The situation in the budget laptop market is getting increasingly difficult, thanks to the skyrocketing cost of RAM and the competition from Apple’s MacBook Neo. For Windows laptop makers, one way to keep prices affordable is to ship machines with just 8GB of RAM. But there’s a problem. Windows 11 isn’t exactly known for being gentle on memory.
Microsoft is now trying to fix that problem. The company says Windows 11 can now multitask up to 40% faster on PCs with just 8GB RAM, alongside a bunch of other improvements that reduce how much memory the operating system and its apps consume.
What has Microsoft changed?
According to Microsoft, Windows 11 can now keep up to 2GB more active data in RAM instead of pushing it to slower storage. That means apps and browser tabs you left open won’t have to reload as often when you return to them.
There are a few more improvements on the table. The company has made changes to how background tasks are handled, allowing Start, Search, and File Explorer to respond up to 20% faster. Microsoft Edge can also launch up to 33% faster.
In memory savings, improvements across Windows, Edge, and Microsoft 365 apps can reduce committed-memory growth by up to 900MB. Of that, changes made to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook account for up to 360MB in memory savings. Widgets also stay unloaded until opened, while inactive Edge tabs go to sleep after 15 minutes.
Microsoft claims up to 40% faster multitasking on 8GB PCs, based on its own lab tests involving several apps running simultaneously.
Why does it matter?
The cost of RAM has been going through the roof, and Gartner has even warned that the sub-$500 PC segment could disappear by 2028. Meanwhile, Apple’s MacBook Neo is making things tougher for Windows manufacturers, thanks to how efficiently macOS can run on limited memory.
Shipping laptops with 8GB instead of 16GB could help manufacturers keep prices down. But that won’t mean much if Windows itself eats through most of it. Microsoft says the improvements are available with Windows 11 26H2, build 26300.9818 or later. For heavier workloads, 16GB or more is still recommended.
