Computer only uses just above 50% of ram before going to pagefile

[Cohacq]

Specs:
CPU: Ryzen 3600
Motherboard: Asus Prime B450-Plus (updated bios a few weeks ago)

Ram: 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz (running at 2133 until I can fix this issue)

GPU: Asus AMD 5700XT
Drives: 1TB Intel P660 as boot drive, 2x WD Red 3TB in raid 1.for storage

I've had this computer for about a year and this has been a constant issue. If I watch the memory section in task manager, it goes up to 53-55% and then just... stops. Windows has automatically made a 25 gig pagefile but it feels strange that my computer should use that when there is memory available. My computer detects all 16 gigs and running Windows built in memory test showed no errors, and I've tried both sticks together and one stick at a time with long overnight runs. I've even gotten a replacement ram kit but the issue persists. I've also reinstalled Windows more than once with no luck. Any ideas?

Quick update: I checked the manual again regarding ram slots and which ones I should use. The drawing isnt exactly clear, but it looks like I should use the grey ones further from the CPU. I used the black ones before so I've now switched. If I notice any performance difference I'll update again. Here's a link to it (the relevant part is on page 19-20) in case I completely misinterpeted it. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/lit_files/404157.pdf

[Slayerking92]

That's not how page files work.

[Emanbaird]

The pagefile will exist regardless of whether or not it's in use, if you have 16GB then I wouldn't worry unless you are experiencing slowdowns.

I'm not entirely sure but it could also just be that Windows may be benching certain things once it gets to a RAM usage amount, but it's actually pretty common for most apps to sit around the same ram usage %.

Are you noticing any slowdowns or stuttering where your frames drop drastically in games, or things seem to freeze for a moment in other applications? 

[Cohacq]

5 hours ago, Emanbaird said:

Are you noticing any slowdowns or stuttering where your frames drop drastically in games, or things seem to freeze for a moment in other applications? 

Yep. Sometimes everything grinds to a halt for a few seconds, then comes back to normal. Or I'll getting horribly low (we're talking 10-15 or less in Sims 4) framerates for maybe 10 seconds. I understand what the pagefile is for, but when those things happens it obiously becomes a problem.

I've been running with only a 1GB pagefile for most of today and havent noticed any issues. Ram issue is steady at around 50-55%, but I've only been playing The Sims and listening to music, so nothing performance heavy.

[Emanbaird]

1 minute ago, Cohacq said:

Yep. Sometimes everything grinds to a halt for a few seconds, then comes back to normal. Or I'll getting horribly low (we're talking 10-15 or less in Sims 4) framerates for maybe 10 seconds. I understand what the pagefile is for, but when those things happens it obiously becomes a problem.

I've been running with only a 1GB pagefile for most of today and havent noticed any issues. Ram issue is steady at around 50-55%, but I've only been playing The Sims and listening to music, so nothing performance heavy.

This is definitely weird, I've never seen anything like this before.

Have you tried forcing a ram intensive task to see what it does?

[Cohacq]

1 hour ago, Emanbaird said:

Have you tried forcing a ram intensive task to see what it does?

Is there a good benchmark/stress test tool I can use? I mostly just game, and it generally doesnt use that much ram unless I start accumulating 50+ tabs in Chrome over like a week.

[-rascal-]

What is your Virtual Memory / Page file setting in Windows?

Go to Settings >> System >> About >> Advanced System Settings >> Advanced >> Performance - Settings... >> Performance Options - Advanced

 

 

 

 

 

The default for my work PC is page file is enabled and allocated 3584 MB of space on the drive.

However, since I have 32GB of memory on my personal PC, I just set it to "No paging file."

 

 

 

Next search for "System Configuration" and click on the "Boot" tab.

Advanced options... 

What is your "Maximum Memory" set to?

You want to box to be unchecked, so you use utilize all of your available memory.

 

 

 

[Cohacq]

My pagefile was set to auto before, and got up to 20 gigs once. I've now set it manually to 1GB based on advice from another thread I found. And the Maximum Memory button is unchecked like in your picture.