Tests with swap show lots of programs using 10 ~ 20 megabytes or more during startup but not afterwards. On a desktop with 16 GB and lots of applications running, the one off startup swap is about 0.8 GB. Swap can work up to near 2 GB with some software applications but not many and after that, everything is too slow. If you start with 1 GB, and limit the applications you start, there might be a startup swap usage of only 0.3 or 0.2 GB.
The Pi 5 with PCIe running at speed 3 still slows down significantly if you start with 2 GB and push it into swap. I would not use a 1 GB for a desktop or anything like it. I would restrict it to a single use like a file server or just reading email. You can do things like install Noscript in a Web browser to reduce the memory usage. Almost every one of the alternatives to swap are better than swap.
Someone mentioned memory cache in SSD. The cheaper SSDs are "DRAMless" and use main memory for their workspace, chewing up whatever they want, 50 MB or 250 MB, a huge amount compared to 1 GB of RAM. The more expensive models have DRAM in the controller chip but it is rarely specified how much you get. Ancient disks, those things with spinning metal, were labeled as having cache with sizes like 64 GB. Lots of SSDs do not say what they have. Anyway, a 64 GB cache in an SSD would not help when 1 GB is flooded.
My Linux desktop, 16 GB, is currently using 2.6 GB and the one off swap is 0.22 GB, less than 10%.
The Pi 5 with PCIe running at speed 3 still slows down significantly if you start with 2 GB and push it into swap. I would not use a 1 GB for a desktop or anything like it. I would restrict it to a single use like a file server or just reading email. You can do things like install Noscript in a Web browser to reduce the memory usage. Almost every one of the alternatives to swap are better than swap.
Someone mentioned memory cache in SSD. The cheaper SSDs are "DRAMless" and use main memory for their workspace, chewing up whatever they want, 50 MB or 250 MB, a huge amount compared to 1 GB of RAM. The more expensive models have DRAM in the controller chip but it is rarely specified how much you get. Ancient disks, those things with spinning metal, were labeled as having cache with sizes like 64 GB. Lots of SSDs do not say what they have. Anyway, a 64 GB cache in an SSD would not help when 1 GB is flooded.
My Linux desktop, 16 GB, is currently using 2.6 GB and the one off swap is 0.22 GB, less than 10%.
Statistics: Posted by peterlite — Mon Jul 22, 2024 9:00 am