Solved What's happening with my RAM usage?

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 10:28 AM

Hi guys. I have a recent rig (Ryzen 7700 + 32 GB DDR5 @ 6000 MT/s), running Win 11.

My task manager tells me that my 32 GB are 88% full, even though I'm not doing anything special. The unused RAM is only 3.6 GB.

As you can see from this screen cap, the sum of all active processes (mostly my two browsers) is far from 88% of 32 GB.

So I have checked with RAM Map, and it turns out the unused RAM is more like 14 GB. Very far from 3.6 GB.

What's happening here?

"Caching", you would say. But as the first screen shows, caching only accounts for 3.6 GB (same amount as the unused RAM, that's just a coincidence).

Looking again at RAM Map, it's almost like all the "unused but active" was still counted by the Task Manager as "used". I don't understand why.

Thank you.

krism · Wednesday at 11:13 AM

Yeah - good screenshots! - Stop FF and wait 10 sec and restart FF and see if that cures it.
FF can sometimes be a bit of a pig though I found Chrome much more so.

Else, reboot to clear that.
What caused it? Doubtful FF did by itself - look at what you were running prior.

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 11:23 AM

Hi krism. Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear enough. The purpose of this thread is to understand what's happening (hence the title), not to find a "restart/reboot" workaround

I know stopping browsers and/or rebooting will solve it, but that won't help me understand.

For the record, it happens to me quite often, after a few days of usage without rebooting.
If it's a bug, then somebody should be made aware of it.
If it's not, I'd really like to understand.

Thanks ! :)

Berton · Wednesday at 11:40 AM

Reading this thread struck an idea in my peabrain, what is the setting/use of the Virtual Memory/paging file? I've left mine at the default of a new install and I've doubled the RAM from what all computers came with [mostly using RAM modules salvaged from otherwise junked machines so no added cost].

krism · Wednesday at 11:40 AM

if a few days w/o booting, I would expect that.
It's like the concept of doing a clean install every year or so - folks try like crazy to avoid it, but............

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 11:49 AM

Indeed @Berton , my virtual memory setting is at default, so the system has set it to the C: drive (M.2 SSD), and... the current allocated size seems off the charts! Look at this screen. Recommended = 4.8 GB, current = 13.6 GB. What?

Ed Tittel · Wednesday at 12:01 PM

When I posed this issue to Copilot it reminded me that devices can reserve RAM, and GPUs often share memory with the CPU for faster data transfers. Here's what it said:

Task Manager may report relatively little available RAM due to factors like hardware-reserved memory or shared GPU memory. For example, some memory is allocated for hardware components like integrated graphics, which reduces the amount of RAM available for general use. This is often visible under the "Hardware Reserved" section in Task Manager's Performance > Memory tab.

In my own experience in working with Windows from 3.x forward, it is pretty "grabby" with RAM that is not currently in use. Thus, for example, on my Win10 production desktop with 32GB it currently reports 11.81GB available. But when I take a look at the page file (good call @Berton) it tells me it's sized at around 17GB but only 1.5GB or so is in use:

Name AllocatedBaseSize CurrentUsage
---- ----------------- ------------
C:\pagefile.sys 17908 1527

As you look closely at what's consuming RAM, you'll find many areas in the OS itself (e.g. page file, hibernation file, svchost.exe [in all its many instances], explorer.exe. and so forth) that can grab chunks of RAM only part of which they'll actively use at any given moment.

HTH,
--Ed--

Berton · Wednesday at 12:06 PM

Ed Tittel said:
In my own experience in working with Windows from 3.x forward, it is pretty "grabby" with RAM that is not currently in use.

I also ran into that with my first computer in '92, when typing an 8th page in WordPerfect for Windows 5.1 in Win3.1 on MS-DOS 5 it would complain about not enough memory so first upgrade was from 4MB to 16MB [second was HDD from 120MB to 210MB]. Windows has always loved to use as much memory as available.

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 12:11 PM

Thanks guys :) @Ed Tittel , first of all, never trust an AI

Just kidding.

About your quote, the "Hardware Reserved" is visible in my first screenshot ("Réserve paginée"), and it's only 1.5 GB, so it doesn't explain much.

I guess I just don't understand the discrepancy between Task Manager and RAM Map. Both are Microsoft tools, so they'd better have the same results!

Ed Tittel · Wednesday at 12:30 PM

I have to laugh, because Copilot proffers a pretty good explanation (I don't accept its info unreservedly, but it's pretty good at answering Windows specific questions, as one might at least hope...). Basically, it says (TLDR; version): "RAMMap is more focused and detailed; Task Manager is more of a simplified overview." I'd be inclined to see the differences as by design, rather than problematic. Here's the quote:

Task Manager

Focuses on a high-level overview of memory usage.

Reports “Available RAM” as the sum of free memory and standby memory (cached but not actively in use).

May not show detailed breakdowns of memory reserved for hardware or specific processes.

RAMMap

Provides a more granular view of memory usage.

Breaks down memory into categories that include Active, Standby, Modified (cache write pending), and Free.

Includes details about memory reserved for hardware, drivers, or specific allocations that Task Manager might not display.

The discrepancy arises because Task Manager simplifies memory reporting for general users, while RAMMap is designed for advanced diagnostics ands shows a more detailed breakdown of how memory is allocated and used.

HTH,
--Ed--

krism · Wednesday at 3:40 PM

Jose Hidalgo said:
Indeed @Berton , my virtual memory setting is at default, so the system has set it to the C: drive (M.2 SSD), and... the current allocated size seems off the charts! Look at this screen. Recommended = 4.8 GB, current = 13.6 GB. What?

View attachment 130124

Yes indeedy! At some point a few months back win spontaneously added a 13GB page file on another ssd.
Just turn that off and reset things to default (or I ( w 32GBram) set it to 1GB and I never have problems) .

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 3:43 PM

@krism But virtual memory isn't RAM. So having a 13 GB file in a SSD shouldn't have any negative influence on RAM usage.

krism · Wednesday at 3:45 PM

dunno. I would fix virtual and then see...

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 3:49 PM

Well, it's obvious. By design, virtual memory is there to compensate for an eventual lack of RAM, by creating a paging file on a storage support. It just can't have any negative impact on the very thing it's supposed to improve, which is memory usage % !

krism · Wednesday at 3:49 PM

making it fixed would also force system to notify if it wants more and you would then know who the culprit is!

Jose Hidalgo · Wednesday at 4:00 PM

I have never seen Windows notifying that it needs more RAM, sorry. Even less with 32 GB. When Windows doesn't have any memory left, it just writes on the pagefile. That's how it works.

krism · Wednesday at 4:02 PM

I have - before when I had 16GB and FF had hogged a lot.

This may have been win notifying me I had low memory.

krism · Wednesday at 4:10 PM

Ah! so you would have to change your physical memory to 16 or 8 to find out who is doing it....

Or find some app that temporarily intentionally blocks a large chunk of memory...
I have found that some sites use an inordinate amt of memory with repeated use on FF, but I do not know/remember what they are/were since I was accessing maybe 10-20 at the time (I normally have ~100 tabs - "tab center reborn")
But I shut down at least once a day.

XxXxX · 2025-04-03T01:54:24-0400

open services and look for 'sysmain' service.
stop and then disable this service.
restart the system and then check your RAM usage.

link to Microsoft Forums

Redirecting

you can always enable and restart the 'sysmain' service if required.
best of luck, Steve ..

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