We’re in the throes of the RAMpocalypse and news continues to be grim. Last week, Intel predicted that its own CPU sales would drop by 10 percent in 2026, and chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said that the company “does not expect a sustained recovery until memory availability improves and pricing begins to normalize.”
Tan and other Intel executives declined to say when that will take place. But it could be years, which is why Microsoft is stepping in. In a blog post, Pavan Davuluri, the head of Microsoft’s Windows + Devices team, characterized the move as “making better use of the memory that’s there.”
In other words, simply making Windows feel quicker and more responsive based on more efficient use of the PC’s memory. Specifically, Microsoft is using more compression and better anticipating what you’ll want to click on to make your PC feel faster.
You’re already familiar with how this works, even if you haven’t thought about it. If you’re watching a football game, chances are you have a table of snacks nearby that you can grab whenever you’d like. If you want to refresh a drink or grab another bowl of dip, you have to walk to the kitchen. It’s obviously quicker to have everything you need close by. Likewise, your PC keeps what it needs immediately close by in RAM, and if it needs to, fetches additional data from storage like your SSD on demand.
Microsoft can’t increase the size of your 8GB RAM, represented by the size of the snack table. But what it can do is tightly organize or even compress what’s on it. Davuluri said that Microsoft is using compression to effectively increase the size of the local RAM by up to 2 GB. Through memory savings in Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365, Microsoft said that they’re now able to cut the increase of actively used or committed memory by up to 900 MB.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s other improvements essentially free up background tasks that Windows would normally be working on to better anticipate your needs. One reason that Microsoft wants you to use its Edge browser is that it can order Edge to always run in the background. That consumes memory, but it also means it can more quickly launch when you need it. But Microsoft is also putting tabs to sleep more quickly, so that just a static page remains and one that consumes less memory.