This is a false positive as often most of that is just cached data.
It depends entirely on the data you are looking at. In Windows 10, Task Manager will provide you with a basic picture of how the system is using physical memory. Clicking on the
Performance tab and the number on the far left hand side under
Memory is the amount of physical memory that is currently in use. That number represents the sum of the
In use plus the
Modified sections of the
Memory composition graph. When you are running your normal workload, if that number is within roughly 2GB of the amount of RAM you have, you would benefit from more because it will mean you will have more physical memory available for the standby page list, which represents cached data.
Looks like its topping out around 10gb give or take. I'll leave it for now in that case. Thanks bud.
If that number is an accurate representation of the amount of physical memory your workload requires, I don't believe the extra RAM would be of much benefit to you.
Process Explorer is an excellent replacement for Task Manager, and will provide you with a better picture of the physical memory usage of the system. If you have a real interest in this sort of thing,
RAMMap is an awesome application and will provide a complete and accurate overview of how the system is using physical memory.
Edit:
^ Use isn't the same as needing. Games will often load commands into memory and just leave it there without returning the space back over to the system when it's not needed. This only gets corrected when you exit the game.
I don't think my initial post was particularly helpful. I didn't explain the metrics I was referring to. If someone is interested in finding out if they have enough physical memory for the workload they are running, I believe what I have explained above is the most accurate way of doing so. This will correlate with the performance of the system.
I would rather have 16gb of fast ram with tight timings then 32Gb of slower ram if all i'm doing is gaming and light productivity work.
I think we have to be careful with statements like
if all i'm doing is gaming and light productivity work or
It's a Gaming machine so therefore it needs 'insert a random number here' because they don't define the actual physical memory usage of a system, which is what is needed in this discussion.
