If you were hoping to upgrade your PC—or even just buy any new gadget that has RAM in it—prepare for some serious sticker shock this year. Thanks to the explosion of AI data centers, it’s going to be a while before component prices for consumer devices come down. So, in the meantime, you’ll need to make the most of the RAM you do have.
Most people can get by with a relatively modest amount of memory. A budget laptop with 8GB of RAM is fine for web browsing and work, though you’ll likely need 16GB and up for more demanding tasks, including mid-tier gaming. You’d only need 32GB of RAM if you’re a high-end gamer or multimedia editor.
If you’re hitting those thresholds and your PC is still struggling, here are some options to explore before paying the (astronomically high) 2026 retail prices for a full upgrade. Note, I’ll be focusing on Windows PCs here, since most other operating systems and hardware platforms are more tightly integrated. However, some strategies—like using a less resource-intensive browser, or shopping for used hardware—are universal.
1. Consider Lesser RAM Configurations
My first piece of advice would be not to sweat every little optimization. When you’re upgrading RAM, conventional wisdom says to either buy sticks that are all the same speed or get fewer sticks with more RAM. This is great if you want to optimize your PC, but if you’re strapped for upgrade options, it’s okay to consider a less-than-perfect setup.
For example, let’s say you have four sticks of DDR4 RAM, two of which are rated for 3200MHz, and two of which are 3600MHz. Typically, you shouldn’t use them together because your motherboard is going to default to the slower of the two speeds, and the faster RAM won’t be utilizing its full speed potential. But when there’s a substantial price difference between the two, it becomes a trade-off worth considering.
I’d say that, in most cases, having more RAM is a bigger benefit than having slightly faster RAM, so if you’re trying to shave your budget, it’s okay to consider options that are less than perfect. Just make sure any RAM you get is compatible with your motherboard.
2. Enable XMP/EXPO in Your BIOS
Your RAM comes with a preset clock speed that’s designed to balance speed and stability, but some performance-oriented RAM can run at even higher clock speeds. To take advantage of this, though, you may need to enable the XMP or EXPO setting in your BIOS.
Intel’s E(x)treme Memory Profiles (or XMP) and AMD’s Extended Profile for Overclocking (or EXPO) are similar features that allow high-performance RAM to run at faster clock speeds than their factory defaults. While overclocking in general can sometimes lead to more stability issues, these preset profiles are designed to balance the voltage and frequency settings that can cause conflicts, without much fiddling on your part.
Enabling XMP/EXPO varies by device, so check your motherboard’s manual or your BIOS settings. You may need to look in the advanced settings sections. Look for XMP or EXPO, then choose a profile based on the performance you’re looking for.
3. Clear Out Unused Processes
If you open your Task Manager (Ctrl-Shift-Esc), you can see how much of your RAM is currently in use and which programs are using it. While it’s tempting to indiscriminately close apps to clear up space in your memory, that can be counterproductive. Even if you haven’t touched an app for hours, having it loaded into RAM means it’s ready for you when you come back to it. So, having close to 100% RAM utilization is generally better than forcing it to be unused.
The exception, however, is if your memory is loaded up with apps you don’t actually need. One common resource hog can be your browser, especially if you (like me) have a habit of leaving a lot of tabs open. Chrome even has its own task manager (Shift-Esc) to see the memory footprint of individual tabs.
Most of the time, your OS does a pretty good job of managing this for you. But if you have a limited amount of RAM and a lot of resource-heavy applications, it can sometimes be helpful to do a quick audit of your running applications.
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4. Audit Your Startup Programs
For convenience, Windows keeps a list of programs that are allowed to launch at startup. Under Settings > Apps > Startup, you can find a list of apps that run when you start up your PC. Most of these will probably be low-lift processes, like your team chat apps or printer utilities. Sometimes, though, you can find apps you don’t really need that are quietly eating up your resources.
I’ve found apps I rarely use running in the background and hogging up a lot of memory. Sure, sometimes I need to use a video or image editor, but that doesn’t mean I need Adobe Creative Cloud running in the background constantly while I’m writing. I’ve also found several game launchers I never use in the Startup apps list on my PC. It should be this simple, but developers have abused the startup app feature for years, so you might need a little more help to stop Windows apps from launching at startup.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)
5. Disable Unnecessary Background Processes
In addition to startup apps, your PC is usually running a lot of background processes that do invisible work to support the apps you use. Most of the time, these are harmless and won’t impact your system much, but if you’re struggling with your memory usage, examining your background services can be a helpful diagnostic tool.
To do this, open your Start menu, type “msconfig”, and choose “System configuration.” In the window that pops up, select the Services tab. Here, you’ll find a list of all the background services registered on your system, who makes them, and which ones are actively running. A checkbox next to each one allows you to disable them.
Now, you probably shouldn’t turn off most of these, unless you know for sure you don’t need them. Background services can be critical for other apps in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. However, it can occasionally be helpful to spot resource hogs that you might’ve forgotten about—like the time I set up an HTC Vive headset ages ago, then forgot about it, only to find that the VR streaming service was still running in the background.
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(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)
6. Stop Using Chrome (or At Least Tweak it)
Google’s dominant web browser may have made improvements in its memory usage over the years, but it’s still a pretty big resource hog compared with some other web browsers. While that might only be one factor in your choice of browser, if you’re straining against a low RAM limit, swapping to an alternative could help.
As far as options go, Brave is among the best for privacy. Microsoft’s Edge has a pretty solid advantage in terms of memory management. Its sleeping tabs feature, for example, deactivates tabs you’re not using, freeing up resources for other applications, and only reloads those tabs when you come back to them.
Chrome introduced a similar feature in 2024, though you might have to head to Settings > Performance and enable it manually. You can also set the Memory Saver feature to more or less aggressive presets, depending on your needs.
(Credit: PCMag / Google)
7. Make Sure Your Page File Is Set Properly
When your RAM fills up, but your PC still needs to load new data into memory, Windows will offload some of the older stuff to a file called the page file. This is an allocated section of your computer’s internal storage that acts as virtual memory, which can help prevent system crashes from running out of RAM.
In the past, this has had a tendency to cause some confusion when users see a gigantic file on their storage drive, taking up tons of space for seemingly no reason. Despite ill-advised instructions you might’ve found in random forum threads, it is generally not a good idea to reduce your page file size. Ideally, you should leave it at the default, which your system manages automatically.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)
If you’re having issues, though, it’s worth double-checking that your page file settings haven’t been changed by a previous user of (or the you from five years ago who thought it was a good idea at the time). To double-check this, go to Settings > System > About and select Advanced system settings. In the box that pops up, go to Performance > Settings, then click the Advanced tab and choose Change… under Virtual memory.
Here, you’ll see Automatically manage paging file size for all drives checked. If it’s disabled, it will say System managed size selected for your drive. The currently allocated amount will probably be something equivalent to the amount of physical RAM you have installed in your PC. If any of this isn’t the case, your safest bet is to re-check the box at the top.
(Credit: PCMag / Microsoft)
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Eric Ravenscraft is a freelance writer and tech nerd working out of the geek capital of the world, Atlanta, Georgia. He watches way too many movies and definitely has one to recommend that you haven’t seen. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram.
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