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tomsk
Asked: 2017-03-02 06:33:00 +0800 CST

Unity - Reduce RAM usage

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I know, this is quite "popular" topic, but I made some tests with Unity.

I would like to know why Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS is using 2x more RAM than older versions of Ubuntu?

Is possible to reduce it to arround 500MB of RAM usage? Or is possible to downgrade Unity to lower RAM usage?

For imagine LUbuntu 16.04 LTS uses about 600MB of RAM with same kernel and packages, so it means that 400MB (+ something, because something of that 600MB RAM is LXDE in LUbuntu) of RAM is only Unity. In past release 400MB of RAM was almost whole oparating system Ubuntu with Unity, now it is only a part of Unity?

Please don't tell me to switch to lightweight flavour of Ubuntu, I have enough RAM and I like Unity, BUT I want to know why is it consuming 2x more RAM and of course I want to reduce it (from the principle).

So I made some tests with clean Ubuntu installations (with nothing running in the background) and their RAM usage:

Ubuntu 14.04.5 Trusty Tahr LTS

Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS

Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet

Ubuntu 15.04

Ubuntu 15.10 Wily Werewolf

Ubuntu 15.10

Ubuntu 16.04.2 Xenial Xerus LTS

Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS

unity

1 Answers

  1. Each new kernel supports more new hardware. Compiz continues to grow. Support for new features like snap. They all consume more memory. You can look at some of the specifics by using the top command in the terminal and sort on the memory column for details.

    You might also try enabling low graphics mode using Compiz Configuration Manager, like so...

    enter image description here

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