Why such high memory usage?

[jfelano]

I recently installed Win8 64bit. Sometimes the computer runs fine but other times it's real slow. When I hit task manager it says I'm using 87% of my memory, just at the desktop, so when I try to open things it's very slow.

I have 64bit Win8 and 8GB of ram. Any ideas?

 

[dma0991]

Check task manager to identify specifically what is using most of the memory. It shouldn't take up more RAM than W7 should. W8 on my virtual machine is set to 3GB max, so 87% usage or nearly 7GB of RAM is very unusual.

 

[blastingcap]

Just because the OS reserves a large % of RAM doesn't mean it's actually using it. Windows will let go of RAM if something else needs it. http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/07/21/3092070.aspx

Slowness may be due to other factors, like storage device (HDDs slower than SSDs in small file transfers and random access times, for instance), CPU, etc.

 

[jfelano]

Well usually it's around 10%, but sometimes it goes to 90% for no particular reason and then it get's real slow. Right now while I'm typing this it's at 19%. There is no one thing in task manager using all up, it's a combination of all kinds of programs.


I don't get why it does this.

 

[dmoney1980]

Is this a fresh OS install, or did you upgrade from W7? how many processes are you running at the desktop?

 

[Revolution 11]

I have sometimes experienced high CPU loads but the load is on the System Idle process. If the load is on other processes, you might have too many of them. Use the Services tab in Control Panel's Administrative Tools or the command "msconfig" in Run to turn off startup items and services you don't need.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well usually it's around 10%, but sometimes it goes to 90% for no particular reason and then it get's real slow. Right now while I'm typing this it's at 19%. There is no one thing in task manager using all up, it's a combination of all kinds of programs.


I don't get why it does this.

I wonder if Win8 is running defrag or indexing service? I know running defrag (on a secondary drive only?) in Win7 would take up pretty-much all of the RAM. I hope MS fixes that bug in Win7's defrag, but I fear they never will.

 

[jfelano]

I have sometimes experienced high CPU loads but the load is on the System Idle process. If the load is on other processes, you might have too many of them. Use the Services tab in Control Panel's Administrative Tools or the command "msconfig" in Run to turn off startup items and services you don't need.

Yeah that has nothing to do with memory usage.

 

[jfelano]

I wonder if Win8 is running defrag or indexing service? I know running defrag (on a secondary drive only?) in Win7 would take up pretty-much all of the RAM. I hope MS fixes that bug in Win7's defrag, but I fear they never will.

I don't know, but most of the time it's fine, then sometimes I'll try to do something and I'm like what is taking so long and I check task manager and it'll say 80% of my memory is being used, so I'm like???

Haven't figured it out yet. I have noticed though that when it's running normal while I'm on the web, say 15% memory usage, most of the memory usage is 5 instances of Chrome.exe running that's using the mojority, but obviously that's not the problem. I just wonder why task manager shows 5 instances of Chrome.exe.

 

[Nothinman]

Most of your memory being used is a good thing, not using it would be a waste. My work Win7 VM is at 65%, according to taskmgr, after a fresh bootup with only a few apps running. I'm betting the memory usage is a red herring and you have some other issue.

 

[jfelano]

The memory usage thing only happens occasionally, I just can't figure it out**

Nobody seems to know why I have 6 instances of Chrome**exe running under "background processes" and another Chrome**exe running under "apps"**

 

[Nothinman]

Sure they can@#@# Chrome has 1 process per-tab and I believe per-plugin because of the sandboxing@#@# I've currently got 34 chrome processes@#@#

 

[dma0991]

I've been using and monitoring my W8 VM for a while and it hovers around 600-700MB doing nothing. There are no memory spikes either. Everything seems to be at a constant low, never more than 30% usage of 3GB with one instance of Firefox running.

 

[Nothinman]

I've been using and monitoring my W8 VM for a while and it hovers around 600-700MB doing nothing. There are no memory spikes either. Everything seems to be at a constant low, never more than 30% usage of 3GB with one instance of Firefox running.

I would say use that low seems odd unless it's just after a bootup. All modern OSes use pretty aggressive caching for filesystem and will get up around 90% after some usage, regardless of whether or not you close apps out. Task manager in my Win7 VM says it has 767M free out of 3G allocated with 748M cached and the graph lists 74% as used.

 

[dma0991]

I would say use that low seems odd unless it's just after a bootup. All modern OSes use pretty aggressive caching for filesystem and will get up around 90% after some usage, regardless of whether or not you close apps out. Task manager in my Win7 VM says it has 767M free out of 3G allocated with 748M cached and the graph lists 74% as used.

Never encountered such heavy memory usage. Even with my main W7 host OS, usage over an extended period of time have never exceeded 50%(unless I turn on 1-2 VM) of my 8GB according to the graph/percentage. Current usage is around 1.7GB(~22%) and an up time of 16 hours on my W7.

 

[Nothinman]

Never encountered such heavy memory usage. Even with my main W7 host OS, usage over an extended period of time have never exceeded 50%(unless I turn on 1-2 VM) of my 8GB according to the graph/percentage. Current usage is around 1.7GB(~22%) and an up time of 16 hours on my W7.

Then you're somehow excluding some of the real usage (e.g. caches) or something odd is going on with your machines.

 

[Ketchup]

Got a couple (ok, a few) things for you to check:
When you say 87%, are you talking about the 'in use' section toward the bottom of the page?
Is windows showing that it sees all 8 GB?
When the computer gets slow, is it slamming the hard drive like crazy?
What items on the processes tab show the highest number on memory usage?
What antivirus do you use?
Is it trying to do a scan when it gets slow?

 

[jfelano]

87% of total system memory.

Yes windows see's 8GB of ram.

No the hdd doesn't go like crazy.

Memory usage is spread out all over the place.

I have Windows 8, I'm running Defender and Security Essentials by default as I was recommended to do from this forum.

Just got done playing BF3 multiplayer for 3hrs straight, memory usage never went above 37%.

I guess it does something after bootup that uses so much memory cause the usage goes back to 15% after a while even when I'm online.

 

[Ketchup]

87% of total system memory.

Yes windows see's 8GB of ram.

No the hdd doesn't go like crazy.

Memory usage is spread out all over the place.

I have Windows 8, I'm running Defender and Security Essentials by default as I was recommended to do from this forum.

Just got done playing BF3 multiplayer for 3hrs straight, memory usage never went above 37%.

I guess it does something after bootup that uses so much memory cause the usage goes back to 15% after a while even when I'm online.

Ok, good stuff. Sounds like a service, such as windows search or system protection, might be slowing you down. Can we assume you performed a virus/spyware scan recently? Is the slowness usually close to startup?

 

[jfelano]

Yes the slowness if right after startup**

Windows 8 scans once a week** I don't have to manually do it, but I did anyways, nothing found**

 

[Ketchup]

Yes the slowness if right after startup**

Windows 8 scans once a week** I don't have to manually do it, but I did anyways, nothing found**

Is that just a quick scan or a full scan? Malwarebytes' Anti-malware is another good program to scan with (full scan)** The free version works fine unless you want it to automatically scan once a week like Windows does**

Having said that, your 'issue' sounds like the way windows is** Windows 7 does similar to what you have described** It brings up the desktop, icons, and start menu before it is actually ready to rock and roll** Might help to run msconfig and see if there is anything in there you don't need**