How much memory do I need?

Quick to answer questions about finding your way around Linux Mint as a new user.
Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions use the other forums in the support section.
Before you post read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.
Locked
User avatar
cpergiel
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:03 pm
Location: Silicon Forest
Contact:

How much memory do I need?

Post by cpergiel »

My current system has 4GB of RAM and it doesn't seem to be enough. Sometimes the disk starts getting hammered and it doesn't stop for a minute. While that is going the system is essentially frozen. It used to only happen occasionally, but lately it is happening more and more often. I thought about trying to make some tweaks to some system settings, but I suspect that will only delay the inevitable. I thought about getting as SSD to improve virtual memory performance, but while SSD's are faster than a hard disk, they are still nowhere near as fast as RAM.

So I'm looking at buying a new system and the question is how much RAM should I get? Mostly I use this machine for surfing the web using Chrome.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
MintBean

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by MintBean »

I have 8Gb running Cinnamon and I never hit swap. Really 4Gb should be fine for most of the time. Do you have double digit numbers of tabs open on media intensive pages?
User avatar
cpergiel
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:03 pm
Location: Silicon Forest
Contact:

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by cpergiel »

The biggest culprits seem to be big commercial sites with bunches of ads. I try and avoid them but sometimes it can't be helped.
User avatar
Flemur
Level 20
Level 20
Posts: 10097
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:41 pm
Location: Potemkin Village

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by Flemur »

cpergiel wrote:The biggest culprits seem to be big commercial sites with bunches of ads. I try and avoid them but sometimes it can't be helped.
- I have 4G and extremely rarely use it all...it's been months...
- what's your desktop? That makes a big difference; xfce < mate < cin < kde (more or less) for mem use.
- start the task manager and see what's using memory - it might not be the browser.
- chrome uses more memory than firefox.
- get an adblocker! ("adblock plus" or "ublock" supposedly uses less mem)
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
User avatar
all41
Level 19
Level 19
Posts: 9498
Joined: Tue Dec 31, 2013 9:12 am
Location: Computer, Car, Cage

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by all41 »

This does not seem to be an issue of insufficient ram.
If you are doing multitasking, or open a dozen or so browser pages at a time-then you may need more ram.
This sounds like background automatic updates. Check your browser's add-ons settings for automatic updates.
I prefer to manually update whenever that choice is offered--and I check almost daily. I do not want a background
update interfering with downloads or browsing without my knowledge or approval.
Certain desktop environments require more memory than others.
Try these:
1. Create a new user in Users and Groups--log off and back in as the new user and test things out.
New users get a fresh set of configuration files.
2. Boot to the medium you used to install Mint and see if you experience the same problems.

It very well not be a problem with 4GB. I have a machine running 18.3 MATE with 4GB and do not
have the bottleneck problem you seem to have.
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
User avatar
Reorx
Level 12
Level 12
Posts: 4044
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:14 pm
Location: SE Florida, USA

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by Reorx »

Do you have "System monitor" on your system? If so, start it and open the resources tab an let it run on an idle desktop. Then do whatever you normally do and when you see a problematic performance issue, take a look at the system monitor (or get a screen shot of it and post it here) to see if you can get a better idea of what/where the culprit is...

<I was going to post an image but it seems that the forum no longer accepts uploaded images... had to use some goofy image host!... sad...>

Image
Full time Linux Mint user since 2011 - Currently running LM21C on multiple Dell laptops - mostly Vostro models.

Image Image Image
WharfRat

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by WharfRat »

If your disk starts getting hammered, check what's hammering it with sudo iotop -oPa -d 2

I don't recall if iotop is optional or not, but sudo apt-get install iotop will install it.
User avatar
Moem
Level 22
Level 22
Posts: 16226
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2015 9:14 am
Location: The Netherlands
Contact:

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by Moem »

Reorx wrote: it seems that the forum no longer accepts uploaded images...
We're hoping this is temporary. Thanks for your patience. :wink:
Image

If your issue is solved, kindly indicate that by editing the first post in the topic, and adding [SOLVED] to the title. Thanks!
User avatar
jimallyn
Level 19
Level 19
Posts: 9075
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm
Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by jimallyn »

Websites with a lot of scripts will suck your RAM up in no time. Facebook is probably the worst offender. When I had 4 GB of RAM in this computer, I could only have a few Facebook tabs open at a time. I upgraded to 12 GB of RAM, and that solved the problem. I often have more than 50 tabs open at once, and have had more than 40 Facebook tabs open at once, with no problems. I have a laptop with only 2 GB of RAM, and I can have 15 or 20 tabs open to ordinary sites, but if I have more than a half dozen Facebook tabs open, it gets pretty slow. Running an adblocker seems to help; I use uBlock Origin, and not having to process all that garbage from ads seems to make a big difference. You may find that reducing "swappiness" will speed your computer up a bit, too:

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... swappiness
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
User avatar
cpergiel
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:03 pm
Location: Silicon Forest
Contact:

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by cpergiel »

Regarding swapiness. The /etc/sysctl.conf file has nothing about vm. In fact, all lines are commented out with hash marks (#).

As to using sysmon or iotop to see what's causing the problem, well, that's a problem. Once the disk starts getting hammered the screen and keyboard are effectively frozen. What I have seen though is that memory goes way up to nearly 100% and vm goes about half way up.

I doubt whether changing desktops is going to have any effect. Right now I have sysmon, terminal, Files and Chrome running with four tabs open on the browser. CPU is running at 10% with occasional bumps up to 30. Memory is stable at 35.2%. Swap is idle. Network is mostly idle with occasional bumps when the spybots report back to their masters.

I just tried to provoke the problem by opening a bunch of sites but I'm not having much luck. I just opened two dozen sites and I have finally got memory up to 100%, but vm hasn't budged. Okay, it's up to 2.7%. So y'all just stand there and keep looking over my shoulder and maybe that will keep the demons at bay.
User avatar
I2k4
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 784
Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2012 8:33 pm

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by I2k4 »

As you describe your use, apart from hi-def video it's hard to imagine using all those resources. Mint 17.3 Cinnamon runs fine on our bedroom Dell laptop with 2gb RAM, mainly music streaming and Chromecasting video now and then.

I'd suggest installing a taskbar system monitor that gives a constant read of RAM and CPU use to see if it's really exhausting resources or if there's something else gumming the works. Cinnamon with a few tabs of browsing should use around 1gb of RAM, and XFCE around 700mb. You might also want to try an extension like ClickNClean on your browser to get the sludge out of it.
TRUST BUT VERIFY any advice from anybody, including me. Mint/Ubuntu user since 10.04 LTS. LM20 64 bit XFCE (Dell 1520). Dual boot LM20 XFCE / Win7 (Lenovo desktop and Acer netbook). Testing LM21.1 Cinnamon and XFCE Live for new Lenovo desktop.
User avatar
jimallyn
Level 19
Level 19
Posts: 9075
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm
Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by jimallyn »

cpergiel wrote:Regarding swapiness. The /etc/sysctl.conf file has nothing about vm.
You're right, it doesn't. That's why you have to add it as described in the link I posted.
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
User avatar
cpergiel
Level 3
Level 3
Posts: 110
Joined: Mon Feb 16, 2015 9:03 pm
Location: Silicon Forest
Contact:

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by cpergiel »

Yes, you are correct about having to ADD the vm line to that file. Sorry I didn't notice that. I find it a little odd that there is nothing about vm in there already. Most of what's in there seems to be concerned with networking. Why would you want to mix the two? Oh well, I suppose that's just the nature of Linux.

Right now I'm wondering if there is some switch that gets set the first time the system has to use swap space, and that once it's set things are more likely to be swapped. I say this because while yesterday I spent (virtual) hours waiting for the swap storm to abate. Today I haven't seen it all.
User avatar
Termy
Level 12
Level 12
Posts: 4254
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 8:49 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: How much memory do I need?

Post by Termy »

Hi,

Linux typically doesn't use much in the way of RAM, but it really depends on the setup and your workload. If you're running 50+ tabs in a browser, then yeah, it'll eat up some RAM.

Although I'm on a very minimalistic Ubuntu-based setup, I'm running Firefox 57 with Facebook and of course this site, and 4 terminals. I've got Firefox set to use the most RAM possible to increase performance. Even then, I'm still using only 842MB. When I log in, I'm using <300MB.Possibly <200MB, I can't remember.

A desktop environment can and often does make an impact to the RAM usage, so it is a variable to keep in mind if you're short on RAM. Whether that impact is gigantic, is probably arguable. But if you have 4GB of RAM, then I'd say it's not that. Then again, it depends on what you're doing. If you're just browsing in Chrome, then I've no idea how that's eating up 4GB. I imagine, as I think was mentioned above, that your swappiness (oddly being set to 60 by default) is the culprit. You can set it to a more sensitive value for the typical desktop user by running this command in a terminal:

echo "10" | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To undo the change, just run the same command, but replace the 10 with 60.

Alternatively, use sysctl like so:

sudo sysctl vm.swappiness=10

The same applies to undoing it.
Sometimes the disk starts getting hammered and it doesn't stop for a minute.
By the way, if you look at your memory usage during those times and see you have plenty left still, you might want to check the health of the HDD using Disks (gnome-disk-utility), in-case it's on the way out.
I'm also Terminalforlife on GitHub.
Locked

Return to “Beginner Questions”