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Unused ram is wasted ram. Swap speeds and intelligent swap logic are fantastic these days (especially on macOS). It’s a good thing to see programs using more ra

Unused ram is wasted ram. Swap speeds and intelligent swap logic are fantastic these days (especially on macOS). It’s a good thing to see programs using more ram. Better caching is a feature, not a bug.

josephcsible 4y ago
You misunderstand what this RAM is being used for: this is anonymous memory that's basically being wasted, not disk cache.
- enticingturtle 4y ago
  It holds a Chrome runtime, no? Features like the fastest JIT in the world and a universal DOM aren’t waste. Not to mention, Chrome can run on much less ram if that’s all there is. It only has a high memory footprint when the OS allocates it unused memory.
  - cpuguy83 4y ago
    It's really not cool when you have 10 apps all with their own version of chrome running.
  - einherjae 4y ago
    It is waste if you could do the same thing without a full chrome instance. Because then that memory could be used for something entirely else, like the silly chrome instance required by some other electron based app…
  - grosswait 4y ago
    Not true from my own observations. It takes the RAM it wants/needs regardless of memory pressure. There is no such thing as unused RAM after a decent amount of uptime on any mainstream operating system running defaults anymore. If no application has requested it, RAM will get used as file system cache which speeds up the experience in general.
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > It holds a Chrome runtime, no? No, it doesn't hold for any desktop application unless you have very good reason to believe that application is the raison d'etre for that computer. If that application is the reason for that computer existing and being used, then maybe you can say unused ram is wasted ram. But if that isn't the case, if your application is auxiliary to the primary purpose of that computer, then "unused ram is wasted ram" is never true for your application. Photoshop for digital artists or CAD for architects are examples were "unused ram is wasted ram" might be true. Fullscreen computer games are another. But a password manager app? The password manger app is an auxiliary program, not the reason for that computer to exist. The password app should never assume ram not used by the password app is otherwise unused.
  - wolpoli 4y ago
    What is it using the unused ram for then? It's just a password manager.
manicdee 4y ago
Poorly used RAM is wasted RAM. I don’t need a world class JIT compiler for an application which has a fixed set of features from the time I load it to the time I quit it. You can precompile stuff and leave the JIT compiler out of RAM. It’s presence is wasteful. I don’t need a world class DOM in a password manager. The UI is stable from the time it is published, we aren’t doing responsive layouts for random data here. Just passwords in a password vault. Swap speeds are fantastic, but that isn’t an excuse to bloat out software to use all a customer’s RAM which they might want for other things.

josephcsible 4y ago

You misunderstand what this RAM is being used for: this is anonymous memory that's basically being wasted, not disk cache.

enticingturtle 4y ago
It holds a Chrome runtime, no? Features like the fastest JIT in the world and a universal DOM aren’t waste. Not to mention, Chrome can run on much less ram if that’s all there is. It only has a high memory footprint when the OS allocates it unused memory.
- cpuguy83 4y ago
  It's really not cool when you have 10 apps all with their own version of chrome running.
- einherjae 4y ago
  It is waste if you could do the same thing without a full chrome instance. Because then that memory could be used for something entirely else, like the silly chrome instance required by some other electron based app…
- grosswait 4y ago
  Not true from my own observations. It takes the RAM it wants/needs regardless of memory pressure. There is no such thing as unused RAM after a decent amount of uptime on any mainstream operating system running defaults anymore. If no application has requested it, RAM will get used as file system cache which speeds up the experience in general.
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > It holds a Chrome runtime, no? No, it doesn't hold for any desktop application unless you have very good reason to believe that application is the raison d'etre for that computer. If that application is the reason for that computer existing and being used, then maybe you can say unused ram is wasted ram. But if that isn't the case, if your application is auxiliary to the primary purpose of that computer, then "unused ram is wasted ram" is never true for your application. Photoshop for digital artists or CAD for architects are examples were "unused ram is wasted ram" might be true. Fullscreen computer games are another. But a password manager app? The password manger app is an auxiliary program, not the reason for that computer to exist. The password app should never assume ram not used by the password app is otherwise unused.
- wolpoli 4y ago
  What is it using the unused ram for then? It's just a password manager.

manicdee 4y ago

Poorly used RAM is wasted RAM. I don’t need a world class JIT compiler for an application which has a fixed set of features from the time I load it to the time I quit it. You can precompile stuff and leave the JIT compiler out of RAM. It’s presence is wasteful. I don’t need a world class DOM in a password manager. The UI is stable from the time it is published, we aren’t doing responsive layouts for random data here. Just passwords in a password vault. Swap speeds are fantastic, but that isn’t an excuse to bloat out software to use all a customer’s RAM which they might want for other things.