A comparison of the resource usage between Windows game managers
All of these numbers are estimates since I used task manager (turns out there was much better way as well, shit). This post was also written in November of 2021, so some things have probably changed for the worse.
Steam
First start in many months took about 54 seconds, including about 5 seconds of login time.
Being idle in the library while downloading an update used 356 - 378mb of ram while also downloading a Steam update in background.
Being idle in the library used 230 - 260mb ram and sometimes used 3-1% of my CPU (Ryzen 3 3200g). Running in the background had the same resource usage as open idle.
Browsing the store used 330 - 560mb ram. After browsing the store and going back to the library, Steam started using around 340mb of ram, and then didn’t go back down to the initial start ram values (it probably would’ve if I just closed the app to background and opened it again).
Starting it up for the second time took about 16 seconds, and the ram usage went up to 370mb in the library tab.
Epic Store
First start in many weeks took 1 minute and 6 seconds, and used 40% of the CPU (probably because it started to automatically download a GTA V update). The CPU usage then very slowly sank to about 21% (again, GTA V update) while in the store tab. It also used about 760mb of ram in the store tab (GTA V).
After I canceled the update, the store used 517mb of ram while idle and 1-6% of the CPU, as well as 1-2% of the GPU (GTX 1660). Browsing the store used about 25% of the CPU, 3% of the GPU and 700-800mb of ram.
After letting the thumbnails load, Epic used about 3% of the CPU, 700mb of ram and 2% of the GPU in the library tab. Hovering the mouse over different titles quickly made the CPU usage go up to 40% and the GPU usage to 4%.
Second launch was about 16 seconds. Ram usage in library tab went down to 550mb. Ram usage in the store tab was about 550mb too. Browsing the store used about the same amount of ram as the first launch, with it going up after clicking on some games a lot slower.
In the background it used about 280mb of ram and around 1% of the CPU.
GOG Galaxy
Again, the first start in many weeks took 1 minute and 10 seconds (about 1 minute, if you don’t count the time it took to reimport and download game thumbnails). Not touching anything in any of the launchers tabs after they’re done loading used about 270mb of ram, and 1% of the CPU. Highlighting everything I can in the owned games tab and scrolling pretty fast used up to 30% of the CPU and up to 330mb of ram.
Clicking on never before clicked games rapidly (clicked on like 15 games) used about 20% of CPU and 410mb of ram.
In the background, it used about 290mb of ram and 0-1% of the CPU.
Second start took about 40 seconds and used a little bit less ram (about 10mb give or take) while doing everything above.
Clicking on many items fairly quickly in the GOG store tab used 710 mb of ram and up to 28% of the cpu, and felt much snappier than Epic, but maybe a little less snappy than Steam. The store page lagged a bit while scrolling.
Pegasus
Used about 140mb but didn’t detect all games right away, is in alpha and I don’t have the energy to mess around with it.
Playnite
It took about 2-3 seconds to launch after a fresh install and used about 140mb of ram and 1-3% of the CPU while importing games which is pretty impressive.
After clicking rapidly on many different games in the details view I saw about 160mb of ram usage and up to 15% CPU usage which goes down very fast when not clicking on anything.
While highlighting everything with the mouse and simultaneously scrolling in the grid view I got about 10% CPU usage and 250mb of ram usage after all of the thumbnails had been done loading.
Scrolling up and down very fast in the list view used up to 20% of the CPU, (probably since a lot of the games are visible at once on that one) as well as about 260mb of ram.
The ram usage stayed at 260mb afterwards, but after closing the app to the background and relaunching it, the ram usage went down to 160mb.
Playnite used 100mb of ram and 0% of the CPU in the background.
The ram usage actually went down again after trying out some skins to 81mb (probably because the itch plugin stopped running (not because of a crash, think I put in wrong credentials).
Used about 56-63mb of ram if all integrations were disabled
After clicking install on an Epic Store game, the Epic Store prompt took 7 seconds to load. Actually launching Epic Store took about 13 seconds and opening the library tab took 3 additional seconds. In the Epic Store install prompt, the combined ram usage of Epic (420mb) and Playnite (100mb) was 520mb. The ram usage in the library when Epic Store launched normally in the library tab was about 430mb.
After clicking install on a Steam game, the Steam prompt took about 14 seconds to load. Actually launching Steam though a desktop shortcut took about 16 seconds to load. The ram usage was probably the same as regularly launching steam, since I didn’t record it.
Itch.io sadly doesn’t have any prompts and clicking install on an itch game simply opens the itch client.
Clicking install on a GOG game just brings you to the game page, took about 8 seconds. Actually launching GOG though a desktop shortcut took about the same time. Galaxy’s ram usage was the same as launching it normally as well. You can also choose not to launch the downloaded games through GOG Galaxy, but that might remove LAN and multiplayer functionality.
Itch.io client
180mb of ram usage while idle in the store tab. Went up to 320 while clicking on many games and scrolling. Felt the snappiest of them all.
Took about 4-5 seconds to launch.