The new Steam beta UI eats a full 1GB of RAM
Steam Beta UI eats a full 1GB of RAM - bad news for low RAM users.
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Steam is the most used gaming platform on the PC, with tens of millions of people logging in every single day. Just like every other relevant software, Steam undergoes constant updates and improvements. Here’s how the new Steam beta UI eats a full 1GB of RAM.
The new Steam UI uses a full 1GB of RAM.
Valve gives users the option to enroll in the Beta channel of Steam, this means that the users who enroll get a chance to experience Steam updates before they officially release to the wider public. In doing so, users can provide feedback as to what needs fixing and how before the updates go live.
Now it seems there has been an update that substantially increases the amount of memory that Steam needs to display its new UI.
In a video posted by the YouTube channel FATİH KARTAL you can see the Steam RAM issue in realtime
In the video, you can see the system RAM usage spike to just shy of 6GB when Steam is open, a stark difference compared to when Steam isn’t active as RAM usage at that time peaks at around 4.6 GB.
When compared to our version of Steam on the standard release channel, we observe a peak memory usage of around 338 MB
Why is Steam using more memory a problem?
Well, it isn’t if you have enough RAM to support the change. However, if you have a low memory system, then every MB matters.
According to the Steam Hardware survey of May 2023 around 25% of users play with 12GB of RAM or less, with 1GB becoming more and more precious the further you move down the list.
Hopefully, this issue will be resolved before the update hits the general public. Valve and its software Steam, have been known for inefficiencies in the past. The Steam web-based chat revamps, released in 2018, still, have memory leaks (and certain chat bugs) present within the code to this day, and this particular update was released 5 years ago. States one Redditor.
With that being said, we love Steam, and we love the sleek new UI changes. Here’s to more Steam optimization updates to keep a quarter of the Steam community grinning with 12GB of memory or less.
