High RAM Usage

[LeoK]

I am using Mandriva 10.2 with KDE 3.3 running on a 1Ghz CPU with 640MB of RAM. When I used to use Windows XP it was very rare that I would ever use all of my RAM even when I was running many programs. However on Linux I can easily use 400MB of RAM with just Firefox and Kwrite open and as soon as I open Photoshop I start getting close to 640MB usage.

 

Is there any way to lower the RAM usage apart from disabling services, which I have done. Also can I see what programs/services are using the RAM up like you can in task manager in Windows.

 

Thanks in advance,

Leo

[aioshin]

Also can I see what programs/services are using the RAM up like you can in task manager in Windows.

 

in konsole, you can use the top command.. $top

[pmpatrick]

This has been answered several times but I will do it once again. Linux caches ram to improve performance. That's the explanation in a nut shell. That's why apps open faster the second time around; data doesn't have to be read from the hard drive because it's already in ram and thus loads much faster. Although reported as used, cached ram really isn't. If the system needs the ram it just dumps stuff out of the ram cache to give the app demanding the ram what it needs. To see this reported explicitly run:

 

$ free

 

Linux is extremely efficient in the way it uses ram and typically takes up all the ram you have after you've been running for a while, but it's mostly disk cache ram. It's really nothing to worry about unless you are routinely going heavily into swap or getting "out of memory" reports.

[Arne]

Do you really use Adobe Photoshop under Linux or...

I am just curious because as far as I know Photoshop doe's not exist in a linux version. Normally if you handle photos with high resolution and say A4 format it swap to disk below 250-300Mb of free RAM.

[arctic]

Do you really use Adobe Photoshop under Linux or...

I am just curious because as far as I know Photoshop doe's not exist in a linux version.

You can run Photoshop with an emulator liek Wine in Linux.

 

And RAM.. yeah. Give your box 256 MB Ram and it will use 256 MB Ram. Give it 1 GB Ram and it will use 1 GB Ram. Linux is just different than Windows in this respect. No need to worry. B)

[AussieJohn]

Hello leok.

Try to stop thinking about the way Windows does things, as per this memory thing.

Linux is more efficient, reliable and dependable because it uses different and superior ways to achieve a similar end result.

You will soon realise that the Linux ways make more natural sense.

Welcome to the MUB and Linux fold.

 

Cheers. John.

[bvc]

Windows starts uselessly using the swap long before all the ram has been used. Linux uses resources much more efficiently and won't result to the slower swap until it is necessary. Which btw it wouldn't be necessary, or less likely, if you were not using an emulator. They are hogs. Use gimp, unless of course you are doing web stuff, then I perfectly understand why you are using ps.

 

Are you guys saying that kde does not have a sys monitor? Huh...Gnome does ;)

...oh looky there...gimp is only using 34mb

[SoulSe]

As has been said by arctic and others - there is nothing wrong here. Linux is simply using your machine to its maximum capability. Isn't that what you want your operating system to do? It's also balancing your RAM content much more effeciently than Windows, so not only will your performance be good, it'll be better.