Microsoft has been doing a whole lot of shouting recently about how its 8GB Windows 11 PCs are performing better than ever, and it's now shared some more specific information about where you might start to notice a difference.

As previously revealed, the company claims that 8GB PCs are now up to 20 percent more responsive and 40 percent faster at multitasking. Windows is now able to retain up to 2GB more of your active data, rather than moving it to slower storage, which helps your PC stay more responsive as more tabs appear in your browser.

Since January, Microsoft says that interactions like opening Start, File Explorer and Settings, as well as searching and right-clicking, are all up to 20 percent more responsive, which it has achieved by directing your computer to reserve tasks like search indexing while you're working. Apps like Edge can also open up to 33 percent faster, while Efficiency Mode in Teams is turned on by default on 8GB PCs. This can speed up launch by up to 20 percent by dynamically reducing the load on your system resources.

Microsoft also says it has improved multitasking workflow speeds by up to 40 percent, which it tested by opening 20 tabs in Edge, as well as a 4K video, the Outlook app, File Explorer, and large files in Word PowerPoint and Excel. These were all left running once opened, and while 16GB of memory or more is still recommended for processor-hungry creatives who can afford it, you should be able to get more done quickly on a humble 8GB PC.

Apps like Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook now use up to 360MB less RAM, which Microsoft says is down to improved efficiency, and even third-party apps like WhatsApp are hogging less memory than before. Other RAM-saving methods include Widgets that only load when opened and inactive tabs going to sleep after 15 minutes by default on 8GB configurations.

Aside from Windows itself, Microsoft says that newer processors are already playing their part. For example, a 2026 8GB Dell XPS 13 delivers over 90 percent faster multi-core CPU performance than its 2021 predecessor. The same 8GB model was able to largely match a 2021 configuration with twice as much memory in general CPU performance, web browsing, 4K video export and some AI tasks.

These performance and memory efficiency improvements require your Windows 11 PC to be running version 26H2 on the build 26300.9818 or later. Microsoft also recommends keeping all your apps updated and sometimes these improvements roll out through them.