Something I've noticed on many completely different computers I've owned and across Windows 10 and 11 is that my RAM usage never seems to really add up to what's actually being used. It's never really been much of an issue and it seems to use less on systems that have less RAM, but I'm struggling to find a correct answer on what it's actually being used for :(
Currently when I'm looking in task manager, I see 12.8GB of RAM used for the whole PC. When I add up the processes I have open, they only add up to around 6GB of used memory.
I understand that some is used for the OS, but when I start the computer up fresh it's only using about 2 GB for Windows. Over time this grows to 6, 8 or even 10GB of RAM used only by Windows. Where is this extra RAM actually going? Is there a way to see what services are taking it up? Is it something like SuperFetch using all of this up to speed up loading times? Is it disk caching like Linux does?
I have good reason to believe it's not a memory leak, bad drivers or other non-intentional issues. I observe this behavior on my AMD/NVIDIA Laptop at home on Windows 11, my all Intel laptop at home with W11, my i5 4th gen Desktop at home with W10, on my all Intel desktop at work with W10 & coworker's machines, on a coworker's Surface Pro 8 with W11 and many other machines.
I should reiterate -- it's never actually been an issue, I'd just like to know where it's going and if there's a way to see.
Screenshot of Task Manager showing 12.8GB Ram Usage
Screenshot of Processes in Task Manager not adding up anywhere close to 12.8GB usage
Screenshot of Users in Task Manager showing 6 GB total used for my open processes
Related question: Adding RAM (32GB to 128GB) Windows uses much more memory: why/how/where?
