-XX:-TieredCompilation is the magic option to disable tiered compilation. Beginning with Java 8, instead of having the VM to magically choose between using the

-XX:-TieredCompilation is the magic option to disable tiered compilation. Beginning with Java 8, instead of having the VM to magically choose between using the client JIT (c1: think V8) or the server JIT (c2: think gcc -O2), the default configuration is to run in so called "tiered mode", first starts with the interpreter (as usual) then c1 (here keep the profile info) then c2. Because the code is compiled twice, you need a twice bigger code cache. From my own experience, tiered compilation is nice when you run something interactive like an IDE (IntelliJ IDEA) and useless when you run a server app. That's said i've never had to have a 250MB code cache.