Lower the Resources to run Steam :: Suggestions / Ideas

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Myll 20 Jun @ 12:52pm

Lower the Resources to run Steam

Valve/Steam, you gotta do better. Your new method of employing a Steam Browser system is getting too resource intensive. Half the memory in my (7-yr old) laptop is consumed with managing the Steam client, and that's without a single game being played.

Simply put - you are not working hard enough to optimize your browser-based system in this new Steam Client. While I do have a much more modern, updated desktop PC in the top 10% of performance among gaming desktops, I also need to use the Steam Client when away from home with a laptop. I've seen similar complaints before, but I wanted to specify "why" it matters, as it's getting near impossible to keep the Steam client open. Unfortunately, one of the first tasks as my laptop boots up - is to fully close down Steam so it doesn't pull resources away from other things.

Whenever one single App/program/client becomes that Resource Intensive, it speaks toward a lack of optimization to support ALL of the customer base. You shouldn't operate as if all customers must use top 10% gear or else their experience with Steam becomes sub-par.

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Showing 1-15 of 19 comments

Mad Scientist 20 Jun @ 12:56pm

Well if half the resources are taken by steam basic operation, which averages 500 mbs for users, 1gb really isn't going to cut it these days. 16gbs was recommended in the 2003-2006 era, today the general recommendation is 24-36GBs ram.

Older systems tend to struggle for a reason.

Last edited by Mad Scientist; 20 Jun @ 12:56pm

Haruspex 20 Jun @ 12:56pm

Originally posted by Myll:
Half the memory in my (7-yr old) laptop is consumed with managing the Steam client

Do you only have 2 GB of RAM? Even if you do have an old laptop like that, RAM is pretty cheap and an upgrade would be simple. Even a low-end machine has 16 GB of RAM today.

Last edited by Haruspex; 20 Jun @ 1:08pm

nullable 20 Jun @ 2:23pm

I remember the days where the prospect of running a 7 year old laptop with the intent of playing games was beyond the point of silly.

Of course in some cases it still may be, some users who've only known summer may not be aware of this. Sometimes running dated hardware means upgrades.

xBCxRangers 20 Jun @ 2:42pm

And here i am running Steam thru a micro PC the size of my hand.

This thing is a beast

Ferox_Stormdragon 20 Jun @ 3:19pm

the steam client already uses very little resources, on my pc the client, service and webhelpers are currently sitting at less than 350mb, that's nothing compared to the games

Myll 20 Jun @ 4:24pm

Originally posted by Ferox_Stormdragon:
the steam client already uses very little resources, on my pc the client, service and webhelpers are currently sitting at less than 350mb, that's nothing compared to the games

Earlier today when I posted this, the Steam Client was consuming 1.5GB and that was without any game running in Steam. Now I see the Client only consuming around 250MB. Was Steam experimenting with a promotion or Summer Sale stuff earlier today? Dunno, but 1.5GB was extremely high, and over 10 separate Steam processes were running at the time (now at 8 total).

Ben Lubar 20 Jun @ 4:45pm

Originally posted by Myll:
Originally posted by Ferox_Stormdragon:
the steam client already uses very little resources, on my pc the client, service and webhelpers are currently sitting at less than 350mb, that's nothing compared to the games
Earlier today when I posted this, the Steam Client was consuming 1.5GB and that was without any game running in Steam. Now I see the Client only consuming around 250MB. Was Steam experimenting with a promotion or Summer Sale stuff earlier today? Dunno, but 1.5GB was extremely high, and over 10 separate Steam processes were running at the time (now at 8 total).

Were you using Steam's web browser to browse the website? Videos and large images take a lot of memory.

Start_Running 20 Jun @ 5:24pm

Oh L:ook. yet another person who doesn't understand how Memory allocation works.
OP. Valve's resource usage is directly tied to the resources of your system. I was able to run Steam quite compfrtable on a 17 year old system up until last month when I finally upgraded.

nullable 20 Jun @ 5:35pm

Originally posted by Start_Running:
Oh L:ook. yet another person who doesn't understand how Memory allocation works.
OP. Valve's resource usage is directly tied to the resources of your system. I was able to run Steam quite compfrtable on a 17 year old system up until last month when I finally upgraded.

Mad lad. I can't even fathom it. Like were you running a first gen Athlon64? Because I ditched mine in 2009.

Last edited by nullable; 20 Jun @ 5:35pm

Start_Running 20 Jun @ 5:38pm

Originally posted by nullable:
Originally posted by Start_Running:
Oh L:ook. yet another person who doesn't understand how Memory allocation works.
OP. Valve's resource usage is directly tied to the resources of your system. I was able to run Steam quite compfrtable on a 17 year old system up until last month when I finally upgraded.

Mad lad. I can't even fathom it. Like were you running a first gen Athlon64? Because I ditched mine in 2009.

I was running an Inteld Core2Duo 8500. *8gigs of ram.
System is still here beside me. Think I'm gonna turn it into a dedicated capture box.
When I build a asystem. I build one to last!

#10

pizza4life 20 Jun @ 10:19pm

It sounds more like a case of your laptop having too much rubbish softwares running in the background, or not having sufficient storage space for cache. Do some clean up on your laptop.

#11

Tezzious 22 Jun @ 4:11pm

never seen steam client go above 650MB ram, that's with hundreds of games installed.

#12

Crazy Tiger 22 Jun @ 4:16pm

Originally posted by Myll:
Dunno, but 1.5GB was extremely high, and over 10 separate Steam processes were running at the time (now at 8 total).

1,5GB is high indeed. I rarely see Steam pop above 700-750MB, so can't say I've seen it that high.

The amount of processes is just how Chromium works. The Steam client is basically a giant browser, every part is it's own "tab", translated into it's own process.

#13

Ben Lubar 22 Jun @ 4:29pm

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:
Originally posted by Myll:
Dunno, but 1.5GB was extremely high, and over 10 separate Steam processes were running at the time (now at 8 total).
1,5GB is high indeed. I rarely see Steam pop above 700-750MB, so can't say I've seen it that high.

The amount of processes is just how Chromium works. The Steam client is basically a giant browser, every part is it's own "tab", translated into it's own process.

And it's not just one process per tab; modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc.) will put background computations and networking and audio and video decoding into their own processes.

#14

Satoru 22 Jun @ 5:21pm

Windows is a modern OS it will allocate memory within the means of what the system has resources for. If you have a 32GB system then steam will use up more resources as it hardly makes sense to have a performance hit, when you can just use memory. This isn't DOS. you don't need EMM386 to dole out memory like we're trying to ration it out like its WW2.

If another process needs more memory then Windows will simplyi claw it back from that process, and that stuff goes into paged memory. That's how modern OS memory management works.

Last edited by Satoru; 22 Jun @ 5:22pm

#15

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Date Posted: 20 Jun @ 12:52pm

Posts: 19

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