High memory usage in gaming/idle

[Ferengi94]

Hi! So I have noticed for a little while now that my ram usage has been very high during idle and when in gaming. For example in Escape From Tarkov (A very ram hungry game) I will sometimes reach 95-98% ram usage and get some bad game performance because of it. With the only background applications being Discord, and maybe google chrome open with a tab or two open.

I have tried the basic troubleshooting tips. Resource monitor, memory cleaners, driver updates, clean boot, disabling programs, resetting PC. I even tried the ol' memory test of trying each stick at a time.

One stick would post but with 98% ram usage, while the other wouldn't post and just stay at fan spin with no power going to mouse/keyboard/monitor. Any clues? Bad ram? Some type of bad driver? Please help! thanks!

 

Specs:

Evga GTX 1070 ti 8GB

Ballastic 16GB 8x2 3200mhz ram

Ryzen 5 3600 w/ stock cooler

Msi b450-a Pro mobo

EVga p2 supernova 1200w plat PSU

Corsair 512GB sata SSD + 248 GB SSD and 8TB HDD that I was using in StoreMi before the reset but not currently

 

Resource Monitor:

https://gyazo.com/fa23e47c041fbdbc2a36ad80d5d13607

Task Manager: (Showing programs using most ram)

https://gyazo.com/3e5b58a9368b73fa8d72288185685138

Dxdiag:

https://gyazo.com/c5d30c52bda97d3aead552900aaf0de4

[Eigenvektor]

I assume those screenshots are from when the system is idle? Can you provide a screenshot that shows the task manager's Performance tab with memory selected please?

[Ferengi94]

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I assume those screenshots are from when the system is idle? Can you provide a screenshot that shows the task manager's Performance tab with memory selected please?

Yeah when in idle, and here's that screenshot you asked for https://gyazo.com/5383f24da07d74b1626bf45f9e9abe9e

[Ferengi94]

Just now, Ferengi94 said:

Yeah when in idle, and here's that screenshot you asked for https://gyazo.com/5383f24da07d74b1626bf45f9e9abe9e

Ram speed is back at 2400 mhz cause it reset when I tested my ram sticks on there own and forgot to change it back up to 3200mhz  

[Eigenvektor]

25 minutes ago, Ferengi94 said:

Yeah when in idle, and here's that screenshot you asked for https://gyazo.com/5383f24da07d74b1626bf45f9e9abe9e

Can you switch to the Details tab and sort by "Memory (active private working set)"?

 

It doesn't look too unusual to be honest, the cache is maybe a bit high. Could it be that some kind of disk memory cache from StoreMi is still active? The high number in Committed means you probably have a pretty large page file configured.

[Ferengi94]

4 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Can you switch to the Details tab and sort by "Memory (active private working set)"?

 

It doesn't look too unusual to be honest, the cache is maybe a bit high. Could it be that some kind of disk memory cache from StoreMi is still active? The high number in Committed means you probably have a pretty large page file configured.

https://gyazo.com/5a4b547f00d4e5de12da3d50f3878e63 The high ram usage was happening even before StoreMi sadly

 

Page file size:

https://gyazo.com/d42e1a077f644324d3d3d58bd07543ce

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

Do you know what the Java program is that is using around 1.6 GB on its own? The rest doesn't look too unusual.

[Ferengi94]

1 minute ago, Eigenvektor said:

Do you know what the Java program is that is using around 1.6 GB on its own? The rest doesn't look too unusual.

Yeah, was playing minecraft when I took the screenshot.  But you think 50-60% ram usage in idle/80-90% ram usage while in a game is normal for 16 gigs? Should I just throw more ram into my rig then? 

[Eigenvektor]

1 minute ago, Ferengi94 said:

But you think 50-60% ram usage in idle/80-90% ram usage while in a game is normal for 16 gigs?

16 GB should still be plenty and the usage does seem high, just saying I can't really see anything unusual that seems to be causing it so far

[Ferengi94]

8 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

16 GB should still be plenty and the usage does seem high, just saying I can't really see anything unusual that seems to be causing it so far

Gotcha lol, noticed this post a moment ago and tried it out but my CMD wouldn't tell me the name's of any of the drivers that I tried searching. 

 

Results:

https://gyazo.com/90ed4bb6e2273f1148004a39567ae001

 

[Eigenvektor]

23 minutes ago, Ferengi94 said:

Gotcha lol, noticed this post a moment ago and tried it out but my CMD wouldn't tell me the name's of any of the drivers that I tried searching. 

 

Results:

https://gyazo.com/90ed4bb6e2273f1148004a39567ae001

I think you need to search the "Tag" with

findstr /s <Pooltag> *.sys

The tag would be the value in the first column, e.g. "ConT", "Mmdi", etc.

 

You can also try this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap

May be a bit easier to read

[Ferengi94]

5 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

I think you need to search the "Tag" with

findstr /s <Pooltag> *.sys

The tag would be the value in the first column, e.g. "ConT", "Mmdi", etc.

 

You can also try this: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/rammap

May be a bit easier to read

Rammap

https://gyazo.com/ced36b0523583b86feb0ee87046de627

https://gyazo.com/a09b940d7446648919cf153f2d48c6d0

 

When I tried findstr it does nothing 

https://gyazo.com/371d740589d6bc0deaa7bd17b0a98410

 

 

[Eigenvektor]

3 minutes ago, Ferengi94 said:

Rammap

https://gyazo.com/ced36b0523583b86feb0ee87046de627

https://gyazo.com/a09b940d7446648919cf153f2d48c6d0

That says 6 GB are Driver Locked, so some driver seems to be using quite a bit of memory. I think you can use the File Summary/File Details tabs to find the file that is using the memory. That should hopefully allow to identify the driver it belongs to and is using the memory.

[Ferengi94]

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

That says 6 GB are Driver Locked, so some driver seems to be using quite a bit of memory. I think you can use the File Summary/File Details tabs to find the file that is using the memory. That should hopefully allow to identify the driver it belongs to and is using the memory.

https://gyazo.com/d83d0f51f6e997c33b7ee8ee7255ecf6

https://gyazo.com/2e1d27a3df3fee536917ec9186e9c422

 

Nothing really standing out, that I can see at least  

[Ferengi94]

Forgot to add to the pile, but in safe mode I got normal ram usage. So that at least tells me that the driver that is causing the issue is a non-essential one right? (So in theory, I could go and uninstall all non-essential drivers and reinstall one by one and see which one causes the problem?)

[Ferengi94]

Was able to get the findstr command to work, and the top 4-5 on that list are all related to IO processes or USB related processes 

 

Only USB/IO related stuff on my PC is my Hyper x Alloy FPS keyboard, Razer mamba tournament edition, Steelseries artic 7 headset, a USB hub, and I am using virtual audio cable for a soundboard 

[Mojo-Jojo]

On 4/19/2020 at 8:42 PM, Ferengi94 said:

Was able to get the findstr command to work, and the top 4-5 on that list are all related to IO processes or USB related processes 

 

Only USB/IO related stuff on my PC is my Hyper x Alloy FPS keyboard, Razer mamba tournament edition, Steelseries artic 7 headset, a USB hub, and I am using virtual audio cable for a soundboard 

Cool to see someone applying my post from all those years back

From your performance tab screenshot, I see neither the paged pool nor the nonpaged pool contain the memory leak. I doubt poolmon will help.

Can you try tunning poolmon.exe without the /p argument? This will show both paged and nonpaged pools, rather than showing only the nonpaged pools.

[Ferengi94]

On 4/22/2020 at 3:54 AM, Mojo-Jojo said:

Cool to see someone applying my post from all those years back

From your performance tab screenshot, I see neither the paged pool nor the nonpaged pool contain the memory leak. I doubt poolmon will help.

Can you try tunning poolmon.exe without the /p argument? This will show both paged and nonpaged pools, rather than showing only the nonpaged pools.

Oh, hia lol. I Included with and without /B, I added another 16GB to my system to at least make it playable again, but still using 10+GB's on idle. Any clues would be awesome thanks!  

[Mojo-Jojo]

As I suspected, the problem is not in either pool, so the leak is happening elsewhere. Which is strange, because I'd expect a system/kernelspace leak to happen in either the paged or nonpaged pools.. For now I don't have an explanation, but I'll post back if I have new ideas to try.

 

In the meanwhile, have you played with un/reinstalling drivers at all?

[Ferengi94]

6 hours ago, Mojo-Jojo said:

As I suspected, the problem is not in either pool, so the leak is happening elsewhere. Which is strange, because I'd expect a system/kernelspace leak to happen in either the paged or nonpaged pools.. For now I don't have an explanation, but I'll post back if I have new ideas to try.

 

In the meanwhile, have you played with un/reinstalling drivers at all?

I couldn't find a easy way to really uninstall all drivers, know of a program by chance? But I do know that when I did a fresh install of Windows 10, the leak was there too. 

[Kilrah]

Had you installed any programs yet or nothing at all?

[BlackManINC]

@Ferengi

 

That standby memory swallowing up more than half of the little free memory you have left is where the issue is as far as I can see. You should get rid of it. 

 

[Kilrah]

Nothing wrong with Standby, it's the high "In Use" that's the problem.

[Ferengi94]

6 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Had you installed any programs yet or nothing at all?

Only things on my PC are Chrome, Discord, Steam, Battle.net, spotify, Driver booster (Just to get all the drivers), epic store launcher, and Minecraft/technic launcher 

 

[Kilrah]

55 minutes ago, Ferengi94 said:

Driver booster (Just to get all the drivers)

So you're using something that installs random drivers from who knows where, and your issue seems to be in a driver...

Get rid of that crap and install the needed drivers yourself from manufacturer websites. Never use these driver installers.