Steve Dunn wrote:
On 2019-02-25 08:09, Dirk Munk wrote:
However, there's also a memory cache in RAM, and the size of that
cache can only be changed by tweaking the configuration file. I've
noticed that increasing the memory cache can certainly increase the
speed of Seamonkey, and can also avoid freezing problems etc.
OK, I'll take the Devil's Advocate position against you :-) And
since you stated your qualifications, I'll mention that I have a
degree in computer science and about 30 years of experience as a
professional nerd, so you and I both have a good technical
understanding to work from.
Yes, increasing SeaMonkey's memory cache can improve performance -
but it can also hurt system performance. Most people run multiple
programs at once, and if you set SeaMonkey to use lots of RAM, that
means less RAM is available for other programs before the operating
system has to start swapping, and as you know, once you start
swapping, performance falls dramatically. Even if your swap device is
an SSD, it's still orders of magnitude slower than RAM.
And sure, a 64-bit program has a massive virtual address space,
and a 64-bit operating system can access a lot of physical RAM, but I
suspect most average users' PCs only have 4-8 GB of RAM.
You and I have the technical background to understand that. The
average user doesn't. Making this setting something that's exposed in
the normal preferences menu rather than burying it in about:config
invites users who don't have a technical background to make a bad
choice. So I think it's best left as is. Users with technical skills
can already easily change it (as you and I have both done). Users
without technical skills should not change it.
-Steve
Thanks for your reply.
I get your point of course, but there is a bit more to it.
For many people the browser is their primary application, so making it
run as smoothly as possible is quite a logical pursuit.
For any PC I recommend a minimum of 8 GB RAM these days, for the
majority of users this will prevent disk swapping, there's always
sufficient memory. For 'power' users, you can install 16 GB, and if you
like to waste lots of memory by having many big applications open at the
same time (like me), put 32 GB in your PC.
Even with 8 GB, there should be more than sufficient memory to give
Seamonkey 1 GB instead of the current default 200 MB for instance.
Also, keep in mind that the memory cache setting is a maximum value that
Seamonkey can use. At the moment I have the cache setting at 4 GB, but
when I look at the task manager, the whole application uses about 3.6
GB, That means Seamonkey is only using a fraction of that allowed 4 GB.
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