F5F Stay Refreshed Software Operating Systems Problem with backup storage in Windows 10 Issue with the standby memory | Windows 10

Problem with backup storage in Windows 10 Issue with the standby memory | Windows 10

Problem with backup storage in Windows 10 Issue with the standby memory | Windows 10

T
Tom2Sop2
Member
139
06-07-2021, 02:53 PM
#1
I need to start here. One of my games, which I haven't played in a while, is experiencing serious performance problems—frame rate drops and stutters are common. Previously, it ran smoothly at 154 fps on a locked panel (144Hz), but now it consistently falls to 110-90 frames per second with inconsistent timing. I wanted to investigate what's causing this. The first clue came from the task manager. Even though I have 16GB of RAM and my Chrome + Steam + OS setup uses less than 4.5GB, I only had around 3GB free. About 8GB was reserved for background items I wasn't using. Then I checked the pagefile, which was set to 8GB by default. After some research, I thought Windows might be using "virtual RAM" instead of clearing unused space, so I adjusted the pagefile size to 1GB or 2GB and restarted the system. After rebooting, RAM usage dropped—idle around 2.5GB, reserved 1.8GB. Testing the game confirmed everything was back to normal. Still, I kept watching memory stats. When I left the game, standby jumped to about 5-6GB, which matches the game's needs. Opening another app caused standby to expand until it hit the limit (~8GB used, ~9GB standby), triggering a crash due to insufficient memory. I suspect part of that standby was reserved for game data and the rest for preloaded Windows content. I've cleared standby manually using RamMap, but it didn't help. After that, I tried playing Apex. Background tasks plus the game used roughly 8GB, and as standby steadily increased to near full capacity, the game crashed. P.S.: I also turned off Superfetch, but it still preloaded items during startup. I've attached a screenshot of the task manager. With Chrome open, it's using 3.6GB out of 9GB total—reserved. If I launch another program, it should work with just 3GB left, since standby isn't counted as free space. ram.bmp Added two images: Apex running after clearing standby; after closing Apex, apexclosed.bmp playing apex.bmp.**
T
Tom2Sop2
06-07-2021, 02:53 PM #1

I need to start here. One of my games, which I haven't played in a while, is experiencing serious performance problems—frame rate drops and stutters are common. Previously, it ran smoothly at 154 fps on a locked panel (144Hz), but now it consistently falls to 110-90 frames per second with inconsistent timing. I wanted to investigate what's causing this. The first clue came from the task manager. Even though I have 16GB of RAM and my Chrome + Steam + OS setup uses less than 4.5GB, I only had around 3GB free. About 8GB was reserved for background items I wasn't using. Then I checked the pagefile, which was set to 8GB by default. After some research, I thought Windows might be using "virtual RAM" instead of clearing unused space, so I adjusted the pagefile size to 1GB or 2GB and restarted the system. After rebooting, RAM usage dropped—idle around 2.5GB, reserved 1.8GB. Testing the game confirmed everything was back to normal. Still, I kept watching memory stats. When I left the game, standby jumped to about 5-6GB, which matches the game's needs. Opening another app caused standby to expand until it hit the limit (~8GB used, ~9GB standby), triggering a crash due to insufficient memory. I suspect part of that standby was reserved for game data and the rest for preloaded Windows content. I've cleared standby manually using RamMap, but it didn't help. After that, I tried playing Apex. Background tasks plus the game used roughly 8GB, and as standby steadily increased to near full capacity, the game crashed. P.S.: I also turned off Superfetch, but it still preloaded items during startup. I've attached a screenshot of the task manager. With Chrome open, it's using 3.6GB out of 9GB total—reserved. If I launch another program, it should work with just 3GB left, since standby isn't counted as free space. ram.bmp Added two images: Apex running after clearing standby; after closing Apex, apexclosed.bmp playing apex.bmp.**

X
Xdrasimo
Junior Member
16
06-07-2021, 02:53 PM
#2
Updated: I kept playing until the game stopped while MSI Afterburner was tracking. It seems crashes happen when the pagefile expands past 19GB. What’s strange is it uses the pagefile even though most RAM is free. Why does it exceed 19GB when I manually limited it to 2GB? I have plenty of questions... gamecrash.bmp
X
Xdrasimo
06-07-2021, 02:53 PM #2

Updated: I kept playing until the game stopped while MSI Afterburner was tracking. It seems crashes happen when the pagefile expands past 19GB. What’s strange is it uses the pagefile even though most RAM is free. Why does it exceed 19GB when I manually limited it to 2GB? I have plenty of questions... gamecrash.bmp