The PC hardware market is in a rough spot right now. RAM prices are climbing fast because the current AI boom is sucking up global memory chip supply. This creates a new issue with Windows 11 that is even more frustrating. According to a report by Windows Latest, popular apps like Discord are consuming massive amounts of system memory, killing performance for gamers.
The problem stems from the “Electron” framework. Apps that use this technology—which basically runs on the same engine as the Chrome browser—seem to suffer from severe memory leaks. Discord appears to be the biggest offender. In some cases, the app starts at a normal level but eventually spikes up to use 4GB of RAM.
Regular users are seeing this happen in real-time. If you keep Discord open, the memory usage often creeps up steadily. Even if you stop streaming a game to friends or leave a voice call, the app frequently refuses to release that memory back to your system. It might sit at 1.4GB indefinitely until you fully restart the program. This explains why your games might feel sluggish or stutter when Discord is running in the background.
This isn’t a huge deal if you have a high-end rig with 32GB or 64GB of RAM. But for the average person with 8GB or 16GB of storage, losing that much memory to a simple chat app is a disaster. It slows down the entire system. Since upgrading your hardware is so expensive right now, inefficient software is the last thing people need.
Windows 11 already has a reputation for running too many background processes, which can hurt gaming performance. Adding a leaky Discord app to the mix makes the operating system feel even heavier. While users wait for updates, the best solution for now is to fully close the app when you jump into a demanding game. Discord needs to prioritize fixing this leak, especially since hardware prices aren’t coming down anytime soon.
