Upgrade my RAM

Issues & Assistance Newbies
1

Hello to all,
I’m going to upgrade my computer’s RAM from 32 GiB to 64GiB in about a month’s time. Since I’m new to Linux and quite newbie, I’d like to know if I have to modify/change anything when I do it in Garuda Linux, maybe modify ZRAM, or is it automatic, maybe something else I don’t know?
I found this thread:

but it seems to me that from 2021 until now things might have changed, if not, let me know.
Thank you very much.

My garuda-inxi:

System:
Kernel: 6.11.9-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=1b079d8b-58a3-4533-8245-22b97207f1e1 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet loglevel=3 ibt=off
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.2.3 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.8.0
wm: kwin_wayland vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: Z390 AORUS PRO v: N/A
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Gigabyte model: Z390 AORUS PRO-CF serial: <superuser required>
uuid: <superuser required> UEFI: American Megatrends v: F13 date: 12/21/2023
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i9-9900K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Coffee Lake
gen: core 9 level: v3 note: check built: 2018 process: Intel 14nm family: 6
model-id: 0x9E (158) stepping: 0xD (13) microcode: 0x100
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 8 cores: 8 threads: 16 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 512 KiB desc: d-8x32 KiB; i-8x32 KiB L2: 2 MiB
desc: 8x256 KiB L3: 16 MiB desc: 1x16 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/5000 scaling: driver: intel_pstate
governor: powersave cores: 1: 800 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800
8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 13: 800 14: 800 15: 800 16: 800
bogomips: 115200
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities: <filter>
Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU104 [GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER] vendor: Gigabyte
driver: nvidia v: 565.57.01 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 550.xx+
status: current (as of 2024-09; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Turing code: TUxxx
process: TSMC 12nm FF built: 2018-2022 pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
lanes: 16 ports: active: none off: DP-2,DP-3
empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,Unknown-2 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1e81
class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.14 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.4
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa gpu: nvidia d-rect: 3414x1920
display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-2 pos: top-right res: 2048x1152 size: N/A modes: N/A
Monitor-2: DP-3 pos: bottom-l res: 1366x768 size: N/A modes: N/A
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 2
drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia wayland: drv: nvidia
x11: drv: nvidia inactive: device-1
API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 565.57.01
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
SUPER/PCIe/SSE2 memory: 7.81 GiB display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.295 layers: 12 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: NVIDIA
GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER driver: nvidia v: 565.57.01 device-ID: 10de:1e81
surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland
Audio:
Device-1: NVIDIA TU104 HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1
chip-ID: 10de:10f8 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Creative Labs CA0132 Sound Core3D [Sound Blaster Recon3D /
Z-Series BlasterX AE-5 Plus] driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1102:0012 class-ID: 0403
API: ALSA v: k6.11.9-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.2.6 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Gigabyte driver: e1000e v: kernel
port: N/A bus-ID: 00:1f.6 chip-ID: 8086:15bc class-ID: 0200
IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Info: services: NetworkManager, smbd, systemd-timesyncd
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 3.18 TiB used: 1.36 TiB (42.7%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000P5SSD8
size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s
lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: P4CR313 temp: 35.9 C
scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1
size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 023 scheme: GPT
ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1CH164
size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> fw-rev: CC27 scheme: MBR
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 301.69 GiB (64.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 596 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 301.69 GiB (64.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 301.69 GiB (64.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 465.46 GiB size: 465.46 GiB (100.00%)
used: 301.69 GiB (64.8%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 31.27 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo,lzo-rle,lz4,lz4hc,842 max-streams: 16 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 35.0 C pch: 47.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A
Info:
Memory: total: 32 GiB available: 31.27 GiB used: 5.18 GiB (16.6%)
Processes: 383 Power: uptime: 14m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
suspend, test_resume image: 12.46 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
tool: systemctl
Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1977 libs: 577 tools: octopi,pamac,paru
Compilers: clang: 18.1.8 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: garuda-inxi default: fish
v: 3.7.1 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.36
Garuda (2.6.26-1):
System install date:     2024-08-17
Last full system update: 2024-11-20
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut nvidia-dkms
Windows dual boot:       Probably (Run as root to verify)
Failed units:
2

Nothing to be done for zram.
We use zram-generator configured to use your ram size for the zram device, which will be increased automatically.

6 Likes
3

Just out of curiosity, are you regularly exhausting your RAM?

I use 32 GB on my systems and find that I never even come close to using half of that.

In the past I’ve run Garuda on systems with only 4 GB of RAM and never recieved OOM errors.

I realize my needs are pretty modest, but I couldn’t imagine I’d ever require 64 GB of RAM using Linux. Windows sure, as Windows gobbles RAM like it’s going out of style.

5 Likes
4

There are several reasons, none of them directly related to Linux. Let me explain:

I mainly use my computer for gaming. In this, I mostly play one game: Star Citizen. I don’t know if you know it, but it is a pre-alpha game, which is far from being polished in terms of performance, but it is playable (here I don’t get into the debate of whether it is or not) at user level. This game now runs with very high memory requirements, between 32 and 40GiB of RAM you’ll be fine (it can be played with less but you’ll have problems).

I use dual boot with Windows 11 because my kids like to play games that are not compatible with Linux.

My system is becoming obsolete for running AAA games and I wanted to upgrade before these DDR4 memory modules stop selling at the speed I require.

It’s black friday soon and I’ve got my eye on a couple of RAM modules to go with the ones I already have in my system.

I have the money to buy them. :wink: :blush: