High Cached/Modified RAM usage

Guiltyxz · January 1, 2023

Im running Windows 10 and I have 32gb of RAM. I usually idle around 9-10gb usage on a clean boot with all my programs open (i keep loads of browser tabs open lol). Over the course of a few hours my usage with the same programs creep up until its around 16-17gb. In task manager it says theres 11.5gb cached and around 10gb "modified" under the memory composition. Windows was only installed a week or two ago. Anyone knows what causes this?

porina · January 1, 2023

High cached amount is nothing to worry about and normal. Otherwise unused ram caches files and reduce loading times. Maybe less noticeable in SSD era but it made a big difference in HD era.

Modified I've not noticed before. There's hardly anything on my current system. It sounds like it is content that has changed since caching so needs to be flushed to make it consistent, but I've no idea what that content is. Delayed writes can significantly improve performance at the cost that a crash means more potential data loss.