I have a Lenovo Gaming 3i with an Intel i5-10300H, GTX 1650 4GB, and 16GB of DDR4 memory. With only Steam and the Brave browser open—and no game running—Task Manager shows my processes using around 60% of my RAM, or more than 8GB. Is that expected, or should I investigate what is running? I also noticed Xbox-related processes and PostgreSQL processes even though I did not intentionally install or start them.
3 Answers
Around 8GB with only Steam and a browser open is somewhat higher than I would expect, even though Windows using spare RAM is normal. Expand the processes and look for applications or services responsible, then check the Startup and Installed apps sections. Xbox components may have been installed with Windows or gaming software, while PostgreSQL usually comes from a development tool or another application. You can disable unnecessary startup items, but do not stop services unless you know what installed them.
If you need to reduce background usage, you can disable unused Xbox features and their startup services, but the savings may be modest. Also check Brave's open tabs and extensions, since browsers can consume several gigabytes. Before removing PostgreSQL, identify the program that installed it—some applications depend on its database service.
Windows will use available memory for system services, background tasks, caching, drivers, and shared components, so seeing a significant percentage in use does not automatically mean there is a problem. The important thing is whether the computer becomes slow, starts paging heavily, or runs out of memory while gaming. Check the Memory column in Task Manager and sort by usage rather than relying only on the overall percentage.
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