# High idle memory usage



## tiber-septim (Oct 22, 2010)

Hey there. I recently upgraded my pc, so far without problems but today I actually tried playing a game and noticed it was struggling away on 7 out of 8 gigs of memory usage.

I tried closing all of my non essential programs adn was still sitting at 5 gigs idle. I'm using the same RAM as I was on my old pc and a LOT less load

My specs are:
Gigabyte Z97P-D3 mobo
I5 4690k CPU
Gigabyte r9 280 gpu
1333 mhz kingston RAM sticks 8gb (2x4gb)

Here are some screenies regarding:



















These are both with taken with very little load, just steam, and 3 google chrome tabs. any help would be appreciated


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

After a restart, what does the memory usage look like? Without opening any programs?

Under MSCONFIG can you post a screenshot of the startup list?


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

And are you letting Windows manage your page file (the preferred and default method)? How much free disk space do you have on your boot drive?

Clearly, Chrome is eating up a lot of resources in your screen shot and with your CPU running at 26%, YOU may be idle, but your system is definitely not! 

I agree to see what happens right after a reboot. And also, I recommend you run a supplemental scan with *Malwarebytes's Anti-Malware* (MBAM) just to make sure Norton or you (the user and always weakest link) didn't let something slip by.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

> Clearly, Chrome is eating up a lot of resources in your screen shot and with your CPU running at 26%, YOU may be idle, but your system is definitely not!


I've been noticing lately that Chrome is a major resource hog with at least three to four processes running at any time.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

> I've been noticing lately that Chrome is a major resource hog with at least three to four processes running at any time.


I think it acts oddly, if not suspicious. I started Task Manager, then fired up Chrome. Immediately, 6 Google Chrome processes started even though I have Chrome set to start with just one tab open to Google.

IE has 3 processes listed in TM, but there are 3 tabs open so that makes sense to me. 

FF with just one tab has just 1 process listed in TM. Same with Pale Moon (which is based on FF). Both FF and PM are consuming more RAM resources, Chrome, however. But IE, with 3 tabs open is consuming considerably less than Chrome. 

I don't know what Chrome is doing - glad I use IE as my default browser.


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## Masterchiefxx17 (Feb 27, 2010)

Same here. I only use IE and its the only one I have installed.


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## Bill_Bright (Dec 17, 2004)

If I could only have one, it would be IE. 

But I do recommend having at least one of the alternatives on hand to test sites that don't behave properly in IE to see if the problem is IE, or the site.


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## LMiller7 (Jun 21, 2010)

The process list would be more useful if you selected "Show processes from all users" and the "Working set (Memory)" column were added. "Memory (Private working set)" does not show full memory usage of a process.

Chrome will often use more memory than other browsers. Tabs showing the same website will share a process but different websites will require a new process. Plugins and extensions also use a separate process. This makes for a more robust browser because a crash in only one tab won't bring down the whole browser. But processes have a higher overhead than threads so memory usage is often higher.

Chrome's task manager will show how each tab is used.


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