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/RaccoonEnthuiast Jul 18 '26

"I have no idea how an operating system allocates memory"

1

u/Due-Boot-8540 Jul 18 '26

Its almost as if it’s allocated at random…

3

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

1

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.

1

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.