Dashboard Memory Consumption

[mkrishnan]

This was kind of a side-topic in another thread, but I was looking for something else and I thought I'd try to get a handle on how much memory Dashboard uses -- figures of 20MB per widget had been thrown around, so I was curious. I was pretty surprised! FWIW, though, I don't really see any evidence of system impairment due to the fact that so much real memory is being allocated to Dashboard.

 

[iGary]

Yeah, I was shocked, too after I looked in at the Activity Monitor.

A hog, but not one that locks up things like Konfab has a tendency to do.

 

[stcanard]

FWIW, though, I don't really see any evidence of system impairment due to the fact that so much real memory is being allocated to Dashboard.

Remember, memory is a fictitious number. It all gets swapped out. All you care about is what's being actively used, and the nature of dashboard is it's almost never being actively used, so it's always in swap.

 

[asif786]

i'm not sure how these manage to use this much ram...

i'm not complaining, because i'm not noticing any major slowdown, but i made a widget today just showing ONE png file (like a 20k file) and it was taking up 9mb!

i guess it's just like running a mini-instance of safari, right? because it's behaving like a web browser..im not sure.

 

[mkrishnan]

Remember, memory is a fictitious number. It all gets swapped out. All you care about is what's being actively used, and the nature of dashboard is it's almost never being actively used, so it's always in swap.

Yeah, that's why I said that I didn't mind because there was no user impact....

But FWIW, the memory numbers I posted were when Dashboard was supposedly "in swap" -- it hadn't been activated immediately before that. Well, anyway, interesting.... The same issue exists with tabbed browsing, except that there, you can start to notice some real system slow-down with large numbers of tabs, at least on slower computers....

 

[stcanard]

But FWIW, the memory numbers I posted were when Dashboard was supposedly "in swap" -- it hadn't been activated immediately before that.

It all depends on how much you need. I just checked and my dashboard is using about 70MB in real memory, but since I still have 551MB free I'm not too worried

Well, anyway, interesting.... The same issue exists with tabbed browsing, except that there, you can start to notice some real system slow-down with large numbers of tabs, at least on slower computers....

I'd have to check, but I think there's a cache issue with tabs, so they will slow things down incredibly when you get too high. The problem there is all of safari probably stays active, so it can't just swap out a few tabs you aren't using.

 

[mkrishnan]

It all depends on how much you need. I just checked and my dashboard is using about 70MB in real memory, but since I still have 551MB free I'm not too worried

I have 10MB free! *sob* Out of only 640, though. And besides those DB Widgets, Safari, Mail, iCal, TextEdit, iPhoto, iTunes, PSE3, and Activity Monitor (just to check my ram ). This is clearly pushing my poor iBook a little too hard...But then again, I only have this problem when I'm trying to clean up photos in iPhoto and PSE3. And I usually quit iTunes and iCal when I'm doing that. All in all still not too bad. But at least 1.25GB in my next notebook!

 

[watchmainspring]

Remember, memory is a fictitious number. It all gets swapped out. All you care about is what's being actively used, and the nature of dashboard is it's almost never being actively used, so it's always in swap.

Your icon is amazing. (The hamster).

 

[stcanard]

I have 10MB free! *sob* Out of only 640, though. And besides those DB Widgets, Safari, Mail, iCal, TextEdit, iPhoto, iTunes, PSE3, and Activity Monitor (just to check my ram ). This is clearly pushing my poor iBook a little too hard...But then again, I only have this problem when I'm trying to clean up photos in iPhoto and PSE3. And I usually quit iTunes and iCal when I'm doing that. All in all still not too bad. But at least 1.25GB in my next notebook!

Let me tell you, 1.25 is worth it! Especially with my habit of running Photoshop and Eclipse at the same time

 

[stcanard]

Your icon is amazing. (The hamster).

Thanks! It was my son's hamster, we were playing around with a new digital camera. That one stood out for me.

 

[mkrishnan]

Let me tell you, 1.25 is worth it! Especially with my habit of running Photoshop and Eclipse at the same time

Oh, you don't need to sell me...at the time, the iBook was only available with 640. I would've stampeded straight up the ladder had it been possible.

There are some mixed reports, though, that 1GB memory sticks might work in the original iBook G4s...Hmmm....and they're not soooo expensive anymore. I'm not sure if anyone reliable has ever confirmed this, though.