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How to Reduce Steam Client RAM Usage with Steam LITE Version

Did you know you can reduce Steam’s RAM usage by enabling the LITE version? Here’s how:

For PC gamers, Steam is the go-to game client because it has almost every game and provides a ton of useful features such as a robust community system, fast game downloads, family sharing, parental controls, automatic game updates, and more. Not to mention, the occasional Steam sale is one of the best things to get your favorite games for cheap.

While all this is good, it makes the Steam client bloated and a memory hog. My system, for example, shows Steam consuming around 700MB of RAM even when idle, with memory and CPU usage spiking during activities like checking friends’ activity or updating the homepage.

Thankfully, enabling Steam’s LITE version can significantly reduce its memory footprint and improve performance. This tutorial shows you how to enable Steam LITE and reduce its RAM usage. Let’s get started.

Good to know: How to limit download speed in Steam

Steps to Reduce Steam RAM Usage with LITE Mode

  1. Right-click on the desktop.
  2. Select “New” > “Shortcut“.
  3. Type "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" and click “Next“.
  4. Type “Steam LITE” in the name field and click “Finish“.
  5. Right-click the newly created shortcut and select “Properties“.
  6. Add -nofriendsui -no-browser +open "steam://open/minigameslist" at the end in the “Target” field.
  7. Click “OK“.
  8. From now on, open Steam using the new shortcut to launch it in LITE mode to reduce RAM usage.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

To reduce the Steam client’s RAM usage, we need to enable the LITE mode. You can do that by creating a new desktop shortcut. Here’s how you can do it:

First, right-click on your desktop and select the “New” and then “Shortcut” options.

right-click on desktop and select new and then desktop

Here, type "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" (including the quotes) and click “Next“.

Note: The above path is the default Steam client installation path. If you’ve installed Steam in another place, modify the path accordingly.

add steam path and click next

Enter “Steam LITE” in the name field and click “Finish” to create the desktop shortcut.

name the shortcut and click finish

After creating the shortcut, right-click on it, and select the “Properties” option.

open shortcut properties

In the Properties window, add the following at the end in the “Target” field. Make sure there is a single space between the program path and the flags I’ve given below.

-nofriendsui -no-browser +open "steam://open/minigameslist"

Once you add, this is how the entire “Target” field looks like:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steam.exe" -nofriendsui -no-browser +open "steam://open/minigameslist"

Click the “OK” button to save the change.

add steam lite flags in the target field

That is it. You create the shortcut for Steam LITE. From now on, whenever you want to open Steam, use this newly created shortcut. It reduces the overall RAM usage and even launches Steam faster. The best thing is that you’ll have instant access to all your games front and center.

steam lite

I compared the RAM usage of the regular Steam client and Steam LITE. As you can see in the image below, Steam LITE significantly reduces RAM usage, from 650MB to approximately 400MB.

comparing RAM usage of normal steam client with steam lite

For features like viewing friends’ activity, browsing the store, or accessing settings, launch Steam normally. Do not use the LITE mode shortcut for these actions.

Wrapping Up: Reducing Steam’s RAM Usage with LITE Mode

As you can see, enabling Steam LITE instantly and significantly reduces overall RAM usage. While this mode is limited compared to the normal mode, you can easily switch back to the full client whenever you need its features and settings. If you don’t want to see icons on your desktop and keep it clean and minimal, you can add this shortcut to the Start menu so that you can easily launch it from the Start menu.

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.

Update: The tutorial is updated to reflect the changes to the Steam client.

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