Just out of curiosity, I started GnuCash on my iMac, and then looked at the Activity Monitor; it says it is using 168M. I may try this on Ubuntu and Windows later, just to see how it compares.
On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 2:53 PM David G. Pickett via gnucash-user < gnucash-user@gnucash.org> wrote: > People get excited about this all the time, sadly! RAM usage is more a > developer concern. Modern OS use virtual memory, so the RAM is > redistributed based on usage. A page of RAM (usually 4,096 bytes) may be > true virtual memory, where modified pages are backed up in a swap file, or > it may have files memory mapped, usually for reading, not needing swap, > just the original file. Many library files are actually shared between > many programs, say all written in C/C++ using libc, so your number might be > higher as being blamed for hosting a library file! A very few pages like > OS kernel and IO buffers may be wired in place, either temporarily or with > no backing store. > > GNUCash using XML in gzipped form needs to read all the data file, and > then presumably gunzip'ing it in a stream, it needs to write that data into > equivalent memory structures, converting strings to numbers in many cases. > Now, if the GnuCash VM pages are not in use, their RAM can be taken over by > other processes when needed and, if modified, after being written to the > supporting file. If no other process needs more RAM, the GnuCash RAM usage > remains high, but that is nice as if you do venture into those pages, they > are already mapped in RAM. I have a Linux PC, where I run 'top' and can > see the RAM and VM use of every process: > > PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ > COMMAND . . .1286531 dgp 20 0 910160 260804 76840 S 11.0 > 1.6 0:20.02 gnucash . . . . > My GnuCash is using 910 MB total virtual and 261 MB resident in RAM, but I > have 16,384 MB RAM, so who cares? You might find similar numbers in > 'Windows Task Manager'. RAM was a big deal for most earlier systems, when > there was no VM support, no swap file, and shortages of RAM kept programs > from coming off the scheduler. Now it is just a sort of cache for disk, > which itself is now often a SSD, solid state RAM chips that do not lose > data when powered off. > RAM as disk cache is not to be confused with the Level 1, 2, 3 caches > between RAM and the CPU to speed things up and avoid contention between CPU > cores and the IO RAM access. If you have a program with a growing memory > footprint, it first runs at l1 cache speed, then l2, l3, RAM and finally at > disk speed. The caches also protect you from DRAM being busy refreshing, > opening every row, as DRAM must do frequently. Many systems have a l3 > cache in front of the DRAM. DRAM is also faster if it does not have to > change rows, working in one column, so the cache helps that! Most of us > cannot afford SRAM, which has no rows, needs no refresh. > > If you have a performance problem, the current cures are more RAM to your > system max of the right speed to not slow things, SSD replacing HD, faster > CPUs with more cores. More cores means other programs are not taking them > from GnuCash. Intel CPUs have hyperthreading, so their cores can run 2 > threads of the same program, but I doubt GnuCash is multithreaded! > Threading is multiple CPUs possibly running around in the same program at > the same time. I survive with 2 AMD cores for now! > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > gnucash-user@gnucash.org > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > -- _________________________________ Richard Losey rlo...@gmail.com Micah 6:8 _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list gnucash-user@gnucash.org To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
