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    Steam eats up 300mb system memory

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by latestgood, Sep 6, 2006.

  1. latestgood

    latestgood Notebook Consultant

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    Hello,

    When I turn on steam with out running any games, my system memory is around 650mb. When I turn off steam it goes back down to 350mb. Why is steam eating so much system memory even though I'm not playing any games?
     
    latestgood, Sep 6, 2006
    #1
  2. Juz_Follow_ATI

    Juz_Follow_ATI ATI all the way

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    It has to connect to the internet every second and ALWAYS has a chat system enabled. It also contains all the startup and shotcuts to games so in the end, that'll all add up to around 300 MB. If you don't mind, 2GB RAM is getting more and more popular these days so I reconmmend you to upgrade too.
     
    Juz_Follow_ATI, Sep 6, 2006
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  3. Charles P. Jefferies

    Charles P. Jefferies Lead Moderator Super Moderator

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    It shouldn't be taking up that much - on my machine, it uses ~15.7MB at idle. I would see what else you have running or perhaps google and see if anyone has the same problem.
     
    Charles P. Jefferies, Sep 6, 2006
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  4. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    Being connected to the internet doesn't require much memory at all. 1MB at the most for the core network functionality.

    Again, doesn't eat much memory. Trillian uses 15MB on my system, and that includes IRC, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo and AIM messengers, (plus internet connection) as well as a handful plugins.

    Shortcut: 50 byte, maybe.
    Startup, pretty much by definition happens at startup, so shouldn't affect anything else.

    But just loaded up Steam to check. Uses 23MB here.
    So like said above, google it, see if it's a known issue.

    Other than that, how do you measure the memory consumption?
     
    Jalf, Sep 6, 2006
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  5. Darbyjack

    Darbyjack Notebook Evangelist

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    Ctrl + Alt + Delete > Processes
     
    Darbyjack, Sep 6, 2006
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  6. Jalf

    Jalf Comrade Santa

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    Ok, just checking. There are lots of different ways to measure memory consumption, and they might sometimes show widely different numbers. :)
     
    Jalf, Sep 6, 2006
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  7. Darbyjack

    Darbyjack Notebook Evangelist

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    yeh i always double-check things even if it makes me look like an idiot who knows nothing :)
     
    Darbyjack, Sep 6, 2006
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  8. Wizard Of Oz

    Wizard Of Oz Notebook Consultant

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    Just checked my steam. Approx. 30 megs here
     
    Wizard Of Oz, Sep 6, 2006
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  9. Tokuman

    Tokuman Notebook Evangelist

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    I have never had it take up more than around 11-20 megs. Usually around 13. Even when I have CSS running it stays low. CSS only takes up around 600 on mine.. idk. 2 gigs is not a requirement.
     
    Tokuman, Sep 6, 2006
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  10. sionyboy

    sionyboy Notebook Evangelist

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    8.9MB here.

    When Steam is updating then it can take a hell of a lot out your system memory as it caches the download should anything happen. Perhaps that is what you saw, because the program itself should never ever use that much amount of memory.
     
    sionyboy, Sep 6, 2006
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