Question New memory, random freezing and high mem usage

[jfelano]

I have a B450M motherboard and I have been using G.SKILL Value Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200) for the last 2.5 years. I always have at least 50 Chrome tabs open when working so my mem usage was always around 95% and I would get random freezes for a few seconds, which I attributed to the lack of available memory so.......

I decided to upgrade to Geil Orion AMD edition 16GB (2x8GB) 288-pin DDR4 3000 (PC4-24000).

First problem I had is my bios sees one was 2800 and the other as 2933. I set them both to 2933 and the voltage stated on the package and everything works. However with the same 50 Chrome tabs open I'm still at 95% mem usage and I'm also experiencing longer, random 10-15 second freezes where I cannot click on anything.

Did I buy the right memory? Shouldn't they both be 2933 or 3000mhz? Why after doubling memory I'm still at 95% mem usage? Should I return the memory?

 

[jfelano]

Oh and I ran Windows 10 Memory diagnostic and it said everything was good.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I'm still at 95% mem usage and I'm also experiencing longer, random 10-15 second freezes where I cannot click on anything.

That sounds like a background app or web browser misbehaving.

Does that system have a HDD or an SSD for the OS drive? If you have a SATA HDD anywhere in the system, and it is in the process of "gracefully failing", it may start to become unresponsive, and that may trigger the system to "pause" until the drive is Ready again for a command.

Likewise, even with an SSD, with sufficient memory pressure (spilling over into virtual memory on the SSD), it can cause similar episodes of "pausing".

Generally, though, if it's the latter, adding more DRAM will alleviate the memory pressure, unless your workloads change to match the newer, larger amount of DRAM.

I did have 32GB in this 6C/12T Ryzen box. When I upgraded to a 12C/24T 5900X, I also upgraded to 64GB of DDR4-3200.

 

[jfelano]

I have one SSD only.

I shouldn't need more than 8GB of ram, period for my office computer, nothings changed, I do the same work I've done for 10 years.

It doesn't make sense that I doubled my ram and still have 95% usage with the same amount of tabs open.

 

[Shmee]

You could try running memtest86 to make sure the memory is stable at those speeds, but I suspect a software memory leak of some sort. Possibly chrome related, or it could be malware. It could also be another hardware issue, such as the SSD or even CPU.

 

[VirtualLarry]

It doesn't make sense that I doubled my ram and still have 95% usage with the same amount of tabs open.

Well, it sort-of does. Maybe. Unused RAM is wasted RAM, Windows tries to "use up" as much RAM as possible, by using the portion unused by the system and applications, as a filesystem read cache.

Normally, thought, that doesn't slow anything down, if anything, it speeds it up. It can be flushed (or portions thereof) in an instant, if an application requests memory allocation.

What is your "Commit Charge", in Task Manager, under Memory tab. That would tell us if you're actually using more virtual memory than you have physical RAM for.

Are you mining in the background, by any chance?

 

[jfelano]

You could try running memtest86 to make sure the memory is stable at those speeds, but I suspect a software memory leak of some sort. Possibly chrome related, or it could be malware. It could also be another hardware issue, such as the SSD or even CPU.

Cpu? How?

Anyways I closed all the tabs and with just one chrome tab open my usage is 24%. No freezing or anything.

Is it normal for usage to be that high with a fresh reboot and 1 chrome tab open?

 

[jfelano]

Well, it sort-of does. Maybe. Unused RAM is wasted RAM, Windows tries to "use up" as much RAM as possible, by using the portion unused by the system and applications, as a filesystem read cache.

Normally, thought, that doesn't slow anything down, if anything, it speeds it up. It can be flushed (or portions thereof) in an instant, if an application requests memory allocation.

What is your "Commit Charge", in Task Manager, under Memory tab. That would tell us if you're actually using more virtual memory than you have physical RAM for.

Are you mining in the background, by any chance?

No I'm not mining in the background......LOL

I closed all the tabs, did a fresh reboot and opened 1 google chrome tab and my usage is 25%. Should it be that high?

With 1 chrome tab open it say's 3.5/13.9 GB (25%) on the mem tab, then it say's "in use 3.2" and "10.5 available" then "committed 4.8/26.9 GB"

26.9 GB?? I don't understand.

 

[jfelano]

One thing is for sure though, I doubled my system memory and my memory usage did not go down at all, regardless of how many tabs I have open.

Isn't there something wrong with that? And nobody seems to be bothered that I bought a 3000mhz memory kit and one stick shows 2800 and the other 2933.....isn't there something wrong with that too??

I kinda need to know if I should return the memory and just use my old kit as it worked just as well if not better.

 

[jfelano]

Ok so I decided to RMA the memory. I put my old 8gb kit back in and it's working great, no freezes whatsoever.

So what I discovered is this set of ram (2400mhz) also shows unmatched sticks in bios, with one stick showing 2133 and the other 2400. So either this is the norm or my bios is messed up.

Either way, running at 2400 like before and no issues.

 

[VirtualLarry]

So what I discovered is this set of ram (2400mhz) also shows unmatched sticks in bios, with one stick showing 2133 and the other 2400. So either this is the norm or my bios is messed up.

I'm not sure what you are using to read out that info.

Use CPU-Z in Windows, tell us what "Memory Frequency" is under the Memory tab. THAT IS the speed that your DRAM array (both channels, AFAIK) is running at. You cannot run one DIMM at one frequency, and one at another.

If you look on the next tab, labeled "SPD", that's the pre-programmed speeds on the DIMM, for each slot. Those are potential speeds to set your DRAM to in BIOS. They may be different, for different slots, if you have mis-matched DIMMs. They should not be different, if you have a matched vendor set.

 

[Shmee]

Cpu? How?

Anyways I closed all the tabs and with just one chrome tab open my usage is 24%. No freezing or anything.

Is it normal for usage to be that high with a fresh reboot and 1 chrome tab open?

An unstable CPU or memory controller (on the CPU with Ryzens and many modern CPUs) could cause odd issues. I wouldn't suspect it to be the first issue though. You should run memtest86 to test the memory. As for high memory usage, this could be due to malware, or just Windows 11 being "high maintenance."

 

[jfelano]

I'm not sure what you are using to read out that info.

Use CPU-Z in Windows, tell us what "Memory Frequency" is under the Memory tab. THAT IS the speed that your DRAM array (both channels, AFAIK) is running at. You cannot run one DIMM at one frequency, and one at another.

If you look on the next tab, labeled "SPD", that's the pre-programmed speeds on the DIMM, for each slot. Those are potential speeds to set your DRAM to in BIOS. They may be different, for different slots, if you have mis-matched DIMMs. They should not be different, if you have a matched vendor set.

Oh boy...this is a case of someone replying without reading the original post.....

I've been building my own pc's since 1997, I'm well aware you can't run dimms at different speeds.....why do you think they sell MEMORY KITS??? I clearly stated the spec's of BOTH KITS in my first post.

I also clearly stated I was reading this in the BIOS.

On the kit I removed, dimm1 showed 2800 and the dimm2 showed 2933. On the old kit dimm1 shows 2133 and dimm2 shows 2400. I clearly stated this and nobody thought that was odd.

.....and CPU-Z is only going to show what I have it SET TO in the bios which WAS 2933 and NOW 2400......it's not going to show the factory dimm speed......

 

[jfelano]

Not sure why it posted twice but no way to delete this. Why would there be no way to delete a post?

Oh and please don't reply unless you have read my FIRST post.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

On the kit I removed, dimm1 showed 2800 and the dimm2 showed 2933. On the old kit dimm1 shows 2133 and dimm2 shows 2400. I clearly stated this and nobody thought that was odd.

If that's what's stated on the DIMMs physical labels, you've been had/cheated. Those are not matched kits if the DIMMs themselves are labelled different. A factory matched kit will have identically labelled DIMMs and the DIMMs will be physically identical.

Besides, if one DIMM is labelled 2133MHz, that's all it's good for. Anything above rated SPD/XMP(AMP) is technically overclocking, and completely unsupported by the manufacturer. You can be lucky the DIMMs work at above rated speed and timings, but that's down to pure luck.

 

[UsandThem]

Oh and please don't reply unless you have read my FIRST post.

When you ask for free help, you might get some answers/suggestions you might not like.

However, there's no need for this. This also tends to make users not bother with your post.

 

[VirtualLarry]

On the kit I removed, dimm1 showed 2800 and the dimm2 showed 2933. On the old kit dimm1 shows 2133 and dimm2 shows 2400. I clearly stated this and nobody thought that was odd.

I'd like to see a screenshot, or cell-phone pic of what you're seeing, because the odds of getting TWO memory "kits" that are unmatched, is pretty slim.

I'm still thinking that you're reading something incorrectly. And that the "pausing" has nothing (directly) to do with the RAM.

 

[bigboxes]

No I'm not mining in the background......LOL

I closed all the tabs, did a fresh reboot and opened 1 google chrome tab and my usage is 25%. Should it be that high?

With 1 chrome tab open it say's 3.5/13.9 GB (25%) on the mem tab, then it say's "in use 3.2" and "10.5 available" then "committed 4.8/26.9 GB"

26.9 GB?? I don't understand.

I have 32GB of ram in my system. I just loaded up 50 tabs in Firefox. i had never had 50 tabs open at once. I think that low 30s was my previous record. With 50 tabs open, I am using 48% of my ram. If I only had 16GB then I suppose that I'd be at 96%. I'd say it's not good to bump to the edge of your capacity when it comes to storage, long term and short term. I used to have problems with stability when having many tabs open in the past. But that was with Windows 7. Maybe FF has improved it's stability in recent years. I'm not sure. Windows 10 seems incredibly stable.

 

[jfelano]

If that's what's stated on the DIMMs physical labels, you've been had/cheated. Those are not matched kits if the DIMMs themselves are labelled different. A factory matched kit will have identically labelled DIMMs and the DIMMs will be physically identical.

Besides, if one DIMM is labelled 2133MHz, that's all it's good for. Anything above rated SPD/XMP(AMP) is technically overclocking, and completely unsupported by the manufacturer. You can be lucky the DIMMs work at above rated speed and timings, but that's down to pure luck.

Factory memory kits from Newegg.

 

[jfelano]

I'd like to see a screenshot, or cell-phone pic of what you're seeing, because the odds of getting TWO memory "kits" that are unmatched, is pretty slim.

I'm still thinking that you're reading something incorrectly. And that the "pausing" has nothing (directly) to do with the RAM.

I don't need to prove to you what my bios shows. If you don't believe me, too bad. These are factory memory kits purchased at newegg.

Apparently the odds are very high.

 

[jfelano]

Anyways I RMA'd the 16GB kit and I'm back to using the old 8GB kit and I'm not having any issues at all for a couple day's now.

I think that memory was bad or it just wouldn't run at 2933, even though advertised as 3000.