Windows 10: why are my ram usage percentages so high in task manager

I have 8 GB of ram on my PC. So I'd expect my ram usage to be at 100 percent when I'm around 8 GB in usage. But whenever I'm checking task manager, I'll have a couple programs open only using about 500 to 600 MB of memory, and it says that I'm using 50 percent of it. Not sure if this is just a bug where I'm getting the wrong percentages or something. But whenever it reaches 100 percent usage, I get a huge drop in performance.

:)

 

Task Manager RAM Usage

My computer is running 64 bit Windows 10 with 6 GB of RAM.

I have been monitoring my memory usage via Task Manager and occasionally download tasklist via the cmd line.

What has been bothering me is that my RAM usage at reboot starts at 34%, and left alone, increases to ~75-80% without running any programs.
(I do have start up programs including McAfee, Dropbox, Seagate console, gadgets, etc.)

When I analyze the tasklist download file via Excel, the total RAM memory usage is approximately 3.1 GB at 79%.
Doing the math, this means there is only 4 GB in use?

I have 2 questions:

1. Does Task Manager list all the RAM usage or is there some background usage that is not shown.?

2. Is there any other way to monitor RAM leakage?

 

Task Manager High CPU Usage

I have the same problem myself with it only happens when I scroll through task manager and open and close it. I don't know this for sure but the reason this probably happens is that you may have a lot of processes running and task manager is using a lot
of the CPU to process the usage of each program.

What I have done is disable data that I don't need to see like network usage and GPU usage and it drops the CPU usage a bit. I have also enabled everything and scrolled up and down on it and task manager uses almost twice as much.

I would suggest disabling everything but CPU, disk, and RAM, (I would not suggest having GPU on because it is almost always at 99% unless you have FPS limits).

 

My ram and cpu usage is very high


Not using Windows Defender myself to check, as it could be doing something at the moment, you say Defender is always using this amount of RAM or CPU ? High usage for this specific Antimalware would be much higher then that percentage. As far as what else it could be at the moment i can not see the entire list, but Chrome is using more RAM and Spotify is close to Defender's RAM usage.

Also check the details tab in Task manager, give you better idea of what is running and using both CPU and RAM. Check programs that startup with the PC, in startup tab in Task Manager, try to look and see ones that mention High usage, try to disable if not needed to run at startup as many still keep running after that.

I would run a full scan with Defender, also try at the run command type mrt.exe. As far as Avast being better, i would think so. Defender alone is not too good, in combination with say Malwarebytes free would be better protection.
Rule out any virus by doing so, can use Malwarebytes also for now for a scan of system.
Malwarebytes for Windows - PC Antivirus Replacement | Malwarebytes