Re: [ft-devel] Regarding GTK/GNOME memory usage optimization

[matt]

On Fri, 4 Mar 2005 16:48:19 +0100, Turner, David <address@hidden> wrote:

> I also performed an interesting experiment yesterday:
>
>   - boot Linux in my LifeBook S4546 laptop, no network connection.
>     => at the login screen, Alt-F1, login as root and run 'free'.
>     memory usage is about 25 Mb. ->login to KDE => usage jumps to 73 Mb
>
>   - take the same disk and put it in my (relatively new) LifeBook S6120
>     laptop, still no network connection (and wifi/bluetooh disconnected).
>     => at the login screen usage is 56 Mb !!, at KDE startup => 95 Mb.
>
> by the way, same resolution in both cases. both machines have 256 Mb.
>
> I don't know what's happenning; maybe the Intel Extreme
> Graphics card is eating system memory a bit too greedily,
> compared to the "old-school" 4 Mb ATI Rage mobility ?

The newer Intel Extreme cards usually grab 32 MB of system memory,
whereas a 4 MB ATI Rage mobility has it's own 4 MB of memory, and
won't touch the system memory.  I don't know the specifics of how
'free' detects used memory, but since the difference seems to be
almost exactly 32 MB, I'm betting your suspicion is right.

matt