Some Windows 11 apps have a massive RAM problem – and this app is the worst offender

• Windows Latest discovered Discord and other Chromium and Electron-based applications with high RAM usage
• RAM usage spikes from 1GB to 4GB on Discord both in and out of voice chat
• It comes at a time where prices for RAM kits are exceedingly high

It's no secret at this point that the PC hardware market is in an unstable state, with prices for RAM kits skyrocketing like never before due to the current AI bubble – and that's why this Windows 11 issue is far more noticeable at this stage.

As reported by Windows Latest, Discord and other Windows 11 applications using the Electron framework are consuming significant amounts of RAM, with Discord notably spiking from 1GB up to 4GB. This is due to these apps using the Chromium browser instance and Node.js (a JavaScript runtime) for desktop app functionality, which appears to lead to memory leaks.

Being a frequent Discord user, I've noticed several instances where RAM usage exceeds 1GB, steadily increasing the longer it's open and active. While it's not unusual for applications to use a decent amount of system memory, it becomes problematic when gaming or utilizing other resource-heavy applications.

Just like Windows Latest, I tested this by joining a server and entering voice chat to stream; before the voice chat stream was active, Discord's RAM usage was at 780MB, and once I started streaming, it managed to shoot up to 1.4GB after a few minutes (screenshots below).

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Now this makes sense, especially when streaming content at high resolutions like 1080p or 1440p. However, the most frustrating aspect is that even after ending the stream (and even leaving voice chat entirely), the 1.4GB of RAM usage didn't decrease, but instead fluctuated consistently between 1.2GB and 1.4GB, which was only resolved when completely restarting Discord.

This now adds further explanations on why game performance may be worse than usual when Discord is active in the background, with instant improvements seen when the application is completely shut down.

While users with 32GB or 64GB of RAM may not find this to be very problematic, it's still a portion of RAM that can impact functionality and speeds, and is undoubtedly a bigger concern for users who only have 8GB or 16GB of RAM – and with RAM kit prices exceeding the normal standard due to the AI boom, this is the worst time for applications to hog system memory.

Analysis: This is just another addition to the current RAM problems

It's one thing for Microsoft's Windows 11 to suffer from a handful of issues, with background processes actively impacting game performance for gamers, and bloatware leaving users frustrated with the operating system's lack of ease of use – but applications like Discord adding to the issue, alongside current memory demand, just makes matters worse.

While I'm personally waiting for Discord to add native support on SteamOS with a dedicated application for its game mode, it seems as though fixing this memory leak (which is what this seems to be) should be the priority.

RAM pricing issues are only going to get worse from here on it as long as this AI boom remains, and if solutions can't be introduced to Discord and other applications based on Chromium using more memory than necessary, it's going to leave more users frustrated.

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