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Microsoft admits 8GB RAM is fine for Windows 11, after years of pushing 16GB as the baseline
(www.windowslatest.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Every Windows 11 system I’ve used with 8GB of RAM ran like total shit.
Windows 11 with 16 also runs like hot garbage, so I'm not sure if it's a ram issue. I'm sure more ram helps, but I don't think it's the main problem. I've not used 8 GB in a while though, so maybe some updates really changed things.
My work computer is an i9 with 64GB of RAM and it also runs like shit. It's really noticeable how bad performance is since I switched to Linux full time on my personal systems and have a frequent comparison point.
Well, work machines have increasing counts of security agents. Mine has three and I’ve seen more. Plus Teams which uses enough RAM to run a proper OS all by itself.
True. We buy pretty good PCs and they run okay. But if I put vanilla Windows, even Win11, or any Linux, they're absolutely screaming fast.
Exactly my experience. My Linux machines with 16GB of ram run circles around my work imposed W11 machine that has 64GB of ram.
experienced this first hand the other day... fresh boot and the damn thing is using like 11gb. luckily this was not my machine, and I'm on a Mac, but I felt the guys pain.
8GB is enough for Windows 11. Issues only arise if you open any applications while Windows is running.
It's barely enough to RDP to another machine
FTFY
I bet if I tried Windows 11 with 128 GB, I would still think it runs like garbage.
Well how about 256gb?
It's only 4 sticks of ram, how much can it cost? 5 mio dollars?
It is tradition
Theres online comparisons somewhere on ram/cpu etc... win 11 is VERY bad at 8gb in most cases. Linux at 8gb mostly fly. Hell mac os works well at 8.
Its just microslop doing their thing.
I'm certified apple hater and "all linux" user, but in all fairness - MacOS does amazing job with ram managing. Caching, swap control and i\o priority scheduling made way better than on any linux distro.
With 8GB you can boot Windows, the OS, no problem, but basically cannot run applications/games. You cannot use it, just stare at the screen doing nothing :)