[CLOSED] High amount of RAM being used as buff/cache

Issues & Assistance Newbies
#1

My RAM usage is very high, and it seems to be going to buff/cach very quickly. I have 16G of Ram and after fresh boot

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       2.0Gi        12Gi        20Mi       1.3Gi        13Gi
Swap:           32Gi          0B        32Gi

if I run it again in about 10 minutes

free -h
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            15Gi       3.4Gi       7.1Gi        88Mi       5.1Gi        11Gi
Swap:           32Gi          0B        32Gi

I'm running KDE with pulseaudio, gcdemu, lutris and valvaldi with about 6 tabs open.

inxi -Faz
System:
  Kernel: 5.15.11-zen1-1-zen x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
    root=UUID=194c833d-fc87-470e-bc3a-0a59d4bd7aa4 rw [email protected]
    quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0
    systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=1
    resume=UUID=6128a838-a54f-40e2-80cb-b69e79085972 loglevel=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.23.4 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM
    Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Micro-Star product: MS-7C35 v: 2.0
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Micro-Star model: MEG X570 UNIFY (MS-7C35) v: 2.0
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: A.73
    date: 09/29/2020
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M510
    serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes
    status: Discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 2
    family: 0x17 (23) model-id: 0x71 (113) stepping: 0 microcode: 0x8701021
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 12 tpc: 2 threads: 24 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 768 KiB desc: d-12x32 KiB; i-12x32 KiB L2: 6 MiB desc: 12x512 KiB
    L3: 64 MiB desc: 4x16 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2335 high: 3625 min/max: 2200/4672 boost: enabled
    scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 3305 2: 2055
    3: 2054 4: 2198 5: 2200 6: 2199 7: 2208 8: 2196 9: 2197 10: 2200 11: 2200
    12: 2197 13: 3610 14: 2053 15: 2056 16: 2199 17: 2199 18: 2199 19: 2199
    20: 2103 21: 3625 22: 2199 23: 2198 24: 2201 bogomips: 182401
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full AMD retpoline, IBPB: conditional,
    STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5600 OEM/5600 XT / 5700/5700 XT]
    vendor: Sapphire Limited driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 2f:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:731f class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Microdia Lumina Camera - Raw type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-2:3 chip-ID: 0c45:0415
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:7 chip-ID: 046d:085c
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: Microdia Dual Mode Camera (8006 VGA) type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,usbhid bus-ID: 5-2.4:6 chip-ID: 0c45:8006
    class-ID: 0301
  Device-5: Sunplus Innovation CA FLINT type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 6-3:3 chip-ID: 1bcf:2c99
    class-ID: 0102
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.21.1.2 compositor: kwin_x11 driver:
    loaded: amdgpu,ati unloaded: modesetting,radeon alternate: fbdev,vesa
    display-ID: :0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2")
    s-diag: 582mm (22.9")
  Monitor-1: DisplayPort-0 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 90
    size: 544x303mm (21.4x11.9") diag: 623mm (24.5")
  OpenGL: renderer: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT (NAVI10 DRM 3.42.0
    5.15.11-zen1-1-zen LLVM 13.0.0)
    v: 4.6 Mesa 21.3.2 direct render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Navi 10 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    bus-ID: 2f:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab38 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Starship/Matisse HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 31:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Microdia Lumina Camera - Raw type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-2:3 chip-ID: 0c45:0415
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-4: Logitech C922 Pro Stream Webcam type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-5:7 chip-ID: 046d:085c
    class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Device-5: Corsair VOID Wireless Gaming Dongle type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 5-1.4:5 chip-ID: 1b1c:1b27
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-6: Sunplus Innovation CA FLINT type: USB
    driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 6-3:3 chip-ID: 1bcf:2c99
    class-ID: 0102
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.11-zen1-1-zen running: yes
  Sound Server-2: sndio v: N/A running: no
  Sound Server-3: JACK v: 1.9.19 running: no
  Sound Server-4: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-5: PipeWire v: 0.3.42 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: r8169
    v: kernel port: f000 bus-ID: 27:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp39s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel bus-ID: 28:00.0
    chip-ID: 8086:2723 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: anbox0 state: down mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX200 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-4:6 chip-ID: 8087:0029 class-ID: e001
  Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: N/A
  Device-2: Cambridge Silicon Radio Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode) type: USB
    driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-6:8 chip-ID: 0a12:0001 class-ID: e001
  Report: ID: hci1 rfk-id: 2 state: up address: <filter>
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device driver: ahci v: 3.0
    port: N/A bus-ID: 2b:00.0 chip-ID: 1022:7916 rev: N/A class-ID: 0104
  Hardware-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device driver: ahci v: 3.0
    port: N/A bus-ID: 2c:00.0 chip-ID: 1022:7916 rev: N/A class-ID: 0104
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.45 TiB used: 245.91 GiB (16.6%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000P1SSD8
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
    speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: P3CR021
    temp: 33.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: PNY model: CS900 240GB SSD
    size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0KB3 scheme: GPT
  ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: PNY model: CS900 240GB SSD
    size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0KB3
  ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: A-Data
    model: USB Flash Drive size: 28.91 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1.00 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
  ID-5: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 type: USB vendor: A-Data
    model: USB Flash Drive size: 14.74 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0.00 scheme: GPT
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
  ID-6: /dev/sde maj-min: 8:64 type: USB vendor: Transcend
    model: JetFlash Transcend 64GB size: 58.84 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 1100 scheme: MBR
  SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 206.11 GiB size: 429.68 GiB (208.47%)
    used: 245.91 GiB (57.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 206.11 GiB size: 429.68 GiB (208.47%)
    used: 245.91 GiB (57.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 206.11 GiB size: 429.68 GiB (208.47%)
    used: 245.91 GiB (57.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
  ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 206.11 GiB size: 429.68 GiB (208.47%)
    used: 245.91 GiB (57.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 17.16 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%)
    priority: -2 dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3
  ID-2: swap-2 type: zram size: 15.6 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
    dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: N/A mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 38.0 C
    mem: 38.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 0
Info:
  Processes: 536 Uptime: 7m wakeups: 2 Memory: 15.6 GiB
  used: 4.02 GiB (25.8%) Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl Compilers:
  gcc: 11.1.0 clang: 13.0.0 Packages: 1839 pacman: 1816 lib: 509 flatpak: 23
  Shell: Bash v: 5.1.12 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.11

I just did a system update, it didn't help much

#2

That is normal. Keep in mind that the memory in buffers is available memory if applications need it.

You can see that if you look at the available memory column at the end.

3 Likes
#3

I thought that at first, but I've experienced signs of low RAM. I guess I'll post again if updates don't help soon.
I am booting off 2 250GB SATA 2.5'' SSD's in a BTRFS pool

#4

Why did people upgrade from 4 and 8 GB to 16 GB RAM only to not want to use it? :smiley:

Unused memory is wasted memory!

4 Likes
#5

If you are experiencing some type of slowness, it probably isn't caused by the memory you have in buffers. There is likely a different cause.

Linux just reports memory usage differently.

2 Likes