Often reference counting is considered distinct from GC; sometimes the term "tracing GC" is used to disambiguate. Refcounting & tracing GC have the same purpose

Often reference counting is considered distinct from GC; sometimes the term "tracing GC" is used to disambiguate. Refcounting & tracing GC have the same purpose, but different implementation techniques and performance implications; and perhaps more importantly, reference counting can't collect objects which cyclically reference one another.