CPU Bottleneck / Overheating

**Xiahou** · 04-13-2018, 01:38

Ok, so that sounds like your system RAM is shared with your GPU. IIRC, this is pretty common on laptops.

Now it does sound like a lack of RAM. All of the hard drive activity is probably indicative of swapping- RAM contents writing itself out to disk to make room for more data. Swapping kills performance.

If it's an option, you might want to see if you can go into the BIOS and cut back on how much is allocated to the GPU, since it only seems to be using about 2Gbs. That might be a short-term workaround. Long term, get more RAM.

**Csargo** · 04-13-2018, 01:44

Originally Posted by Xiahou

Ok, so that sounds like your system RAM is shared with your GPU. IIRC, this is pretty common on laptops.

Now it does sound like a lack of RAM. All of the hard drive activity is probably indicative of swapping- RAM contents writing itself out to disk to make room for more data. Swapping kills performance.

If it's an option, you might want to see if you can go into the BIOS and cut back on how much is allocated to the GPU, since it only seems to be using about 2Gbs. That might be a short-term workaround. Long term, get more RAM.

So, he's only got 4gb of actual RAM then? The other 4 is from the GPU?

**Xiahou** · 04-13-2018, 01:54

That's kinda what it sounds like to me.

**Csargo** · 04-13-2018, 03:44

Ah, so is it keeping the other 2gb as a buffer for swapping in data from the HD? I'm guessing that's the case at least.

**Husar** · 04-13-2018, 14:29

Well, if we employ some advanced mathematics here.....if 4GB usage are 80%, that would mean the system has 5GB available. Using advanced quantum physics, we can deduce from this, that 3GB might be reserved for something else. I think some of that info should actually be in the performance tab of the task manager, or whatever the second tab is called in non-German.

If that is the case, I would follow Xiahou's advice and see whether you can find the BIOS setting that allocates 3GB to the GPU and reduce that to zero, which should leave the GPU with the 4GB of its own memory and give the system the full 8GB.

**Csargo** · 04-13-2018, 17:00

Originally Posted by Husar

Well, if we employ some advanced mathematics here.....if 4GB usage are 80%, that would mean the system has 5GB available. Using advanced quantum physics, we can deduce from this, that 3GB might be reserved for something else. I think some of that info should actually be in the performance tab of the task manager, or whatever the second tab is called in non-German.

If that is the case, I would follow Xiahou's advice and see whether you can find the BIOS setting that allocates 3GB to the GPU and reduce that to zero, which should leave the GPU with the 4GB of its own memory and give the system the full 8GB.

If Xiahou's right then the 80% is the GPU 2/4GB VRAM plus the system 4GB RAM, which would be 6/8GB ~ 80% I believe. My task manager completely separates the GPU from system RAM, so I don't understand why it would be like that? I don't understand why the GPU isn't maxing out either.

If you're right it shouldn't be reserving 3GB of RAM from the system. That seems excessively high to me. I've got 7.9 out of 8, so that's .1GB reserved for hardware/OS or whatever.

**Husar** · 04-14-2018, 03:48

Originally Posted by Csargo

If Xiahou's right then the 80% is the GPU 2/4GB VRAM plus the system 4GB RAM, which would be 6/8GB ~ 80% I believe. My task manager completely separates the GPU from system RAM, so I don't understand why it would be like that? I don't understand why the GPU isn't maxing out either.

If you're right it shouldn't be reserving 3GB of RAM from the system. That seems excessively high to me. I've got 7.9 out of 8, so that's .1GB reserved for hardware/OS or whatever.

Well, there's this:

Originally Posted by edyzmedieval

This is what I found weird. Double checked - it has 8 GB, but it uses 80% and it's at almost 4 GB.

I don't think anyone would combine system RAM and GPU RAM or even sell a notebook where they are both 4GB in 2018. If the usage is at 80% with 4GB that means there should be another GB available, but Windows may already begin swapping programs to keep those last 20% in reserve.

It would indeed be weird if the BIOS is set to reserve 3GB for the GPU, but who knows? I don't think it reserves a lot for anything else, my main question is why 4GB usage = ~80% and not ~50%.
The amount of RAM Windows uses itself is already included in the 80% either way.

If you have system RAM reserved for your GPU, it should actually be shown in the performance tab of the task manager. Go to "Memory" and look for Hardware reserved". On my notebook I set it to 500MB and it gives me 562MB, the 62 being the bit it reserves anyway. The overall available system memory is consequently shown as 7.5GB since it detracts the GPU-reseved memory right away, but also shows that 8GB are installed. In fact, a screenshot of that memory section could be helpful.