Windows 8.1 x64 - Low memory while playing full screen games

Anonymous
2013-12-01T18:38:14+00:00

Info: This bug was fixed on August 12th 2014 with the release of the month's Patch Tuesday. Make sure to install every update available for your system, if you're having the problem described on this thread.


Hello, I've been facing a "tough" problem with my computer running Windows 8.1 x64. I did not upgrade from Windows 8, I did a clean install and for the past month, everytime I play some of the new 2013 games (Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Battlefield 4, CoD:Ghosts etc.), I'm constantly getting a "low memory" warning from time to time. 

So, giving that my laptop is capable of running these games (Asus N56VZ - Intel Core i7, Intel HD 4000 + Nvidia GT650 M, 6GB DDR3, 750GB 7200rpm, Full-HD 15,6" screen), I began searching for an answer. Here's what I've concluded:

When the game (eg: Battlefield 4) opens, the memory consumption begins to rise, and rise, and rise, non stop, until the system doesn't have more memory available and triggers the low memory warning. However, in the exact moment that I "alt+tab" out of game OR the memory warning does it for me, all of the occupied memory is emptied instantly, like magic!

I was able to "understand" this using Process Explorer by MS (sysinternals), heres a screenshot that shows the "climbing" and the sudden drops:

http://prntscr.com/2809xc

I cant really discover where all this memory is being allocated/used, and I have no idea on whats causing this. I also don't know if this is Windows-related, device-related or driver-related.

Is anyone facing this as well? 

[UPDATE DECEMBER 9th] This issue is triggered when the resolution in which the games are being played differs from the resolution configured on Windows.

If you are playing a game, say, in 1366x768, you need to change the system resolution to the same 1366x768 BEFORE opening the game. That will stop the excessive memory consumption and you'll be able to play the game fine.

My system is in Portuguese, but I think it's easy to get it:

This also concludes that the issue is Windows-related and not driver related, so we'll have to wait for Microsoft to patch it. Meanwhile, remember to change your resolution when you're going to play.

[UPDATE APRIL 26th 2014]

According to some Intel folks at communities.intel.com (http://is.gd/71Vha2), Microsoft has confirmed the issue with Windows 8.1 in an internal email. It resides - as it was explained - on the DWM (Desktop Window Manager) which triggers a memory leak when running fullscreen games with a resolution different than the desktop resolution.

The memory leak fills the system memory and page file with junk until there's no more memory available.

We assume Microsoft is already working on a fix for this, altough we never heard anything "official" from them regarding the issue. 

[UPDATE AUGUST 14th 2014]

The problem has been finally fixed by Microsoft with the release of the August updates on Aug. 12th.

Make sure to install every single update available - including the optional ones - and you'll no longer receive low-memory warnings when running fullscreen games/apps with different resolution/refresh rate.

Also make sure you're using the latest drivers available for your Intel and/or Nvidia GPU (it might be important).

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Gaming

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2014-08-13T05:04:19+00:00

I might be a bit cynical but I looked through all the support KB's from the updates today and couldn't find anything that related to fixing this issue (unless I'm missing something)...

Yesterday i have made the update and i found via the link also no description, but...

Yah!, after nearly 10 months, microsoft have now solved this bug.

With the latest patches (Patch Day 12.08.2014, also install the optional Updates),

all different resolutions and framerates works well.

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317 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-08-15T00:45:00+00:00

    When I tried to install it, Windows Update didn't list any other updates.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-15T03:00:56+00:00

    That's weird.

    Are you sure you're installing the correct package (say, you're not mixing x86 with x64 or vice versa?)

    Also are sure you didn't receive/install this month's updates already?

    Here's a list of the updates, it's in portuguese but the KB's are the same (the ones from office are in the screenshot as well, sorry)

    Try cleaning your system with TuneUp Utilities or just cleaning your C:\ with the built-in tool (make sure you select Clean Up System Files). Use this article as a guide if you need to.

    After cleaning up, try searching for updates again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-15T23:14:25+00:00

    Ok, now I've encountered a new bug. Could be also called a memory leak... I don't know why or how explorer.exe is now consuming above 100 MB RAM. Nothing fancy running, just System Explorer and a 1999 game, and also, this didn't happen before. Here a screenshot:

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-15T23:45:37+00:00

    100-500MB for explorer is very normal

    i have just over 400,000 jpgs from vacations, world , travel, family, and life events, and friends....under c:\users\david\pictures. Exploerer has to make thumbnails for all and it periodically goes in on its own to refresh them.. During this period , it uses about 2-3GB ram, but I have 16gb plus 32gb in page file

    but if u don't have a lot of pictures, but have lots of files across all drives, it will increase explorers memory use. As long as it's not constantly more than 1-2Gb or more, 100-500MB is very normal. Plus the more memory you have the more windows and explorer will use

    if you're using win 8 or 8.1, you really shouldn't have anything less than 8GB memory as the OS itself , naturally, uses from 1.5-4GB ram. Hence why I have 16gb and a huge swap. Most of what windows loads, it doesn't need all the time. I use ram64.exe to clear all processes working sets. This basically does a force dump of ALL idle code to be paged out. Then windows physical memory in use drops from 4-5gb to 1-1.5 GB and in 60s, all idle code is swapped. Naturally it returns to 2-2.5gb quickly, but it takes usually 2 days to be back to 4-5gb used

    keep in mind, all this app does is force 80-90% of all code to the pagefile(s). So it doesn't reduce mem use. It just changes WHERE it's stored. Disk vs RAM. Then windows swaps in back in over time as needed

    plus taskmgr doesn't show you the REAL/TRUE memory use of anything. You must click performance tab, then click to run rescource monitor.  You look at 2 things: committ charge = total ammount of virtualized memory requested by a program. Often this is much high than a program needs. If it doesn't need it, it's moved to pagefiles. Working set = total amount of virtualized memory in use, and active residing in physical ram. There are some cases when working set can exceed comitt charge. The SYSTEM process does this all the time because SYSTEM is NTOSKRNL.EXE "windows NT OS kernel". The heart of windows. The kernel itself, and it has tons of dls and exes it runs. So it and a few others can exceed comit charge. Normally this is a red flag. Now if SYSTEM is using 1-4GB, or more, yiu have a nasty mem leak via a bad ddiver

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