Arch Linux

gobeav3rs297

Member

From: Portland Oregon

Registered: 2007-11-06

Posts: 60

Linux memory usage

Hey all,

I have a 1.6 GHz desktop running w/ 128mb of memory and a Core2Dou laptop w/ 1gb of memory.  Both machines are running Archlinux and Fluxbox.  At boot, both machine are using roughly the same amount of memory, around 26-30 mb but as soon as fluxbox is started the desktop is running around 40-50 mb while the laptop is sitting at 130-140 mb.  Those numbers do not include buffer/cache in them.  They both have similar configurations so I'm curious as to why is there such a drastic difference between the memory usage on the systems when Fluxbox is started?

-Vincent

sejjiin

Member

Registered: 2008-01-10

Posts: 9

Re: Linux memory usage

Probably just the OS being intelligent on how to use RAM.  If there is lots available, it recognizes it can spare to dump more info into RAM, thereby speeding up the system.

gobeav3rs297

Member

From: Portland Oregon

Registered: 2007-11-06

Posts: 60

Re: Linux memory usage

Yea i figured as much, i was just curious as to how Linux handles memory usage.  Thanks for the reply.

Vincent

wuischke

Member

From: Suisse Romande

Registered: 2007-01-06

Posts: 630

Re: Linux memory usage

What graphics card do you use on your laptop? Any integrated graphics with shared memory by chance? Then you have your answer.