All articles tagged with #memory management
Windows 11's built-in Weather app reportedly uses up to 1.6GB of RAM on 8GB systems (about 1GB idle) and is ad-supported, which can slow down lower-memory PCs. By contrast, macOS Weather stays under 250MB. The memory footprint contradicts promises of efficiency for 8GB RAM machines, leading some users to disable the Weather app in the background to preserve performance.
The Verge’s review finds the Surface Laptop 8 with 8GB of RAM and an older Snapdragon struggles to run Windows 11 smoothly: basic tasks work, but Teams video calls and multitasking cause freezes, with memory usage hovering around 6.7GB of 7.6GB; after a clean boot it drops to ~4.2GB, yet opening several Chrome tabs pushes it to ~5.5GB. Microsoft’s shift to 8GB devices amid a memory crunch, plus marketing that 8GB is “great for everyday use” and the Copilot+ requirement for an extra 8GB, highlight that 8GB RAM is insufficient for a consistently smooth Windows 11 experience on these machines.
Windows 11 can be limited to a fixed RAM amount using the legacy System Configuration tool (msconfig). The guide walks through opening msconfig, Boot > Advanced options, enabling Maximum memory, entering a value in megabytes (e.g., 4096, 8192, 16384, or 32768), and rebooting to reduce the OS memory pool. To restore full RAM, clear Maximum memory and reboot. Note that Task Manager may show less usable RAM due to reserved address space, that Secure Boot can block the option on some machines (temporarily disable it if needed), and that this setting is intended for testing or troubleshooting rather than everyday use since it can significantly impact performance.
Tom’s Guide tested the $599 MacBook Neo with 8GB of unified memory against a Windows PC with 128GB RAM, using Chrome with 20 tabs, Apple Music, and Photoshop. The Neo managed total memory of about 7.24 GB versus ~27.1 GB on the Windows machine, with Chrome consuming 1.67 GB on macOS vs 4.76 GB on Windows and similar differences for apps. The article argues that unified memory and macOS RAM compression let the Neo feel lean and responsive despite less RAM, while Windows’ caching can bloat apparent usage. The takeaway: more RAM isn’t always better, though Windows may still win in gaming; the MacBook Neo’s architecture makes 8GB feel much more capable at budget pricing.
A new patch is being developed for the Linux kernel to improve the accuracy of the out-of-memory (OOM) killer on large, many-core systems, addressing significant inaccuracies that affected memory monitoring and process termination decisions, with potential inclusion in the upcoming Linux 6.20~7.0 cycle.
The article provides various tips to optimize RAM usage on Windows 11, including managing startup apps, disabling background processes, uninstalling unused apps, scanning for malware, updating system and drivers, and optimizing browser and gaming experiences to improve overall system responsiveness and stability.