SL a RAM eatter?

When is SL going to stop eatting my RAM? Its not that bad, but I notice after a few hours the FPS and load times seem to drop. And I need to RS my PC. What programs are there to help....is there any?

Sure! Flexible prims and improved lighting are on the way! That should distract you from noticing anything wrong with the way the game runs right?

For the OP:

It depends on-

1. where you're at in-world
   
2. How much RAM you have
   
3. How much swap space you allow Windows
   

I have 2 Gigabytes of RAM. I noticed a big difference going from 1 Gig to 2. But there are still areas that eat up that RAM. Lots of prims, scripts, particles, 'bling', textures, etc, will eat it up till only 10% is left free.

I try to keep a good portion of my Main hard drive free (the one Windows is installed on). So if you have an 80 gigabyte hard drive with only 20 Megabytes free, you're in for some slow-downs.

It sometimes helps to also clear the cache or try setting it lower or higher.

The new update coming out should alleviate some of the hassle, as they've FINALLY included 'Occlusion culling'. So now when you're at a club, staring at a wall, the rendering engine isnt going to draw everything you CAN'T see.

I have used this RAM freeing utility for years. It's free, and despite the fact that the info on their website says that it shouldn't be needed on machines running NT or XP, I can definitely tell a difference in performance when it's not running.

P2

I've been using FreeXP RAM Pro. I like how it's showing me how much RAM I have free, with the option to try to free up more.

Funny thing is, just like Hard Drives, the more RAM you have, the more stuff you end up installing to eat up that RAM.

Is SL a RAM hog or does it just have memory leaks? I notice whenever I quit, it takes XP a good 30 seconds (on my 2.4GHZ, 1GB RAM machine) to clear memory and re-enable desktop. I never feel completely clean without rebooting.

It's a leaky ram hog...

30 seconds sounds like a lot. Though the reason for this is probably because Windows eventually caches data it hasn't used in awhile. What I mean by that is... it takes the data from the RAM and allocates it to a slower medium (Swap usually) so that something more important and intensive can use the freed RAM (SL in its 500mb physical size glory). The more RAM that is used for important things, the more Windows has to cache to keep up. Eventually it'll cache GUI elements from other programs, desktop data (icons, wallpaper) and so on. When you close SL, you're dropped back to the desktop and Windows has to go grab that data from the swap and throw it back in RAM. That's the cause of your lag.

I have a machine with the exact same specs though, and I only experience a 0.5 - 2sec lag before my desktop and GUI elements are back in proper form. RAM speed is an issue, especially if you have had new RAM installed and it's not the correct speed for your system. Still though... 30 seconds... that must be an exageration, because that blows me away.

Finally, SL does have a few memory leaks so rebooting will provide you with an instant boost. Usually though the RAM will slowly garbage collect itself as you go about using your system.

I'm not at all surprised to hear it takes 30 seconds to re-enable desktop, and only wish my PC did. Mine usually takes at least a minute, with my frantically clicking the X and 'end program' until I finally get my desktop back. I also have problems with continual 'freezing' in-game as the hard disk is accessed for long periods of time (at least 30 seconds, often more) and I'm hoping adding further RAM will cure it. I will find out later today when a further 512MB is added. At the moment, I get a smoother performance playing on my laptop.

Not only does it eat RAMs. It eats ewes and lambs too. And sometimes cherubs.

I notice if I'm sitting in a club when I first log in, after everything loads, I'm using about 200-250 megs of ram for the SecondLife process in my task manager...if I go idle and check again in about 6-8 hours, I'll be using 600+ even if there are less people and effects in the club then there were when I first logged in...and it slowly rises the longer I'm logged in...

Using the in-client media player to play the music in the club seems to increase this Ram-explosion.

I think SL still has some memory leaks...but relogging every couple hours seems to keep it in check...

Using Winamp to run the shoutcast streams helps greatly...

You also might want to check yor CPU temperature.
I've got a AMD 3000 (woohoo), and with normal usage, the CPU sits on about 42-45 degrees C, after loadig SL it will sit on 50-53 degrees C untill I log out, then it goes back to the mid 40s.

If you have two HDs, you might try moving the Page.sys or the Virtual memory to your D drive.

Is too much RAM being eaten a bad thing for the puter? *sheep eyed look*

You might want to try a new brand of shower gel.

P2

The Task Manager does not show you how much RAM is being used, it shows you how much of your page file space is being used (i.e. hard drive space being used as RAM), unless you're cleaver and can find the "Physical Memory" portion and can convert from KB to MB.