Windows 11 26H2 Uses 1.2GB Less RAM Than 25H2, Tests Reveal

Windows 11 26H2 appears to use significantly less RAM than an older Windows 11 25H2 build, with new tests showing improvements in memory usage across startup, multitasking, and heavy workloads.

Microsoft recently claimed that Windows 11 is getting faster on PCs with 8GB of RAM, and new findings suggest those optimizations are making a difference.

According to Windows Central, Windows 11 26H2 used up to 1.2GB less RAM than 25H2 on the same laptop, while also reducing memory pressure during demanding workloads.

Windows 11 26H2 uses 1.2GB less RAM after startup

Windows Central tested both versions on an Acer Swift Air 14 equipped with 8GB of LPDDR5x RAM, comparing Windows 11 25H2 against Windows 11 26H2 build 26300.9711.

After a fresh boot, without additional applications running, Windows 11 25H2 used 5.3GB of RAM and had 2.3GB available. In comparison, Windows 11 26H2 used just 4.1GB, leaving 3.5GB available.

That represents a 1.2GB reduction in memory usage, giving the newer version considerably more available memory without any hardware changes.

Windows 11 26H2 handles multitasking with less memory

The second test involved running 10 Microsoft Edge tabs, a Word document, Slack, and Spotify simultaneously.

Windows 11 25H2 consumed approximately 7GB of RAM, leaving only 563MB available. Meanwhile, Windows 11 26H2 used around 6.6GB and maintained 1GB of available memory.

Although the difference was smaller than during startup, the newer version still handled the same applications with lower memory usage.

Windows 11 26H2 reduces memory pressure under heavy workloads

The final test pushed both versions further by running 20 Edge tabs alongside Word, Excel, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft Store, Photos, File Explorer, and GIMP.

Under this workload, Windows 11 25H2 used 7.3GB of physical memory, leaving 352MB available. Windows 11 26H2 consumed 6.8GB and maintained 764MB of available memory.

However, the biggest difference appeared in committed memory. Windows 11 25H2 reached 15.2GB, compared with just 10.4GB on Windows 11 26H2, a reduction of 4.8GB.

The older version also showed more noticeable disk activity associated with memory paging, suggesting that Windows relied more heavily on virtual memory to handle the workload.

Windows 11 26H2 still experienced occasional disk usage spikes, but these were less severe than on 25H2.

Microsoft’s optimizations could improve Windows 11 on 8GB PCs

The results suggest that Windows 11 26H2 manages limited memory more efficiently, particularly on laptops and budget PCs with 8GB of RAM.

Lower memory usage could also reduce reliance on the page file, potentially improving responsiveness on systems with slower storage.

However, these tests focused on RAM consumption and disk activity rather than direct application performance benchmarks. They also compared specific Windows builds on a single laptop, so the results may differ across devices.

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