Windows 8.1: Constant 'Low Memory' warnings with 5GB of free memory

This really isn't a windows 8.1 issue. Win 8/8.1 actually has the best memory management of any versions of windows. That's one thing ms has done a good job at improving. Unfortunately , they've done a terrible Job at removing useful features (like backup), and adding crappy new features. If possible it tries to make all those files non fragmented, and win 8 now allows you to defrag pagegiles

Win 8 has a much better read/write hard drive cache system, handles memory paging more efficiently than prev versions, lets you do more with pagefiles than before, and adds an addition pagefike called swap file.sys dedicated to metro apps. Win 8 also lets you replace the caching system with 3rd party disk cache software. 

Read here on additional memory management improvements: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/10/how-windows-8s-memory-management-modifications-make-for-a-better-user-experience/

dont believe the bashing hype. Win 8.x has issues mem management isn't one of them... And anytime a new version if windows come out, rumors fly on how much it sucks. When XP was released, everyone on the net was saying stick with 2k... Xp sucks.. Now people worship xp, and don't want to get rud of it lol

The fault you have here here lies with ***Intel*** for either not providing you with an 8.1 driver. Or giving you a buggy 8.1 driver.  

Also,  run your games at the same res as your desktop or set your desktop to the same res as your games as a temp fix if that's what causes the leak. That's a very simple temp fix

There is a known memory leak in 8.1 but it doesn't deal with your issue.  If your mobo is new , pester intel for an updated driver (or use a driver from a newer intel mobo). Most intel drivers are interchangeable. If your mobo is older, and intel won't make an 8.1 driver, then I'd stick to win 7 or 8 x64. The known leak in 8.1 deals with making a restore point. The kernel fails to release the memory it used, and if u have hugs HDs, one restore point can cause the system service to use 3GB ram. 

An an examole to the above. I have an alienware aurora r3, it use to hang on a warm reboot as Dell would not provide updated intel chipset drivers. So I went to intel, and grabed their newest drivers (as most are backwards compatible), and now I can reboot normally. I did the same with my USB 3 drivers from intel

The only reason to be on 8.1 is for dx12 (dx 12 is only 8 or 8.1 and higher)... But we isn't see Dx12 released for a while ... Let along games. 

There are some tools you can run that will monitor your memory use and when ur hits a certain point, it will free up all memory held up by leaks, and page out any idle code from every app, about 50% of every driver, and 50% of every dll to the pagefiles leaving yiu with only 1-1.5gb used ram... Then the code on the pagefiles pages in as it's needed.

@TallBear-

Under 8.1 the Intel driver leaks memory if there is a full screen program running at a different resolution/refresh rate than the desktop.

The same drivers under 8 work fine.

You shouldn't get low memory warnings with that unless u have a driver leaking memory and taking u to an out of memory state. Or a bad card which causes driver malfunction 

Yet I do see it and do not have a bad card.  It's occurred with both Nvidia and Intel graphics being used, DX9, 10, and 11 versions of various games being run.  The only common element is Win8/8.1 which has shown itself to have a very poor memory management and stability track record.

You shouldn't get low memory warnings with that unless u have a driver leaking memory and taking u to an out of memory state. Or a bad card which causes driver malfunction