Acer Nitro 5 Laptop - High Idle RAM Usage?

JimmyLmao on 03/12/2021 - 20:21

Hi everyone,

For context, I recently purchased an Acer Nitro 5 laptop from this deal. I got the AN515-57-54ZA model for $1,297 (with Thunderbolt 4). The laptop has 8GB RAM by default (I have ordered more online to upgrade to 16GB).

Whilst idle, the RAM usage seems to hover around the 50% mark. However, when looking at task manager, the programs don't seem to add up to 4GB usage.
- Is this normal?

This causes an error message to pop up whilst trying to launch Age of Empires IV, saying "your system only has 1.5/7.8GB free." Again, doesn't add up when there should be 50% free? (Steam in offline mode does take up another ~6% or so, though)

This will of course be fixed once upgrading to 16GB RAM, just wondering if others have high idle RAM usage with their Acer Nitro 5 laptops, or any laptops/PCs in general really, if there's something to be worried about.

Some googling has suggested that perhaps:
- Windows reserves ~3GB of RAM that doesn't show up in task manager
- Task manager is showing RAM reserved, not necessarily in use
- Having all of your RAM in use is actually a good thing, the more you have, the more your computer/apps will utilise it even if they can get by with less
(Note: not 100% sure on the accuracy of these claims.)

Screenshots of task manager.

Tags: Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU, Intel i5-11400H CPU

Computing Acer Computer Gaming Laptop Laptop

Comments

  • OMGJL on 03/12/2021 - 21:18
    +2

    I have just had a fresh install of Windows and without anything open, windows used around 3.9GB itself. So this is completely normal.

    • JimmyLmao on 03/12/2021 - 22:05

      Thanks! Good to know. Appreciate the reply :)

  • Duff5000 on 03/12/2021 - 22:54
    +1

    Googled it and found others reporting the same bug with the game. One user just said it has been happening since the beta and just to ignore the message.

    • JimmyLmao on 04/12/2021 - 13:06

      Ahh, I didn't even think it could be a bug with the game because I knew the RAM needed to be expanded in the first place. Thanks!

  • TheBird on 04/12/2021 - 10:02
    +1
    • Having all of your RAM in use is actually a good thing, the more you have, the more your computer/apps will utilise it even if they can get by with less
      (Note: not 100% sure on the accuracy of these claims.)

    Kind of no but somtimes yes, depending on how the programs/operating systems work. Operating systems these days use a lot of the unused ram for caching which in most cases, makes the computer feel more responsive. If the programs use up all the ram, there's less/none available for caching and can force programs to write memory to the swap file, which is extremely slow. Software can do its own caching, which speeds things up, hence the yes and no.

    These days, if you're doing anything half significant on your machine, windows ideally wants 16gig+ ram to operate smoothly. It can do it with 8gig, and technically, with 4, but the user experience can be diminished.

    • JimmyLmao on 04/12/2021 - 13:08

      Hmm that makes sense! Thanks for the insight :)

  • Jugganautx on 04/12/2021 - 10:38

    Buy another 8gb. Takes less than 5 minutes to put in and for less than 50 bucks off amazon or ebay you cant go wrong..

    • JimmyLmao on 04/12/2021 - 13:11

      Yep. I realise now that it's essentially an absolute necessity to expand the RAM to 16GB. I knew that going into the purchase, but I didn't realise just how important it'd be. I ordered RAM a few days ago and it's on the way. Thanks!

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join