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BUG: dwm.exe uses memory leakage with Intel HD Graphics 630

Cody
New Contributor I
511,931 Views

Hi,

dwm.exe (Desktop-Window Manager) uses high memory with Intel Intel HD Graphics 630. This problem has been reported before:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/desktop-windows-manager-dwm-memory-leakage-in/c2968fb0-ee26-4483-9f08-dfa19149cd24

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/iqttw5/windows_10_dwmexe_high_ram_usage/g4umzyn/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

Here's a screenshot of my dwm ram usage after 2 hours (1.6 GB):
Image1.jpg

 

Please, this bug is already known for 3-4 months, and I do not want to reinstall a 2019 driver...

1 Solution
Gabriela_Intel
Moderator
315,786 Views

It seems that everyone has posted positive results so far about beta driver 101.1121 resolving this dwm leak issue. I'm going ahead and marking this thread as resolved! Please note that we'll specifically call out this fix in the release notes of our next production driver release to the Download Center which will be found here once available.

 

Special thanks to @HKlum@TurboTacho@Ansuel, and the MANY others that dedicated their time testing and providing various dump files. I really appreciate you all sticking by our side after all this time to make sure this long-standing problem gets resolved. You folks are what make this Community forum so great. We couldn't have done it without you! 😊

 

For those of you that continue to exhibit issues: Please create new individual threads so we can assess if it is a separate issue or not for your particular case.

 

Thanks again everyone!!

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612 Replies
fernandogomez
New Contributor I
8,077 Views

Thank you so much for the clarification! I was not sure if it was the expected (normal) behavior with this new driver.

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Almighty1
New Contributor II
7,991 Views

What is considered normal since for me, before this driver, it used to hit 36.5GB after a few hours on system with 32GB RAM but now it's hitting 900MB and staying at 800MB as I posted earlier a few minutes ago.  I wonder if the maximum memory usage has to do with the amount of physical memory on the system which is why probably some people's system would crash while mines has not so with the exception of 30.0.100.9922 causing black screen issues which a clean install has fixed.

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Almighty1
New Contributor II
8,346 Views

@Gabriela_Intel  @Bryce_Intel 


Thanks for the update of the new driver version. 

For me, v3.0.101.1069 and earlier were hitting 36.5GB even after a few hours on a Dell XPS 15 9570 with 32GB of memory running Windows 11 Professional x64 22000.346 so this appears to be a major improvement except I am not sure what is considered "normal".  These are my stats so far with v30.0.101.1121 and MPOs enabled with each screen shot showing the uptime of when it was taken, it is around 800MB normally and did not go down which appears to still be higher than what others have reported.   

0 days 1 hour 58 minutes and 5 seconds of uptime:

Almighty1_0-1637179951341.png


0 days 15 hours 18 minutes and 38 seconds of uptime:

Almighty1_1-1637180086348.png

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Almighty1
New Contributor II
7,947 Views

@Gabriela_Intel & @Bryce_Intel 

Updated stats for v30.0.101.1121 Beta Drivers with MPOs enabled as of November 18, 2021 4:09PM Pacific Standard Time GMT -800 running Windows 11 Professional Edition x64 22000.346 Beta Channel on Dell XPS 15 9570 Notebook with 32GB Ram and Intel UHD 630 Graphics:

Almighty1_0-1637281251885.png

Things do appear to be magnitudes better than before this driver version as it's using up to 907.34MB and can go back down to 337.41 MB currently instead of hitting 36.5GB and being stuck there forever.

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HKlum
Valued Contributor I
7,934 Views

@Almighty1 It is NOT using 1gb on your screencap. You are showing "private bytes", which is basically an arbitrary number, calculated by Windows, and not the real physical (private non shared) memory usage at the time of debugging. Most of the time "private bytes" means the amount of memory allocated in the Windows (swap) pagefile, the maximum amount, Windows has "reserved" as virtual memory for the process.

 

You need to debug three major memory usage numbers (there are like 5 or even more relevant), and activate if you use task manager, two more, next to default, which are:

 

iFaeqA2

 

 

 

 

"active private work set" is the default shown in task manager, here 197mb.

 

What you show on your screencap is "private bytes" in task manager "guaranteed size", here 571mb, if you mouse over the tab it gives an explanation what it means:

 

t5QIU0d

 

The amount of reserved virtual memory, in page file.

 

Important is "active private work set", here 197mb, what is default and also "work set", here 287mb. "Work set" basically is the total amount of real memory usage also shared with other processes. "Active private work set" is the amount of real memory not shared.

Almighty1
New Contributor II
7,912 Views

Thanks for the info.  I couldn't tell which number to look at as most of the screenshots by others including yours is not in English.  That is probably the reason for misunderstandings.

But anyways:

Almighty1_1-1637285602302.png

which translates to 119.4MB currently used and 929MB maximum used.  

which is the same as what's shown in Process Hacker:

Almighty1_2-1637285774201.png

 



 


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sandtechnology
7,478 Views

Haven't seen any leak from dwm.exe anymore after installed the beta driver for a few days, good job ms team and intel team!

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jbardedwards
Novice
8,447 Views

Good work Intel team. On Windows 11 22494.1000 and I haven't been able to replicate the memory leak with the typical triggers. Looks good to me, but we'll have to wait for his majesty HKlum to give the final blessing

HKlum
Valued Contributor I
7,465 Views

All readings still normal here. Or quoting Ellie Arroway from the movie Contact: "I'm OK to go."

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Reck
Novice
8,398 Views

Hi, for my part it seems that there has been no problem with the new driver, I have FastStartup enabled and I have done the same tests in which the memory leak occurred, also yesterday the dedicated GTX 1650 graphic was updated and I began to test again to check if it would not affect the problem again but it was not the case and it still works correctly.

 

Thank you.

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Maksym_Sofer
Beginner
8,320 Views
For me looks like issue is resolved too
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HKlum
Valued Contributor I
8,392 Views

@Gabriela_Intel @jbardedwards @Bryce_Intel 

 

I was trying really hard over the past 24h to reproduce the leak with 30.0.101.1121, with my previous methods. But so far, I couldnt, and it looks very very promising. Of course there is still some rest chance it might still leak, but so far, this is the most promising update ever, and from my side, I am very positive this might be solved once and for all. Fingers crossed.

 

Happy if I was able to help to solve this and a help to show in how to reproduce it for Intel Team. Good work. Happy if this might be resolved once and for all.

 

I will continue to push this driver very hard over the next days, and see if I still can trigger the leak. So far, so good.

Jessy16d
New Contributor I
8,154 Views

omg only 50mb DWM.exe (HD 630) and 45mb DWM.exe (UHD 630) nice!

Edit: after long usage DWM.exe reached only 60mb, (UHD and HD 630)

I also tried it on an old laptop (HD 510), 63mb max DWM.exe

Nice!!

 

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pbc
Beginner
8,115 Views

Does this also help the 620 series or is it only for 630?  Have a i7-10710U based laptop where DWM still shows around 200-500mb of memory usage with this beta, starts under 100 but after a short period of time increases, then hovers around that.  Is that a normal amount of memory usage?

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pbc
Beginner
8,074 Views

Hmm...so it was around 250mb and right clicked on it to create a dump file, after which it immediately jumped to ~549mb and is stuck there.  I assume that's not normal?

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HKlum
Valued Contributor I
8,068 Views

Nothing what people said on here over the past 24h is yet a sign of a memory leak. we have to wait. People on here still dont seem to understand... what a memory leak is. Memory leak means, memory, which was allocated, will never be released anymore at a later moment. In the worst cae scenario you can see a memory leak "on the fly", when something is like growing every second with x MB/s linear when doing some task y.

Nothing on my side so far looks like there is a leak. We have to wait.

If your dwm has some 500-800mb memory usage, close everything on your laptop, literally everything, and wait some time, it should shrink down over time again when you do some mild other tasks, or let the laptop sleep for a while. A memory leak will NEVER EVER, release memory again.

I agree the larger memory usage of dwm is still concerning though, when you compare it with other drivers by AMD or Nvidia, where I never see this behavior ever.

We have to wait a few days and see.

 

Also everyone who is testing the beta driver, make sure every day though device manager, Windows didnt roll back the driver to some older version without your knowledge.

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Ansuel
New Contributor I
8,051 Views

True... but generally it seems everyone is providing positive feedback.

I honestly think the increased dwm usage is just overhead related to the dynamic memory stuff that is used from igpu.

Amd or nvidia always have dedicated vram so the implementation is different.

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HKlum
Valued Contributor I
8,047 Views

@Ansuel That is what I just said. I dont see a leak so far on my end, nor did I see a leak identified by anyone on here so far of what comments I read. People dont seem to know or understand what a memory leak is. The "blown up" numbers of a few hundred MB could be bad coding, bad caching, or overheat like you said of Intel drivers, not perfect, but not a memory leak. Even Intel iGPU have no VRAM, they still have dedicated VRAM sections in the RAM. We have to wait a week or so with steady usage of the laptops with no reboots.

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pbc
Beginner
8,047 Views

Ah, got it, I thought folks were implying having < 100mb usage even with other stuff open.  When I closed down Outlook and Chrome it dropped to about 120mb, so looks to be no leakage.

After a reboot tried to see if I dumped the file again whether it would spike up and stay as it did.  But seems to be working properly now, didn't spike at all.

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HKlum
Valued Contributor I
8,040 Views

@pbc Spikes have nothing to do with memory leaks if usage is freed again later at some point.

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pbc
Beginner
8,032 Views
Spiked and stayed at the same level until I rebooted is what I meant.
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