RAM usage higher than usual?

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ericestrella

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Mar 26, 2013
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Okay so usually when I turn on my computer I do like a set schedule where I check updates for Windows, for Nvidia Geforce Experience, check how my antivirus (avast!) and firewall (Zonealarm), etc etc. I basically wait ten minutes before I dive in to play games, use the internet, use Skype, etc etc. Usually when I wait I check my task manager to see how everything's going, and at around the 6-7 minute mark I see the RAM usually at around 1.9-2 GB being used, then when ten minutes are up it goes down to something like 1.60-70 GB being used. However, yesterday when I checked around the 6-7 minute mark I saw my RAM was at 2.20 GB which was really odd. Then at ten minutes it only went down to around 2 GB, I was really confused. I restarted my computer and while my RAM usage with the restart was way better it also didn't compare to the RAM usage of the past when I would restart the computer. Today it was certainly better as at around the 6-7 minute mark it was at around 2.10 but that's still higher than usual. BTW I still have basically the same amount of processes going on by the ten minute mark back when my RAM usage was normal to what's happened yesterday and today. Can someone please explain to me what's going on? I haven't changed my computer in the slightest except for updating things and disabling the integrated GPU on my CPU in my motherboard BIOS a little while ago. No new programs or anything like that and like I said, still the same amount of processes. What's going on? Should I be really worried?
 
Solution
Tradesman1
Could also look in MSCONFIG and see if anything new has been added, Adobe and others like to slip snippets of code into startup to get their programs to load faster
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bgunner

bgunner

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Feb 13, 2009
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How many GB of ram are you running? If more than 4 don't worry about the ram usage till it hits 3 GB constant. Some updates can cause this to happen as it changes what the program must do and will use a little more Ram while doing it. ON an average I run 2.2 GB just for the OS to idle. I use Win 7 but other OS's can use more or less depending on the OS and start up programs you have.
 
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ericestrella

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Mar 26, 2013
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I use 8 GB of RAM, hoping to upgrade to 16 at one point this year. Thanks for the response, so let's say for example, and hopefully this does not occur, I get to 3 GB constant. What should I do? What would cause it to take up 3 whole gigs of RAM?
 
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bgunner

bgunner

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Feb 13, 2009
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IF your system is at idle for 10 mins and you are still using 3GB or more of ram then the first thing you should do is find what program/s are using so much ram. To do this you can use task manager for this, just go to your processes tab and it will tell you what processes that are active are using ram. Look to see which ones are using the most and which ones you don't recognize. If there are ones you don't know what they are you can google them to find out. Some you need for the OS, some you need for programs your running and some can be viruses. This is why you need to be sure what the process is before turning it off.

usually if you hit 3 GB of ram usage there is a program running. This can be one you started/started with the OS or could be a virus. Most times it is a virus that is using the ram.
 
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ericestrella

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Mar 26, 2013
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Ok thank you so much! I have checked my processes and they're all processes I recognize so it relieves me to know that it's not a virus!
 
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ericestrella

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I just did and it did not detect anything, same with avast!. I also investigated, while the computer was idle, all the processes that were going on at the time. I found no instance of a virus so that's really lifts the stress that I was feeling towards this. Thank you and thanks to you bgunner as well for the assistance.
 
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ericestrella

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Mar 26, 2013
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Checked that as well and Adobe was suddenly now running on startup, I fixed it though. Thanks.
 
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