Memory issue KDE Plasma Manjaro Lenovo Ideacentre 4GB RAM

I am using Lenovo All in One with celeron dual core 2GHZ and 4 GB RAM.

Kernel: 6.0.2-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.25.5
Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: LENOVO ideacentre AIO 310-20IAP

How much RAM does the above Distro support?

My installation runs out of memory easily. Even as I write, 80% memory is in use , I have many apps open.

Should I upgrade to 8GB RAM? Will this distro (specified above) benefit from 8GB RAM?

Thanks

KDE is one of the more resource hungry desktops, not the worst. But if you have a browser open with multiple tabs and other apps open you will sometimes run out with 4gb, at 8gb you should be fine. Hopefully that all in one can be upgraded easily, some are not. How much swap do you have?

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YES and even 16GB is it worth to think about. the price-differenc isn’t worth to keep on low RAM-level.
With 8GB your fine but that’s the basic minimum if you want to run without too much compromises. 16GB and above will be perfect.

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Looking at the manual for this machine it doesnt look hard to upgrade, but it looks to have only one ram slot. So your going to have to get a 8gb or 16gb module.

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Thank you all very much for your kind responses.

Your responses indicate that Manjaro (the version I specified above) will be able to recognise and use 16 GB RAM. Will upgrade.

I was planning to get rid of this PC because Windows10 (after a few updates in 2021) on this PC had become so slow it was becoming impossible to use.

I guess I will keep this PC now, with Manjaro KDE installed.

Jim B, I have zero SWAP. Hard Disk is not too fast

If you have a mechanical HDD change it for a SSD and then activate a swapfile.

You will notice a general performance increase and also solve the low memory problems.

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Then what do you expect will happen with only 4gb ram?

That’s why your windows is slow. Disable pagefile there too, and see how it goes. :stuck_out_tongue:

Seems like you are living 20 years in the past. :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s just not true. Unless you are comparing it with lightweight DEs.

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Arrababiski , I followed the instructions on that page and made a 8192M swap file (RAM is 4GB).

I have made a swap file, not swap partition.

After the above, I rebooted, and now I have fired up some very heavy apps, and the status is as follows:

RAM usage is approx 78%
Swapfile usage is approx 6%

Is that normal? RAM looks overloaded but then I am not an expert in linux.

Is there any configuration that I might have missed?

Fired up even more apps

RAM usage is 85%
SWAP usage is now 19%

But Manjaro is holding, not freezing on me. I’ll fire up some more heavy apps and post in the forum again in a few minutes.

I hope these are not famous last words of this Manjaro session of my PC! LoL

I recommend you use zram instead of normal swap, obviously more real ram is better but zram holds up really good if you only have 4gb of ram. I also have 4gb of ram and a HDD, I have tried manjaro kde/gnome/xfce and all have been very useable… with the right tweaks. Unfortunately most those tweaks are kind of advanced (changing to zen kernel, reducing swapiness) the one thing I can recommend is you to use psd (profile sync daemon) and dont open more than 4 firefox tabs.

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What else would I be comparing it with when posting to someone who has 4gb of total ram? I also notice you left off the end of my comment. Thats not fair or right.

What tool did you use to measure both?
RAM usage 78% including cache? You can ignore cache.

https://www.linuxatemyram.com

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Using Gnome system monitor. It runs well on Manjaro KDE Plasma. It plots RAM usage and SWAP usage graphically.

I don’t about cache usage. How to see it? Gnome system monitor does not show it (or I don’t know how to switch it on)

Will try zram. Thanks for the input.

sudo inxi -mj

cat /proc/swaps

Remember you can configure vm.swappiness parameter to let Manjaro use more or less often the swap file (a lower value means less use):

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Yes. Or preferably 16GB.

No reason to complicate anything or try to work around this issue. Just increase the RAM to 8GB (or 16 if applicable), and you’ll liberate your system from the bottlenecks you’re facing.

:point_up:

The first two posts already gave you the best approach to this issue.

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Thanks Arrababiski and all the others who responded.

My problem is resolved, I don’t think I even need to buy more RAM now.

I fired up many heavy apps simultaneously, including ‘Universe Sandbox’ (on Steam) and Manjaro was running very comfortably. It handled everything!

The system is running just fine.

vm.swapiness=10, RAM = 4096, SWAP = 8192, CACHE is about 1.2GB

Arrababiski,

sudo inxi -mj

returns the following:

Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.66 GiB used: 2.11 GiB (57.6%)
  Array-1: capacity: 8 GiB slots: 1 EC: None
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 type: DDR3 size: 4 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s

I suppose if I upgrade RAM, the MAX my hardware would allow is 8GB (1 slot)?

Yes extra physical RAM would be the best thing, I understand

Jim B, yes, only one slot and it appears that the hardware will not recognise more than 8GB?

sudo inxi -mj returns:

Memory:
  RAM: total: 3.66 GiB used: 2.11 GiB (57.6%)
  Array-1: capacity: 8 GiB slots: 1 EC: None
  Device-1: ChannelA-DIMM0 type: DDR3 size: 4 GiB speed: 1600 MT/s