[gentoo-amd64] Re: Memory usage; 32 bit vs 64 bit.

[Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@arcor.de>]

On 01/03/2011 08:34 PM, Dale wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I recently built me a new 64 bit system. My old 32 bit system has 2Gbs
> and my new system has 4Gbs. I was expecting it to use about the same
> amount of memory but noticed it uses a good bit more on the new system
> than the old one. With just the normal stuff open, I use about 1.5Gbs of
> ram. My old system would use a little over half that. I have the same
> settings on both.
>
> Is this difference because 64 bit programs use more memory, maybe they
> are larger than 32 bit programs? Just curious. I notice that Seamonkey
> uses more and KDE's plasma-desktop uses more. Those are generally the
> biggest users.
>
> I'm not complaining about the usage, just curious as to why the difference.

There's usually a very small difference (I'd say about 10%).  But 
nothing like you're describing (which is almost 100% if what you're 
saying is true.)

How do you tell how much memory is used?  If you're using KDE, System 
Monitor will give you a good value that's very close to reality.  On my 
system (with a full blown KDE desktop with some plasmoids active and 
currently Firefox + Thunderbird + Amarok running) it says "0.57 GiB of 
5.8 GiB", meaning it uses about 570MB of RAM and I have 6GB total.) 
After a fresh reboot it's about 230MB.

I'm sure you're not using the same configuration (I don't mean USE flags 
and such, but rather how you've configured your application and desktop.)