Plasmoids and Power Consumption

[Billie Erin Walsh]

John DeCarlo wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Steven Vollom 
> <stevenvollom at sbcglobal.net <mailto:stevenvollom at sbcglobal.net>> wrote:
>
>     I installed 16 of the system info plasmoids on my computer.  I
>     just noticed
>     that with only Kontact waiting for messages, 7111mb of memory are
>     being
>     consumed.  Is it possible that these plasmoids could be using that
>     much RAM?
>
>     I like them, but not that much.  With 8gb of RAM, I didn't think I
>     could use
>     that much.  I have less than a gig remaining, for normal operation
>     of the
>     computer.
>
>
> What tool are you using for the statistics?
>
> Linux will try to use all memory available, where useful.  Why have 
> unused RAM, when you could be caching, etc.?
>
> I have installed a plasmoid that shows memory usage, distinguishing 
> between completely unused, used for cache, and used directly.  Even 
> with 4 GB of RAM, it is almost always mostly cache. 
>
> In other words - you probably have 6+ GB of RAM for normal operations, 
> even with 7+GB being used.
>
> -- 
> John DeCarlo, My Views Are My Own
> http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34091576500&ref=mf 
> <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=34091576500&ref=mf>

The only time I would worry about memory usage is if the computer is 
running dead slow and the memory is maxed out, or, if I looked and there 
was almost no memory usage. Memory is much faster than hard drive reads. 
If there is sufficient memory to hold all the process's running and the 
computer operates fast then it's doing it's job well.

Remember back in the "good 'ol days" when most computers had 256 meg and 
adding another 256 would make it MUCH faster. That was because more 
could be run from memory and less from hard drive swap.

-- 


Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.