Meh, I've had too many ati cards die and freak out my systems, which is what drove me to NV. I haven't had one NV die, but obviously comes with other issues... Besides I've come to rely on VDPAU for 1080p decoding on some of my 8x00 NV card systems that I won't give up on (yet) since ATI chooses not to support it or another reasonable alternative. -mb On Thu, 2009-08-06 at 16:14 +0000, tshipley@deru.com wrote: > Buy a non-nVidia video card? > > > Sent from my BlackBerry Smartphone provided by Alltel > > -----Original Message----- > From: Stephen > > Date: Thu, 6 Aug 2009 08:51:32 > To: ; Main PLUG discussion list > Subject: Re: Memory leaks in Ubuntu? > > > i know all nvidia cards have a "turbo Cache" option to swipe some > system memory for graphics rendering it may be that the driver is > grabbing this and not releaseing it back.. this may be the killer. > > how to resolve. i am not sure. > > On Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 8:46 PM, Michael Butash wrote: > > True enough it is tied to caching, but the fact it's marked as inactive > > when I can definitely attribute application termination from lack of > > memory is what I note as a problem. The system does not give this back > > in the way of virtual or physical memory. The system does however > > behave well enough as long as physical memory is present to give, but > > watching a graph of the physical memory is *like* watching a memory > > leak, whether it properly is or isn't, and end of the road is definitely > > noticeable with performance on said system. > > > > Here's what a normal vmstat looks like currently, notice the caching: > > > > procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- > > ----cpu---- > > r b swpd free buff cache si so bi bo in cs us sy > > id wa > > 0 0 4096 224988 69472 5676224 0 0 2 31 12 41 7 6 > > 86 1 > > > > Here's what vmstat -a looks like currently with "inact" having most: > > > > mb@thrawn:~$ vmstat -a > > procs -----------memory---------- ---swap-- -----io---- -system-- > > ----cpu---- > > r b swpd free inact active si so bi bo in cs us sy > > id wa > > 2 0 4096 223196 5737708 1900724 0 0 2 31 12 41 7 > > 6 86 1 > > > > Physical memory has nothing with free -m: > > > > total used free shared buffers > > cached > > Mem: 7888 7673 214 0 68 > > 5543 > > -/+ buffers/cache: 2062 5826 > > Swap: 1023 4 1019 > > > > When it loses all physical memory, the system slows waay down, java apps > > get weird (jbidwatcher is the java cancer for me), anything rendering > > video won't scale, my gl screensaver bogs waaay down. Totem, vlc, or > > other will simply just crash if run long enough in this state, but I > > haven't caught the segfault or anything. > > > > I've used just about any build within the past 4 years or so of the NV > > proprietary drivers, and nothing resolves it, though many have said > > there are issues with 64bit. I can't attribute anything to actually > > using the memory, and typically where I've seen leaks like this I can > > always find something even in excess processes running away or ipc > > threading even. > > > > I've lived with it so long it's just just *there*, but I'd kill to fix > > whatever the heck it is. No amount of research has ever resulted in a > > fix for me. > > > > Thanks for the input! > > > > -mb > > > > > > On Wed, 2009-08-05 at 20:19 -0700, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > >> I have had major problems with the NVidia proprietary drivers, particularly with Ubuntu 9.04. It seems like NVidia introduced a ton of REALLY bad bugs when they had to almost rewrite the drivers for the changes in the new XOrg server. > >> I haven't seen the memory behavior you describe, but have you checked to be certain this isn't buffers and/or cache memory? I know all of my machines running any desktop distro tend to slowly accumulate cache until me > >> mory is "full", but none of them have performance issues, since the kernel just reclaims cache LRU when it needs the RAM back. I also see fairly large amounts of "inactive" memory, but I never seem to have problems with the system reclaiming that as needed. > >> > >> > >> Michael Butash wrote: > >> > Has anyone else seen or experienced persistent memory leaks with ubuntu > >> > 32bit or 64? I've literally had issues with it that may or may not be > >> > particularly ubuntu issues back to 7.04 that I first noticed. The only > >> > thing really in common system-wise is the hardware, and I somewhat > >> > suspect it's Nvidia driver related, but nothing really indicates any > >> > particular app. My primary desktop I use heavily just about anything, > >> > but I have another system that's sole purpose is to play movies and > >> > music on my TV I do almost nothing with that experiences the same > >> > issues, NVidia card as well. With compiz or without this happens. Only > >> > thing I haven't tried is running the NV drivers, but I rely on the > >> > acceleration far too much on both systems. > >> > > >> > What I have noticed is there are no direct applications hogging memory > >> > via top, rather it seems virtual memory ends up simply taking over all > >> > physical memory and keeping it as "inactive" via "vmstat -a". Signs of > >> > this include firefox flipping out, rendering/scaling video larger than > >> > default, and just anything else that requires excessive memory use > >> > having issues. I graph my physical memory usage via snmp, and I can > >> > pretty accurately gauge how long I have until I need to do a hard reboot > >> > to reclaim the "inactive" memory. It mostly works even memory starved > >> > in this condition, just limits my usage, and even restarting x doesn't > >> > help. Interestingly enough, neither system ever swaps at all... > >> > > >> > Has anyone successfully ever dealt with an issue like this killing > >> > virtual memory? I really can't imagine I'm the only one... I've hunted > >> > far and wide of the great interweb for a way to release the "inactive" > >> > memory, as I'd even just go so far as to purge it once a day via cron if > >> > I had to, but I can find nothing of forcefully clearing inactive/dirty > >> > virtual memory space. I've seen others complain of the same behavior, > >> > but have only seen the same rhetoric that "trust linux virtual memory > >> > behavior, that's what it's supposed to do". Act like a stupid windoze > >> > me install and reboot daily? I think not... > >> > > >> > -mb > >> > > >> > --------------------------------------------------- > >> > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > >> > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > >> > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > >> > > >> > > > > --------------------------------------------------- > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > > > > > --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss