Windows 11 bloat proves too much for Microsoft's new 8GB Surface Laptop

[DragonSlayer101]

Facepalm: Microsoft launched the more affordable Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 8 last month, with prices starting at $849. The new models feature lower-end configurations than their flagship counterparts, including an older Snapdragon chipset and just 8GB of RAM instead of 16GB. Reviews of the new devices are now in, and, as expected, 8GB of memory is simply not enough to run Windows 11 smoothly.

According to The Verge, 8GB of memory works mostly fine for basic tasks such as web browsing, text editing, and video streaming on YouTube and other streaming platforms. However, the laptop would hang or freeze "for several seconds" whenever someone joined a video call on Microsoft Teams.

The report noted that the laptop struggled to handle the video stream even though it was not running any demanding workloads in the background. At the time, it only had about 10 Chrome tabs open, along with the Slack and Signal apps. The laptop also froze randomly several times a day while working in Google Docs, even when no Teams calls or video streams were running in the background.

Windows Task Manager reported that the device was using around 6.7GB of its 7.6GB of available memory most of the time. Rebooting the PC with no unnecessary startup apps running in the background reduced memory usage to around 4.2GB, but opening around half a dozen Chrome tabs increased it to roughly 5.5GB.

The review suggests that Microsoft has not optimized Windows 11 well enough to make it run reliably on 8GB of RAM, despite promising to reduce the operating system's default memory footprint as part of its Windows K2 initiative. Windows 11 technically requires a minimum of 4GB of RAM, but users have long complained that even 8GB is nowhere near enough for consistently smooth performance.

For years, Microsoft recommended 16GB of memory as the baseline for a smooth Windows 11 experience. However, in June, the company changed its stance with the launch of new 8GB Surface devices amid a severe memory shortage that has driven hardware prices sharply higher in recent months.

The updated Surface Laptop page on the Microsoft Store describes 8GB of RAM as "great for everyday use like browsing, streaming, schoolwork, and productivity apps." The 16GB recommendation is no longer mentioned, although the company notes that an additional 8GB of memory is required to access Copilot+ AI features.

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Windows 11 bloat proves too much for Microsoft's new 8GB Surface Laptop

 

[LordVile95]

Issue is that windows has to be booated because if the hardware and software it supports. If you start cutting it back you risk of breaking things

 

[bandit8623]

Issue is that windows has to be booated because if the hardware and software it supports. If you start cutting it back you risk of breaking things

That's not true at all.. drivers are not large and don't have much to do with whats running in ram. It's all the services that are running by default.

 

[trparky]

That's not true at all.. drivers are not large and don't have much to do with whats running in ram. It's all the services that are running by default.

Exactly.

If you look at how many background services that are running in Windows 11, you'll see why. Add in how many components in Windows 11 are webapps that eat RAM, it's no wonder why Windows 11 runs like hot piss on 8 GBs of RAM.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Issue is that windows has to be booated because if the hardware and software it supports. If you start cutting it back you risk of breaking things

That may be true for generic windows devices but it COULD be customized for their own hardware… they just didn’t bother… no need to have a bunch of useless drivers when it’s hardware you released and know exactly what drivers are required

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Issue is that windows has to be booated because if the hardware and software it supports. If you start cutting it back you risk of breaking things

Ridiculous. On par with "my PC is slow because the grandkids downloaded a minecraft".

Linux supports more then windows and will happily run on 4gb devices.

Windows is a bloated mess. Why do the new calendar and clock apps, written in web view, need half a gig of memory to run when the old programs ran in the kilobytes? Why do you need thousands upon thousands of services on a fresh install?

 

[Mercury Joe]

The programmers became complacent. They are used to having lot of resources available to run their pet projects and preload the gee wiz software in case a user wants to use it.

It used to be you had to fight for every MB of memory and had to justify its use. Now?? Just enable it. RAM was cheap and you could just ridicule people into adding more resources to their machine if they complained about performance.

If Windows would go back to its basics of what it is supposed to be then things are fine. I have loaded up Windows 11 on a 2 core/4 gig machine and it works fine (I still would not want to use it every day tho..) for basic tasks AFTER I ran a debloating script. I got it stripped down to its basics and it does okay.

As long as they want to be it to be an ad revenue source or be ready for any possible use case it is going to be a bloated sludgy mess by default.

 

[LordVile95]

Ridiculous. On par with "my PC is slow because the grandkids downloaded a minecraft".

Not really.

Linux supports more then windows and will happily run on 4gb devices.

No it doesn’t. As a family of OS’s it might after you’ve spent hours customising it but even then it doesn’t come close to the hardware and software compatibility of windows. And the versions that run on 4GB support even less

Windows is a bloated mess. Why do the new calendar and clock apps, written in web view, need half a gig of memory to run when the old programs ran in the kilobytes? Why do you need thousands upon thousands of services on a fresh install?

Becaure of the amount of hardware and software that runs though it.

 

[LordVile95]

That may be true for generic windows devices but it COULD be customized for their own hardware… they just didn’t bother… no need to have a bunch of useless drivers when it’s hardware you released and know exactly what drivers are required

Generic drivers are actually very useful

 

[LordVile95]

That's not true at all.. drivers are not large and don't have much to do with whats running in ram. It's all the services that are running by default.

It’s not just drivers? It’s all the APIs and backend that has to be supported for billions of different hardware configurations with millions of different software requirements. It’s not MacOS which supports 10 years of 6 product lines or Linux which supports nothing until the users manually install everything themselves.

 

[gamerk2]

It’s not just drivers? It’s all the APIs and backend that has to be supported for billions of different hardware configurations with millions of different software requirements. It’s not MacOS which supports 10 years of 6 product lines or Linux which supports nothing until the users manually install everything themselves.

Those are isolated to DLLs that are only invoked when called by an application. The issue is all the services that are on by default.

 

[AndreV]

Just install a trimmed Tiny 11 edition of Windows. I have a Atlas edition(a type of Tiny 10) that starts with 700MB RAM and around 50 services. I also have plenty of Tiny 11 with 1GB RAM minimum requirement.

 

[LordVile95]

Those are isolated to DLLs that are only invoked when called by an application.

The applications that launch on startup and are active when you’re trying to actually use the system yes

The issue is all the services that are on by default.

Services such as?

 

[terzaerian]

The programmers became complacent. They are used to having lot of resources available to run their pet projects and preload the gee wiz software in case a user wants to use it.

It used to be you had to fight for every MB of memory and had to justify its use. Now?? Just enable it. RAM was cheap and you could just ridicule people into adding more resources to their machine if they complained about performance.

If Windows would go back to its basics of what it is supposed to be then things are fine. I have loaded up Windows 11 on a 2 core/4 gig machine and it works fine (I still would not want to use it every day tho..) for basic tasks AFTER I ran a debloating script. I got it stripped down to its basics and it does okay.

As long as they want to be it to be an ad revenue source or be ready for any possible use case it is going to be a bloated sludgy mess by default.

You're presuming a good faith failure on the part of management.

They're purposefully screwing up Windows installed the machine in order to sell you the agentic AI future where your "computer" is nothing more than an overgrown smartphone.

 

[trparky]

Why do the new calendar and clock apps, written in web view, need half a gig of memory to run when the old programs ran in the kilobytes? Why do you need thousands upon thousands of services on a fresh install?

This is the biggest damn issue of them all. Whoever invented Electron/Webapps needs to be taken out back by the shed...

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Not really.

Yes, really.

Having drivers installed for different hardware does not cause RAM usage to increase. Unless those drivers are loaded, they do not take memory.

Anybody familiar with how operating systems knows that......

No it doesn’t. As a family of OS’s it might after you’ve spent hours customising it but even then it doesn’t come close to the hardware and software compatibility of windows. And the versions that run on 4GB support even less

All you've done here is show off how ignorant you are about operating systems and their level of support. Linux officially supports far more hardware then windows 11 does.

Becaure of the amount of hardware and software that runs though it.

This response makes no sense. Please explain to the class why the new calendar app uses hundred sof megabytes to do what the old one with more features did in kilobytes on the same variety of hardware.

 

[LordVile95]

Yes, really.

Having drivers installed for different hardware does not cause RAM usage to increase. Unless those drivers are loaded, they do not take memory.

You should read the test of the comments.

Anybody familiar with how operating systems knows that......

Read the rest of the comments

All you've done here is show off how ignorant you are about operating systems and their level of support. Linux officially supports far more hardware then windows 11 does.

Not out of the box it doesn’t. What’s support like for Nvidia GPUs on Linux like again?

This response makes no sense. Please explain to the class why the new calendar app uses hundred sof megabytes to do what the old one with more features did in kilobytes on the same variety of hardware.

Features, functionality, tie ins with other parts of the systems etc etc etc. Also listed RAM allocation isn’t the same as what the program is actually using.

 

[Inthenstus]

This is why I don’t use Windows anymore lol

 

[Theinsanegamer]

You should read the test of the comments.

You should take your own advice

Read the rest of the comments

Read the rest of the comments. I see people dunking on you for not knowing what you are talking about and you REEEing in response.

Not out of the box it doesn’t. What’s support like for Nvidia GPUs on Linux like again?

Yes, out of the box it does. Linux's open source Nvidia driver works perfectly fine for booting the system, browsing the web, everything but 3d gaming and productivity. Just like the default windows driver.

You clearly haven't tried Linux in at least 10 years given how out of date your frame of reference is here.

Features, functionality, tie ins with other parts of the systems etc etc etc. Also listed RAM allocation isn’t the same as what the program is actually using.

Features and functions like what? List some specifics. What are these tie ins that didn't exist before?

Also, active memory usage as listed in performance monitor is not RAM allocation.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Generic drivers are actually very useful

Yes - for OTHER hardware... but we're talking about the MS Surface lineup... they know EXACTLY what drivers are necessary - no need for any other drivers (other than for peripherals) as motherboard/GPU/RAM/Chipset/etc are all FIXED.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Yes - for OTHER hardware... but we're talking about the MS Surface lineup... they know EXACTLY what drivers are necessary - no need for any other drivers (other than for peripherals) as motherboard/GPU/RAM/Chipset/etc are all FIXED.

Windows doesn't need its own sku for different hardware. Those drivers are installed as needed, windows doesn't carry the entire catalog of driver DLLs with it at all times.

And having access to driver DLLs doesn't increase RAM usage. These are two totally different tissues.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Windows doesn't need its own sku for different hardware. Those drivers are installed as needed, windows doesn't carry the entire catalog of driver DLLs with it at all times.

And having access to driver FLLs doesn't increase RAM usage. These are two totally different tissues.

Oh I agree - but that poster seems to think so... and even if he's wrong about that, he's ALSO wrong about it even being necessary to have

 

[toooooot]

Windows 11 made my very decent Lenovo laptop a laggy outdated piece of ****p.
If it wasn't for it, I would be still using it, I do not throw away things that work for my needs.
They trapped themselves trying to mate 8GB laptops with this monster that very loudly demands 16.
Meanwhile, as a long time Windows user, I strongly recommend staying away from these 8GB devices.
You would be better off with Apple Neo, if you can still find it at the old price.

 

[NumberNine]

Microsoft has zero incentive to create a lightweight, consumer focused OS now. I estimate most of the userbase would not move out of the way if they saw pee coming at their face from redmond. They're just happy to have it.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Windows 11 made my very decent Lenovo laptop a laggy outdated piece of ****p.
If it wasn't for it, I would be still using it, I do not throw away things that work for my needs.
They trapped themselves trying to mate 8GB laptops with this monster that very loudly demands 16.
Meanwhile, as a long time Windows user, I strongly recommend staying away from these 8GB devices.
You would be better off with Apple Neo, if you can still find it at the old price.

Try searching for Tiny11 - you might be pleasantly surprised