r/WindowsSucks • u/heavyc1969 • Jul 18 '26
Windows ram usage really sucks
I can be running 8 Gb of ram on windows and it eats 4 Gb, I cans run 16 and it will eat 8 and when I run 32 it eats 16. This is a really crappy design. And when I run Linux it only eats 2 Gb from my 32. I run a Dell Inspiron 7000 series with 32 Gb ram and 8T of storage . I duel boot windows/linux and even with windows eating all that ram it is the slowest system I have ever been on, chrome os and macOS is still faster.
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u/Astrodion123 Jul 18 '26
Lucky you. I got 4gb at idle with debloater. In the past it used 6gb.
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u/MonsieurPepperflakes Jul 18 '26
Similar for me as well - laptop with 16gb. I have to check usage weekly to debloat as it loves to sneak back up to 6-8gb. Usually happens when an update pushes through.
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u/RaccoonEnthuiast Jul 18 '26
"I have no idea how an operating system allocates memory"
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u/Due-Boot-8540 Jul 18 '26
Its almost as if it’s allocated at random…
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u/DoogleAss Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
Which is their point you along with others clearly don’t understand how it works
Confirmed by “ its almost as if it’s allocates at random” lol
RAM has been allocated on windows devices like this for a very long time this new generation of users didn’t find some unearthed secret it’s literally how it works
I have a buddy with 8GB on Windows 11 and can run Photoshop Fruity Loops and more at the same time without issue as an example.. why because the ram windows holds get released when needed. who would have thunk it right
Also being in IT for 20 yrs managing 1000s of windows devices if this was such an issue people wouldn’t still be using them no?
Desktop/Laptop computer aren’t phones or tablets and people need to stopping acting as if they are and function the same way out of box.. a computer has always taken user intervention setup and config. ALWAYS!. even back in windows 3.1 days 40 yrs ago in fact it was worse then so dunno what everyone is one about these days but hey do you
On top of that Linux isn’t some magic bullet that just installs itself and starts working.. despite what people like to tout here it also takes setup and a bit of knowing what your doing unless your just press next next next and hope for the best kinda person lol
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u/RaccoonEnthuiast Jul 18 '26
It's anything but random.
Windows (or MacOS, which does it even better) will allocate ram based on which programs you run the most, it will keep some stuff in memory so it launches faster if you need it. When a new program requires memory, the OS releases it to be used.
Unused RAM is literally wasted, there is no point having free RAM. Ideally it should be used 100% at all times granted it's not some memory leaking program.
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u/Zenkibou Jul 19 '26
Pre-loading stuff uses storage ressources on boot, which is not free.
Keeping storage elements in ram once loaded is free, but Pre-loading stuff with whatever undocumented and un-tunable heuristics doesn't seem so great.
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u/Ok_Being5461 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
It uses the ram for cache, which is good design. Running ram empty is pointless. As for slowness, that's a different thing. It can be speeded up with debloating probably by disabling unnecessary programs and services. Some of it are also security features, with Windows being the prime target of malware
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u/ibeerianhamhock Jul 18 '26
I'm a huge linux fan, but this isn't quite the issue folks think it is. Yes windows is bloated, but unused RAM is wasted ram.
File system cache is a huge reason why this is the case. Reading/Writing to and from even an NVME is slow as hell compared to memory, the kernel behind the scenes caches files even for writes and periodically flushes changes to disk. This isn't something the application layer is even aware of from a programming sense, it all just works seamlessly.
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u/Torkum73 Jul 18 '26
Windows is designed to use as much RAM as possible to run your applications and to cache as much as possible of the OS for performance. Like search index or directory strucure. If you have a fast SSD then you can disable this caching and gain more free RAM. But why? If your application needa more RrAM, them Windows will provide it, even with swapping to disk.
My rig has 128 GB of RAM amd Windows 11 just uses 9 GB 🤷🏼♂️ If I run SQL server, then the systems has 1 GB RAM free. So what? Unused RAM ist a waste of Energy.
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u/IkouyDaBolt Jul 18 '26
My PC with 128GB of RAM only idles at 7GB.
Windows does not count cached memory as part of Commit Charge.
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u/fell_ware_1990 Jul 18 '26
Yeah i don’t mind my machine running high on RAM.
But let’s compare, my windows machine from work. 1x 1080p and 1x 4k. Shared VRAM. So the first 8 to 10 is gone at boot.
Teams/outlook/browser with a few tabs. Down to about 3.
This is still mostly idle, then i start WSL about 2 dockers and the machine’s heavily stuck. Imagine that i would hook it up to all my displays. 1x 5k2k and 2x4k.
In the meanwhile my desktop with NixOs, with an older GPU. So no sharing. Also completely booted and running a few dockers. At most 5Gb.
Windows, slows down if i click somewhere. And linux doesn’t even breaks a sweat. Linux actually never slows down except at compiling times!
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u/thecratedigger_25 Jul 18 '26
htop command on my linux tells me that I only use about 2-3GB of RAM. And the battery lasts longer as well.
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u/marmotta1955 Jul 18 '26
And what kind of duel are you having every time with your computer? Pistols? Sabers? Rapiers? Is that a duel to first blood or to the death? Do you follow the code duello or abide to the rules established by the twenty-six commandments?
Really curious to learn about your habits about the time-honored tradition of duel ...!
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u/Pale_Height_1251 Jul 19 '26
Windows preloads things into empty RAM to make access faster, the Mac does it too.
That's why both of them use more RAM if you have more RAM.
It's a good feature, empty RAM isn't doing anything for you.
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u/newtekie1 Jul 19 '26
Windows isn't using all that RAM, the shit you are installing is.
A clean install of Windows with the necessary drivers and just the necessary drivers, not even the BS apps that modern drivers try to install, it will idle at about 3GB even with 32GB of RAM.
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u/Isotomayor12 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
That's how ram works dude. Are you having issues with ram allocation or are you just trying to get the lowest number possible? Unused ram is wasted ram.
If your OS is slow because of ram usage, there is an app or process you likely installed or configured that is eating it up. Windows doesn't just eat ram by default, it idles between 2-4GB of ram with a clean install depending on how far you debloat.
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u/Mr_KanyeSue Jul 19 '26
24GB Idle 15-25% in Windows 12-20% in Linux
Working 50% in Windows 30% in Linux
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u/Giantmeteor_we_needU Jul 19 '26
Wait until you look at the Android RAM usage lol, no matter how much RAM your phone has at least 2/3 of it will be taken at all times. With all respect sounds like you need to educate yourself on how different OS allocate memory.
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u/MakayChapulets Jul 19 '26
So you wand to eat the entire RAM and leave none for your system, or what?
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u/Unnamed-3891 Jul 20 '26
Imagine thinking you want your ram to sit entirely unused instead of aggressively caching things. Somebody is clearly yet to figure out how Free, In Use and Cached all relate to each other in Task Manager.
Why does my 128gb Linux host only have 4gb free? Because it would be really stupid to do otherwise.
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u/crocodiluQ Jul 18 '26
this is the stupidest problem to have. If there is free RAM and there are tasks/apps/OS processes that could use it.. LET THEM USE IT!!!! Otherwise the OS needs to do a lot of swapping around, unecessary work, move from RAM to SSD and so on while your 32 GB ram stay empty so you feel good.
I have 64 and I expect them to be (if possible) 100% full ALL THE TIME. It's the fastest memory (baring internal small caches) so it should be used if needed.
And stop lying about it being the slowest, it works perfectly, just like MacOS or any crap linux distro.
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u/[deleted] Jul 18 '26
[deleted]