POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : disc-swapping when rendering: some odd behavior Server Time
28 Mar 2024 20:18:20 EDT (-0400)
  disc-swapping when rendering: some odd behavior (Message 1 to 3 of 3)  
From: Kenneth
Subject: disc-swapping when rendering: some odd behavior
Date: 5 Oct 2020 20:05:00
Message: <web.5f7bb38e951459d8d98418910@news.povray.org>
I have a mystery.

When I occasionally run a *BIG* scene in POV-ray on my Win 7 computer, a scene
that gobbles up all my RAM, the expected *slow* disc-swapping naturally occurs
-- the shuffling-off of memory needs etc to the hard-drive  (I'm still using an
'antiquated' mechanical one, not a SSD).

What's mysterious is that my computer *continues* to disc-swap with any/all of
my other apps, even after the render is finished, and even after I shut down
POV-ray. This also used to happen on my previous  Windows XP box, running v3.6xx
or 3.7xx, not sure which. POV-ray is the only app I use that occasionally needs
to disc-swap, although it's naturally a rare occurence.

The only way to get my computer to return to its normal behavior is to re-boot.

But this odd behavior got me to thinking: Is it possible that POV-ray is not
'releasing' its used RAM memory, once its own disc-swapping has ended? OR, is
this the expected behavior of Windows itself, for whatever reason?

Has anyone else ever noticed this?

(currently running v3.8.0-alpha9811560 64-bit)


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From: Thorsten
Subject: Re: disc-swapping when rendering: some odd behavior
Date: 6 Oct 2020 03:54:55
Message: <5f7c22cf$1@news.povray.org>
On 06.10.2020 02:00, Kenneth wrote:
> But this odd behavior got me to thinking: Is it possible that POV-ray is not
> 'releasing' its used RAM memory, once its own disc-swapping has ended? OR, is
> this the expected behavior of Windows itself, for whatever reason?

No, but all your other applications have been swapped out, so it will 
take several minutes until Windows has them back in, as it only moves 
them back once the parts it moved out are actually needed. A regular 
application cannot keep memory after it has been terminated.

Thorsten


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From: Kenneth
Subject: Re: disc-swapping when rendering: some odd behavior
Date: 6 Oct 2020 09:40:07
Message: <web.5f7c739785144c4cd98418910@news.povray.org>
Thorsten <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
> On 06.10.2020 02:00, Kenneth wrote:
> > Is it possible that POV-ray is not
> > 'releasing' its used RAM memory, once its own disc-swapping has ended? OR, is
> > this the expected behavior of Windows itself, for whatever reason?
>
> No, but all your other applications have been swapped out, so it will
> take several minutes until Windows has them back in, as it only moves
> them back once the parts it moved out are actually needed. A regular
> application cannot keep memory after it has been terminated.
>

Many thanks; that succinctly explains the situation and makes sense. Yes, I've
noticed that, if I wait and be patient for awhile without re-booting, and load
other programs, the disc-swapping begins to subside.

That has been a mystery to me for quite some time; when I first noticed it years
ago, I thought my computer had suddenly been infected by a virus or similar. I
never made the connection between POV-ray's disc-swapping and the subsequent
(temporary) overall slow-down.


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