Win11: I can only use 75% of my 32Gb memory, on Win10 I could use all 100% of it.

KevTech said:

Firefox can be demanding if you have enough tabs open.

Click to expand...

You got that right! Good thing Firefox invokes Lazy Loading by default!
Better hope for no memory leaks!

I don't know why you are complaining. My two main computers with Windows 11 use 30-40% RAM even when at idle! I can't even remember the last time one of my computers had a low memory warning. That is true even for the computers I play games on.

You first need to look at the Task manager > Memory to see what is using so much memory. Then look at Task manager > Startup apps to see if something that is starting with Windows that doesn't need to. Finally, look at the system tray to see what is running at startup.

I think it is a lot to have 10-15 tabs open at one time. If you insist on having 100 open and run programs that demand a lot of memory then your only option is to add more RAM. Another stick of 32GB of RAM might help you.

Below is the Task Manager > Memory for my laptop and desktop with Windows 11. Each has 32GB RAM.

dimaxxxer said:

Yes, I have integrated graphics, but I never play games or do anything demanding.

Click to expand...

Erm... if you don't do anything demanding, why are you demanding 100% usage of your memory. It makes no sense to me that you would intentionally want to exhaust your physical memory just because it is there. Windows needs some free physical memory to operate correctly.

dimaxxxer said:

Thanks! I've gone through this many times, learned about commit memory etc. I know which app is using which amount of memory. I am ok with these apps, I just want them to use ALL memory I have paid for. Isn't it silly to have a 4-room house and be able to use 3 rooms only? :)

Click to expand...

I understand your frustration and your point as i abuse ram and memory-paging/swap on daily bases
Right now i have 95% ram usage and 12GB memory paging/swap

So win11 protest but not win10.. Interesting i wonder what they have changed.

I have not used(abused) win11.. But what size do you have on your memory paging file?
if it is small or inactivated.... test to set it as big as installed Ram (or more) and see if the warnings stops and you become allowed to abuse the memory to 100% so you even can make the screen freeze...... or use all memory sounds nicer. but i like abuse. *LOL*

Ghot said:

100 tabs???
Don't you use bookmarks?

Even when I'm comparing a bunch of items on Amazon and other stores... I rarely get more than 20-25 tabs open.

Click to expand...

I can hire you to do research for me so you can experience chaos.. on my research computer right now, i have 21 firefox windows open and around 40 to 60 tabs in each window.
I love the firefox tab in the left corner Firefox overview, so i easy can switch between tabs and search for names

Marie SWE said:

I can hire you to do research for me so you can experience chaos.. on my research computer right now, i have 21 firefox windows open and around 40 to 60 tabs in each window.
I love the firefox tab in the left corner Firefox overview, so i easy can switch between tabs and search for names

Click to expand...

thats why i have a little program called double desktop
2 desk on Windows at a flick of a little switch
with 2 browsers running with multiply windows and tabs.

works wonders on Windows.
best of luck Steve ..

dimaxxxer said:

Hi Steve and thank you for answer! My system says I cannot change it due to SecureBoot feature... Windows help says that this setting cannot increase my memory usage, though, it is used for system diagnostics... Thank you for helping!

Click to expand...

Q.
what memory type are you using DDR4 or DDR5

if its DDR5 Windows will use the stick you have installed and create a Double Data Rate setup with the one stick of Ram.
so in essence its is dividing your memory stick into two, which maybe the reason you are getting, or what looks like, high Ram usage.

the way around that is to add a second stick of Ram in another slot.

edit.
you can also disable SysMain in the service menu which will stop Windows preloading apps and other software to RAM
Windows tools > services

in the services windows look for SysMain
right click the SysMain service then click properties

in this window STOP the service then on the dropdown menu click 'disable'
save settings then close all windows and restart the system please.
best of luck Steve ..

XxXxX said:

Q.
what memory type are you using DDR4 or DDR5

if its DDR5 Windows will use the stick you have installed and create a Double Data Rate setup with the one stick of Ram.
so in essence its is dividing your memory stick into two, which maybe the reason you are getting, or what looks like, high Ram usage.

the way around that is to add a second stick of Ram in another slot.
best of luck Steve ..

Click to expand...

Hmm... I've never heard of this where Windows creates another memory channel with a single stick of memory, regardless of the memory type. Memory channels are controlled by the IMC in the CPU. Prior generations it was controlled by a separate chipset.

I have a PowerShell script that consumes RAM usage to prove that Windows 11 has no upper limit preventing use of ALL of your RAM.
The fact is that Windows 11 is much better at resource usage than Windows 10 was, so comparing them is not the same. thing.

There are tools to help. You can use Resource Monitor by running resmon.exe
Sort the columns under Memory

You can use RAMMap from Microsoft to dig into how memory is being allocated on your system.


My system test using PowerShell to consume memory

PHYSICAL MEMORY CONSUMPTION TEST

Total visible memory : 65,220 MB
Currently in use : 13,843 MB
Currently available : 51,377 MB
Safety reserve : 2,048 MB
Hold duration : 30 seconds

Target allocation : approximately 49,329 MB

Allocating and touching physical memory...

Allocated: 49,329 MB | In use: 61,011 MB | Available: 4,209 MB

Allocated by test : 49,329 MB
Physical memory in use: 61,011 MB
Physical memory usage : 93.5%
Physical available : 4,209 MB

Holding memory for 30 seconds. Watch Task Manager now.

Releasing memory in 1 seconds...

Releasing allocated memory...
Memory currently in use: 11,602 MB
Memory now available : 53,618 MB
Test complete.

HeavyHemi said:

Hmm... I've never heard of this where Windows creates another memory channel with a single stick of memory, regardless of the memory type. Memory channels are controlled by the IMC in the CPU. Prior generations it was controlled by a separate chipset.

Click to expand...

have a look at this please. virtual dual channel only works with DDR5 when you have a single stick installed

its one of the new features of DDR5 memory in Windows 11.
best of luck Steve ..

100 or 500 Firefox tabs consume 0 KB unless you go to them. Last out of memory errors I had (years ago and not in W11 or 10) was for going to news sites and opening 10-20 new tabs before starting reading and closing them one by one (the real cause of the problem was limited C: free space that could not host the necessary pagefile). The 20-40 idle ones I use to have don't count.

Idk well the "sigle module double channel" feature of DDR5, but it's 2x32 bit wide. One "traditional" module (DDR1-4) is 64 bit wide. It seems a hw/sw trick that can accelerate things. It recalls me the ganged/unganged setting of some AMDs dual channels in the DDR2/3 age. The default setting was "unganged" (2x64 bit channels). I tried "ganged" (1x128 bit channel) and performance was noticeably worse, although a small percentage of users used "ganged" what required going to the BIOS. Those chips had poor memory performance in practice or in benchmarks but they were decent performers for the age.

Memory usage is composed of several amounts. The "commited" one is the important and what can cause out of memory errors against physical RAM + free C: space (depending on the pagefile settings). I'm not saying Windows gets to do the best possible management in all possible system usages, but MS takes into account performance/experience and stability. It may not or cannot come with "I strictly use only RAM until I need pagefile" b/c of features like prefetch, keep in RAM/pagefile just in case, etc, "soft" uses of RAM/pagefile intended to increase performance. Windows may alert sooner or later of a real shortage, but it will discard "optional" RAM/pagefile contents if it needs that space for the committed.

XxXxX said:

thats why i have a little program called double desktop
2 desk on Windows at a flick of a little switch
with 2 browsers running with multiply windows and tabs.

DoubleDesktop - Download

Download DoubleDesktop 2.0 - A smart and elegant system tray tool that effectively doubles the width of your Windows desktop and it does it with minimum configuration options, thus becoming a perfect tool for all beginners who wish to work on two different desktops at the same time

www.softpedia.com

works wonders on Windows.
best of luck Steve ..

Click to expand...

I use Linux on that one. I have six virtual desktops over two screens on that computer and i can add more virtual desktops if needed.
But thanks for the tip if i need it to windows.

Windows 11 has a Multiple Desktops feature built in, similar to what's available with Linux distros, so I'm not clear why a third party app would be necessary, unless it provides some easier creation/switching methods.

Windows 11 Multiple Desktops

Ghot said:

100 tabs???
Don't you use bookmarks?

Even when I'm comparing a bunch of items on Amazon and other stores... I rarely get more than 20-25 tabs open.


View attachment 178466 View attachment 178468


I don't use System managed page file.

View attachment 178469



I only have 16GB of RAM and I never get low memory.



In Task Manager on the "Processes" tab, if you click at the top of the Memory column, it will sort with the things using the most memory, at the top...


View attachment 178470

Click to expand...

Thanks for answer. Yes, I have more than 100 tabs and right now my Firefox eats about 13Gb of memory. But this is not the questions of my tabs, Firefox etc. It is an issue of Win11 managing memory and not letting me use 100% of it. I think it is just not wise and fair.

Ghot said:

100 tabs???
Don't you use bookmarks?

Even when I'm comparing a bunch of items on Amazon and other stores... I rarely get more than 20-25 tabs open.


View attachment 178466 View attachment 178468


I don't use System managed page file.

View attachment 178469



I only have 16GB of RAM and I never get low memory.



In Task Manager on the "Processes" tab, if you click at the top of the Memory column, it will sort with the things using the most memory, at the top...


View attachment 178470

Click to expand...

I also have a manually set 50gb of page file.

MisterEd said:

I don't know why you are complaining. My two main computers with Windows 11 use 30-40% RAM even when at idle! I can't even remember the last time one of my computers had a low memory warning. That is true even for the computers I play games on.

You first need to look at the Task manager > Memory to see what is using so much memory. Then look at Task manager > Startup apps to see if something that is starting with Windows that doesn't need to. Finally, look at the system tray to see what is running at startup.

I think it is a lot to have 10-15 tabs open at one time. If you insist on having 100 open and run programs that demand a lot of memory then your only option is to add more RAM. Another stick of 32GB of RAM might help you.

Below is the Task Manager > Memory for my laptop and desktop with Windows 11. Each has 32GB RAM.

View attachment 178476

View attachment 178477

Click to expand...

Thanks for answer! Right now my Firefox uses about 13Gb of memory. An advice to buy another 32Gb having only 25gb out of 32gb is not a thing I would like to do. I have 32 and i want to use it all. it is like having a house with 4 rooms, using only 3 and needing to buy a new house because I need to use 4.

HeavyHemi said:

Erm... if you don't do anything demanding, why are you demanding 100% usage of your memory. It makes no sense to me that you would intentionally want to exhaust your physical memory just because it is there. Windows needs some free physical memory to operate correctly.

Click to expand...

Thanks for answer! My win95, win98, winMe etc. and up to Win10 always used up to 100% of memory. Now on Win11 I can use only 75-77% and get out of memory. Why? What if on Win12 they will tell you that it will only use 50% of memory and tell you that they need to do it this way?

XxXxX said:

Q.
what memory type are you using DDR4 or DDR5

if its DDR5 Windows will use the stick you have installed and create a Double Data Rate setup with the one stick of Ram.
so in essence its is dividing your memory stick into two, which maybe the reason you are getting, or what looks like, high Ram usage.

the way around that is to add a second stick of Ram in another slot.

edit.
you can also disable SysMain in the service menu which will stop Windows preloading apps and other software to RAM
Windows tools > services

in the services windows look for SysMain
right click the SysMain service then click properties

in this window STOP the service then on the dropdown menu click 'disable'
save settings then close all windows and restart the system please.
best of luck Steve ..

Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for answer! I have DDR4. And I am not sure that DDR5 would make a real difference, though.

AdvancedSetup said:

I have a PowerShell script that consumes RAM usage to prove that Windows 11 has no upper limit preventing use of ALL of your RAM.
The fact is that Windows 11 is much better at resource usage than Windows 10 was, so comparing them is not the same. thing.

There are tools to help. You can use Resource Monitor by running resmon.exe
Sort the columns under Memory

You can use RAMMap from Microsoft to dig into how memory is being allocated on your system.


My system test using PowerShell to consume memory

PHYSICAL MEMORY CONSUMPTION TEST

Total visible memory : 65,220 MB
Currently in use : 13,843 MB
Currently available : 51,377 MB
Safety reserve : 2,048 MB
Hold duration : 30 seconds

Target allocation : approximately 49,329 MB

Allocating and touching physical memory...

Allocated: 49,329 MB | In use: 61,011 MB | Available: 4,209 MB

Allocated by test : 49,329 MB
Physical memory in use: 61,011 MB
Physical memory usage : 93.5%
Physical available : 4,209 MB

Holding memory for 30 seconds. Watch Task Manager now.

Releasing memory in 1 seconds...

Releasing allocated memory...
Memory currently in use: 11,602 MB
Memory now available : 53,618 MB
Test complete.



View attachment 178508

View attachment 178509

Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for answer! YOu are correct! I did same thing several days ago through PowerShell and I was able to fill all 100% of memory. However, using regular software I never reach above 77%.

dimaxxxer said:

Thanks for answer. Yes, I have more than 100 tabs and right now my Firefox eats about 13Gb of memory. But this is not the questions of my tabs, Firefox etc. It is an issue of Win11 managing memory and not letting me use 100% of it. I think it is just not wise and fair.

Click to expand...

OK, inquiring minds want to know. What's the rational for having 100 tabs open?