How to know how much RAM your Windows computer uses exactly and in real time? step by step guide

Surely on many occasions you have noticed that your computer is running slower than usual and you do not know what the reason may be. don’t despair, the vast majority of the time the problem is that your RAM memory is touching the limit. The solution? Know how much RAM your computer uses and act accordingly.

You don’t have to have any broken components; Your computer is simply warning you that the space dedicated to supporting the data that each program needs at any given time is running out and you need to close the one that is consuming the most memory.

This may sound Chinese to you, but before you get nervous and consider the option of going to a technician. In this post we are going to teach you how you can check the level of RAM memory that your computer is consumingin order to know which program is slowing down your system.

What is RAM memory and what does our computer use it for?

The RAM memory of a computer is that volatile memory that a computer uses to store part of the information of programs and data during the period of time in which you are running them. Its acronym responds to “Random Access Memory” or Random Access Memory in our language. It is the one that is used while the equipment is on and is responsible for keeping all the data of the software that changes during its execution.

When the equipment is turned off, the RAM memory stops working and the data you want to keep must have been saved on the hard drive or storage memory (which can be internal or external). It is a volatile memory.

Is improves the response speed of programs since when one of them is executed, the most relevant data is loaded, those necessary to function at the moment, and the most important instructions are exchanged with the processor. Thanks to its effectiveness, users can save time in running programs.

For this reason, it is very important to make a very good decision when choosing the amount of volatile memory that our equipment should have. In desktop computers it could be expanded by modules attached to the motherboard.

A laptop this is not so simple and choosing the right amount (in addition to a graphics card that complements the use of graphic data) will mean the difference between having a great paperweight, a racing car with which to run everything, or something in between, of course. .

How to know which applications are using my RAM and how much of it they consume?

The easiest way to monitor resources of this type on your computer is to use the “Task Manager”, since in addition to being a native Windows tool, the data you can get is more than enough for the purpose at handwhich is none other than to see what applications you have running and which ones are making the most use of the Random Access Memory.

Although, you can also use slightly more sophisticated programs that can perform a more interesting analysis to know the status of your computer’s RAM memory at any given moment.

Steps to find out how much RAM your Windows computer is using in real time

Let’s see, with the two main methods that Windows offers us, how to analyze the consumption of volatile memory on the computer:

From Task Manager

As we have anticipated, the first tool that we are going to comment on is the one that Windows includes in its operating system for this management, the “Task Manager”:

• This one can open from the Start menu itself or by pressing “ctrl” + “shift” + “escape” or “ctrl” + “alt” + “del”.
• If you have never visited this menu on your computer, it may open in a smaller size. If so, you can expand it by clicking on the “More details”, which is located in the lower left corner.
• Next, look among the tabs for the one called “Performance”.
• There you will be inside the performance control zone of your team. You can see the evolution of the use of the CPU, RAM, hard drives, graphics cards and other installed connections. In this case, you would have to click on “Memory”.

It has very interesting graphics. In addition, it shows you a section where you can check in real time what consumes you each execution of a certain program on your computer.

We will see a section where it indicates the programs that are being executed and the RAM memory that each one of them has assigned. Even if we see some exorbitant figure, or some task that we think should not be running, we can also eliminate it from this area. We just have to right-click on the task and select the delete option.

As you can see, this very simple application is very interesting. A compact viewer can be activated by double clicking on the left column, the one on which you can see a summary of the data related to the performance of the PC. You can even leave the graph of the element you are interested in reviewing compact.

With RAMMap

RAMMap is a free tool that Windows makes available to its users so that they can know how RAM memory is managed, how Windows physically allocates that memory and how much is used by drivers and the computer’s own kernel.

This program is designed so that a user with any level of technical knowledge in computer science can use it without problem. Its interface is very similar to the Windows “Task Manager”, but it offers a greater amount of information.

It is made up of two tabs:

• In the first one you can see a summary of memory usage based on different types: the memory that is actively used and the memory that the system has in Standby (The latter is the one that some programs reserve for operations at the time the software is opened and does not have to be used at that time).
• In the next tab memory can be freed by clicking on the “Empty” option of the application that interests us. Next, click on “Empty Stand By List”.

We recommend the use of the empty memory of this program, above all, in the case of the use of video games or video editing programs; since both can reserve even 1 GB of the total volatile memory without ever using it.

List of the best programs and tools to know the RAM consumption of your computer

Within the world of the PC, each user looks for the most optimal way to maintain good performance for their equipment, always considering uses and budget. Enhance and know how to choose a good RAM memory is key if we want to avoid annoying delays and to be able to run the programs that most interest us on our computer.

As each one has a particular interest, the one that a gaming computer may need will not be as adequate as one designed to perform office tasks or another to work editing and designing in 3D. This decision made, the best we can do is stay informed about how we are consuming RAMso that, if necessary, we can remedy it.

Next, we recommend the following programs:

novabench

Novabench is a very specific program that doesn’t get lost in complicated graphs or data. just you show all the information it considers interesting regarding the performance of your computer and gives you a score so you can compare yourself with similar equipment.

The section that may interest us the most is where it tells you at what speed (MB/S) your RAM memory is working. Clicking on “Compare these results online” we managed to make a comparison between your results with those of teams from all over the world. Is this last point useful?

Not too much, unless you are very curious, because, as we have already indicated, what matters is the performance in relation to the use that we need to give our machine.

Download Novabench Windows

Download Novabench macOS

CPU-Z

This program is very complete and, without a doubt, it will clear up your doubts about everything related to the performance of your computer. Everything you need to know about RAMwhich is what interests us, you can check it in the “Memory” tab.

This application can also be downloaded on Android mobiles to know the data of the device, something that we love since mobile phones, over time, begin to work worse and we never know the reason.

Download CPU-Z Windows

Discharge
QR code

CPU-Z

developer:
CPUID

Price:
Free

Prime95

It’s about a very interesting program that is responsible for loading the memory core of the PC in full capacity. What it does is stress the memory for a period of between 12 and 24 hours to see how it reacts.

Download Prime95 Windows

OCCT

The initials of this program correspond to OverClock Checking Tool. It is a complete software that can be downloaded from the Internet and that is used to check the stability of the system. For themYou can choose between the options “CPU only”, “RAM only” or “CPU + RAM”, so that the data of your interest is measured and recorded. In addition, it offers us the option of being able to show the results in an interesting graph.

Download OCCT Windows