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

Anonymous
2013-12-11T19:24:33+00:00

I'm getting these 'Low Memory' warnings constantly it's getting really annoying (like everything else in this OS).  I'm running Win8.1 64bit with 8GB of RAM, as soon as it passes 3GB of RAM used these warnings appear telling me to close various programs.  No 32bit processes are nearing their 2GB limit, the RAM's memtest indicates no issues.  How do I stop these warnings!?!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2014-01-06T06:26:05+00:00

Windows 8 reserves a % or 2gb whichever is smaller for the paging file by default, this is more than enough for most use-cases.

@Bob Eyster - you should read http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinovich/archive/2008/11/17/3155406.aspx

The issue has absolutely nothing to do with the paging file.  It's 2/3rds empty when getting this error.  What appears to be happening is that the initial 4gb, which is available for 32bit applications, is being used by the 64bit applications causing it to think it's going to run out of 32bit addressing space once it hits the 4gb limit.  In reality the 64bit applications should be pushed into the 2nd 4gb space to make room fro the 32bit applications.  Unfortunately this error message doesn't seem to recognize the difference between the two and reports the error erroneously.  Calculating just the 32bit apps they are using less than 2.3gb of addressing space with 64bit using the remaining 0.9gb.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-07T17:21:49+00:00

    I use Nvidia 650M (337.x driver) though I do have a backup Intel HD 4000 chipset on the system (3379 driver)

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-02-13T19:20:58+00:00

    JMJimmy1-

    If you are showing 2 display adapters in your device manager (one for the Nvidia, one for the Intel), I would remove 3379 and go to 2875 or 2884.  Those two intel drivers are not showing the issue.  That may help out for now.

    I am unsure if this problem is showing up only on Intel chips or with all graphics chips.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-28T20:42:16+00:00

    thanks a lot ewtaylo! you actually sorted things out for me.

    each time I see this warning I find myself running full screen dx apps (also known as "games"...). But it does not happen with all of them - for example NFS Pro Street which does not support native 1600x900 or SimCity 2013 (for whatever reason...)

    meanwhile I have i5 3337U, 8 gigs of ram, tons of swap (problem exists in any case: either on "system managed" swap size or with any manually entered value)

    GPUs are GT 735M + Intel HD 4000 with driver versions 334.89 and .3412 respectively

    (Laptop VAIO Fit 14)

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-31T19:29:17+00:00

    @amdenis-

    If you back up to driver 2884 on the intel side the error will go away.

    Intel has located a possible root cause for the issue and is working on a fix.

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