe crash threads, potentially processes, rarely but sometimes (in the case of a kernel driver or similar) crash the operating system.

You shouldn't use the term memory leak, unless you know what it really is.

A memory leak is when a program doesn't properly release memory that it has allocated, after it has finished using it.

This is what a memory leak looks like in task manager.



The leak shown above.

I know this is counterintuitive but looking at physical memory usage is a poor way to detect a memory leak. You would be better off looking at the commit charge. Applications do not allocate physical memory at all but only their own virtual address space. This would be revealed in the commit charge but not necessarily in physical memory usage. This is always under control of the memory manager and is only effected indirectly by a memory leak. Many memory leaks, particularly if they are slow, may have no noticeable effect on RAM usage.

In this case there is no evidence of a memory leak. Actually there is no evidence of any problem at all. It is just that memory management in a modern OS is very complex and follows principles that are poorly understood by the public. This often leads to confusion and a belief that there are problems when none exist. The complexity is such that even many computer professionals do not understand basic concepts.