SQL Server Management Studio CPU and RAM usage keeps increasing for no reason

I have a weird problem with SQL Server Management Studio, version 11.0.2100.60. When I was writing some query, sometimes the CPU gets hogged, and RAM usage keeps increasing. Usually closing and reopening SSMS will solve the problem, but it is quite annoying if I have to do this multiple times.

How to solve this issue?

[UPDATE]: I ran the PerfView to analyze the CPU usage. But I'm not quite sure how to troubleshoot from there:

PerfView CPU Stacks, showing ssms using a lot of CPU resource:

Drilling down Ssms. Looks like this ntdll is taking the most resource:

GC Heap Net Mem (Coarse Sampling):

rcs

Posted 2017-04-05T03:26:26.420

Reputation: 635

its not really unusual for monolithic tools like Visual Studio or SMSS to take up a GB or more of ram, especially if you leave them open for days or weeks at a time as I do. for the CPU, are you typing SQL code, or do you have designer windows open? have you used the "edit top 200" or anything like that which keeps connections open for long periods? – Frank Thomas – 2017-04-05T04:01:05.283

I'm not opening SSMS for days, I open only like few hours. I was editing a stored procedure, no other windows open. – rcs – 2017-04-05T05:34:52.947

Even when I close all the query tabs, the problem still persists. Needs to close the entire SSMS and reopen. – rcs – 2017-04-05T05:47:48.357

use ETW to trace CPU and memory usage

– magicandre1981 – 2017-04-05T15:13:47.447

have you analyzed the CPU/memory usage with xperf/WPR/WPA? – magicandre1981 – 2017-04-11T14:40:59.097

@magicandre1981 Please see my updates above. – rcs – 2017-04-19T02:02:39.647

Have you considered upgrading SSMS to the current version? – Ramhound – 2017-04-19T02:42:07.687

Answers

The problem is here with Intelligence. I had a same problem today. After opening a 60kb of SQL file in SSMS, it is taking nearly 2GB of my RAM.

Anyway I figured it out. This is because the incomplete code or Joins written in that query window. If I comment out that incomplete code snippet it became normal. Check for the joins which are not closed ON condition etc or comment it out until you finish writing it.

You can see that in below pictures, memory observations before and after commenting incomplete code. It came to 128MB from 1.2GB

With Incomplete code

After commenting code

Shakeer Mirza

Posted 2017-04-05T03:26:26.420

Reputation: 111

For my case, after I wait for some time, the memory usage will come back to normal. But this is frustrating as I have to waste my time. So I decided to turn off the Intellisense instead. – rcs – 2017-11-30T08:44:53.467

Working without intelligence is so pathetic.. its ok – Shakeer Mirza – 2017-11-30T09:34:47.847

1Smaller, more modular files will also help. – jerrylagrou – 2018-02-14T21:21:34.937

I managed to bring it down from 2.5 GB to 150KB by disabling Auto Recover.

Auto-Recover Setting