Windows 8 Extremely High Memory Usage ~8GB!!!!!

paul7799

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I have so far only noticed this while playing Battlefield 3, but I'm sure it will happen with all my games, I'll probably try playing Mass Effect 3 for a little while later this afternoon, but so far after playing for about 15 minutes to half an hour the game becomes VERY unresponsive, it's ALMOST like it freezes, but it's still "playable" as I have control still, but I'm getting basically like 0.015FPS. So I'm forced to CTRL + ALT + DEL to open task manager and end the process. I have noticed that when this happens, my memory usage is insane (I'll post some links to screenshots at the end of this post) so I imagine this is probably what's causing the issue. Interestingly enough, with BF3 open (not visible in screenshots) it only is using about 150MB of RAM when it crashes - perhaps I'll check the memory usage while it's actually playable and edit this post if it's any different.

I am currently running Windows 8 RTM 64-bit.

Is this perhaps just a bug? I've noticed people have had similar issues in the past on Vista and W7 (I searched for a good while) but they usually just disabled the Windows Search Service (I have done this as well, but am still having the issue) or they had far too many open services and only like 2GB of RAM.

Also worth noting is that I didn't have this issue initially (I was able to play BF3 for 2 hours straight without issues) but I have no idea what changed between then and now (I think the only thing I did was install the Witcher 2 on steam) and I'm not sure when it was last playable (although I always run Raptr while playing so maybe I can check when my last long game session of BF3 was) so I haven't tried Windows Restore yet.

Here's the screenshots:
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/805/windows8highmemoryusage.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/99/windows8highmemoryusage.png/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/196/windows8highmemoryusage.png/

EDIT: Also, as you can probably imagine, a simple reboot restores my memory usage back to normal, but then I run into the same problem again when playing BF3.
 
Solution
Yes, AMD graphics seem to be related to the problem. I'm currently trying to reproduce the problem without starting BF3 - maybe I was running a desktop application that uses the graphics card. I'm looking into this.
I'm using the latest 12.8 Radeon driver. Obviously AMD are distributing unified Drivers for Win V/7/8 anyways.

edit: thanks for removing trolly troll

phamhlam

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Wait. This is crazy. I am getting the same problem too. I am playing BF3 and a few maps in, I start stuttering and lagging and then I go to Task Manager to find out my 8GB has 7.8GB used up and nothing is hogging up that memory in task manager. I even restarted my computer and it is still at 97% ram usage. I am lagging as I am typing this.

Also, I go over to user in task manager and it says that I am using 97% of my memory and it shows that the current ram usage is 123MB. How is it that 8GB of RAM can be maxed out at 125MB.
 

paul7799

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I fixed it, I had turned off file paging, but W8 decided it was going to turn it back on but make a fixed adjustment to it, so I set it back to "auto" and everything's fine again :)
 

phamhlam

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So I ran Windows 7 then went back to Windows 8 and the problem is gone but I am afraid that it will come back. I actually have 12.8 AMD driver which is the official one but I am going to install 12.7 instead.
 

paul7799

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@phamhlam
Control Panel -> System -> Advanced System Settings -> Advanced Tab (for me it defaults on this tab) -> Settings... (under the "Performance" section) -> Advanced Tab -> under "Virtual Memory" click Change... -> Make sure "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" is checked.

That's what worked for me, let me know how it goes for you.
 

pfleger

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Hello,

yesterday, I tried playing some Games the first time with Win8 installed and ran into the same problem.
I don't think, paging will actually resolve this problem, as it really seems to be a memory leak issue. Even with 16GiB of RAM I had 99.8% usage after playing about 4 CQ maps. SO I suppose disk caching/paging might only prolong the playable time until you run into this again.
On the BF Forums they were speculating about AMD driver issues - so how is it with you guys? I'm also running a 6950. Have you had any luck resolving this so far?

Intel Core i5 2500K
AMD 6950 2GB
16GB RAM
256GB Samsung 830
Win8 Pro x64 (MSDNAA/Dreamspark)

Chris
 

paul7799

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@pfleger, well I don't game for really long periods of time (I just need to take breaks and do something else, or just play a different game) so I don't know how "stable" this fix is per se, but like I said, it's at least allowing me to play for as long as I want. Have you guys tried any other games and run into the same issue?

Also, I noticed under normal operation BF3 only uses about 1GB of RAM.
 

pfleger

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Thanks paul, I will try that fix. My gaming sessions aren't that long either but the memory leak doesn't end when I quit the game ;) And Windows runs really sloppy with ~200MB of free RAM :D

Also, this problem ocurred to me today when I wasn't running any games at all! :ouch:
I still don't know what caused it - I keep the Windows taskmgr running to see if it happens again. So I'm trying out which program might be the baddie.
 

paul7799

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Yes vitornob, I would say that's probably true. I can't speak for everyone but I think you're probably right, but why would a video card cause a memory leak? The two are hardly related. Also, pfleger mentions it has happened in Windows itself, in which case the video card is hardly working at all, but I suppose it is still communicating so perhaps it is just a W8 bug. I keep checking for updates but so far, none.

Also, maybe we should see what drivers everyone's using. I've heard of some W8 users just using W7 drivers, perhaps that will help.
 

pfleger

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Yes, AMD graphics seem to be related to the problem. I'm currently trying to reproduce the problem without starting BF3 - maybe I was running a desktop application that uses the graphics card. I'm looking into this.
I'm using the latest 12.8 Radeon driver. Obviously AMD are distributing unified Drivers for Win V/7/8 anyways.

edit: thanks for removing trolly troll
 
Solution

johhny-marshal

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Windows 8 is most specifically made for tablet/touch screen devices. There are so many applications which are not usable for Desktop users and keep on running as we startup whether we use or not. these applications keep RAM busy which is not desired.
 

pfleger

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Hello johhny-marshal,

the problem here is not a specifically high RAM usage of W8 or its apps. While this may still be an issue, it is unlikely to affect 4~16GB RAM systems (in routine operation, I have a RAM usage of aroung 2~2.5 GB on a 16GB system). In our case a memory leak seems to reserve RAM while playing and not setting it free again (at least I figure this). That results in a RAM usage of around 15.8GB in my case and continous disk caching.

Some words on the topic:
I haven't yet been able to reproduce the problem with Skyrim (1.5GB RAM, 2 hours), Portal 2 (.7GB RAM 30 mins) or Project CARS beta. unfortunately, I don't own any other Origin games besides BF3 - if that's an issue.

Funnily enough, I had the automatic allocation of virtual memory enabled when the problem first appeared. I then set it to a fixed 8192MB which seems to at least prolong the issue for me. Also, the game either starts clogging up RAM quite quickly or seems to be doing nothing at all, running at around 1.5GB memory usage on ultra settings.

I had the "no-game-was-running"-issue again this week, but only right after having to exit the game at 99%RAM and subsequently rebooting.

Honestly: I don't understand this problem. Let's first hope for a AMD driver update to see if that helps.

Might do some stress-testing again this weekend (if you know what I mean :sol: ), as I don't have to work, yay.
 

windows8sucks

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Hey guys,

Just wanted to add that I have this problem running Medal of Honor Warfighter. I can get about 2-3 rounds in before all my ram is used, making the game unplayable.

Windows 8 64bit
i5-2500k
8gb RAM
amd 6950 VGA

Another note, all MOH warfighter players are instructed to install the beta AMD drivers for their cards. I did that, solving other erroneous crashes, but this RAM issue popped up in the past couple weeks.

As I don't own any tablets or touch screen devices, I'm thinking about erasing Windows 8 from my computer AND my (human) memory. Windows 8 appears to be a bridge in the gap between tablets and desktops, however this bridge called windows 8 is pretty lame.
 

jiiub

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Dec 14, 2012
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seems the first posts looked like my problem, but later it changed.

Currently my memory usage is at 83%, or 1035mb, but i got 8GB ram, so for some reason 1gb is not nearly ALL my Ram, the computer still sees and knows it has 8GB but for some reason refuses to use it.

got AMD, but i just played Morrowind and got this problem, got it yesterday aswell, a restart seems to fix it, but not until now i start having this problem, and i have been playing lots and lots and lots of games for many many hours without problem before.
 

zhamiraq

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In the "Run program" field, type "resmon" and run, or manually start "Resource Monitor" (you can also go from Ctrl+Alt+Del to start task manager, click the tab Performance and then open Resource Monitor from a link at the bottom of that tab)


I my case, lsass.exe is growing in size until it has allocated all available memory and the system (Windows 8) throws up a warning to shut down programs due to low available RAM. Then it keeps growing until the comuter crashes or I restart it manually.

It has even happened with nothing running apart from basic stuff like anti-virus (AVG Free), PS3 Media Server (running, but no streaming taking place at the time of error).

I also use AMD, so it might be drivers, but like I said it has happened while I was at work, just idling on the desktop with maybe a browser running, other times not even that.

Frustrating error since I have to restart my computer like once every two days, no matter if I am playing games, browsing or just not using the computer, but turn on the screen to see an already open warning for memory =(