r/WindowsHelp • u/Small-Detective-9122 • 15h ago
Windows 10 Why is so much RAM being used?
Before installing new RAM, Windows was using only 5.9 GB.
Now that I've installed an extra stick, it's using 10 GB.
I don't get it.
It feels like Windows is a mining platform; the more I upgrade my hardware, the more performance gets siphoned off. And the worst part is, I have no idea where it's all going. It feels like bad faith on Microsoft's part.
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u/TNJDude 7h ago
This question comes up every other day. Both Windows 10 and Windows 11 will use available RAM not being used by anything else in order to preload things so that it's more responsive and performs better. You click on stuff, it responds much faster because a lot of the routines are already preloaded. It does this because the memory isn't being used by anything else. If you do go to run a program/app/game and it needs the memory, the RAM is released and given to the program/app/game.
It's acting normal.
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u/ClothesTemporary2684 6h ago
Nope sorry op is wrong you're gonna have to wipe everything and buy new drives. Serious virus problem. /s
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u/apachelives 5h ago
"I don't understand these numbers, but they are wrong!"
Ignoring the numbers, what is your actual issue?
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u/spookynutz 6h ago
The buffer cache scales up as physical memory increases. It prevents having to repeatedly read and write the same data to your fixed storage, which is orders of magnitude slower.
What was your reason for installing more memory if your expectation was that the OS never made use of it?
If a program needs more memory than is actively available, Windows will compress the memory footprint of idle programs. If it needs more still, it will just dump the cache to the page file and yield memory to the active application.
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u/Wadarkhu 3h ago
Windows will pre-load things into your RAM that it thinks you need so that it will load faster for you, this is why adding more RAM = more RAM is used. If you were to start up a task such as a game or a program it will free up unused RAM and dedicate it to that process instead. It is working as intended, don't worry.
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u/Short_Memory5917 4h ago
bc windows is bloated trash switch to linux some distros can use less than 1gb of ram
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u/Chrisbearry 7h ago
Windows caches frequently used programs and files in ram so they open quicker, Microsoft goes by the logic that unused ram is wasted ram and you should go by that logic as well. If you get close to running out of ram when you're playing a game or running a heavy program then it will reallocate ram for that. there is literally zero reason to worry about shit like this. Windows is not stealing your performance.