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So here's memory usage on my machine (Ubuntu 16.04):

Memory usage

And here are the processes sorted by memory usage:

Process list

Now there's no way the total memory usage in the process list adds up to 12.1GB. I thought maybe it wasn't showing me everyone's processes so I ran sudo top but the process list is no different. Running free gives me: total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 16309600 12120668 2448244 360100 1740688 3364068 Swap: 16654332 3153716 13500616

So I don't think it's the cache.What's going on here? Why is memory usage so high?

Johnny
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    Linux is not Windows and uses RAM differently. Your pictures show what is using how much RAM. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. Do you have a problem or just asking about RAM use ? See http://www.linuxatemyram.com/ – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 17:30
  • It looks like you've removed your username from the output. Gnome system monitor doesn't display all processes by default. You have to enable it to see all usages. There might be more processes started by other users – Anwar Apr 06 '17 at 17:41
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    See also - http://askubuntu.com/questions/53264/how-do-you-find-out-which-program-is-using-too-much-memory and there are bug reports about the graphical programs not showing correct information. – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 17:42
  • @Anwar, that's why I used top to make sure I saw all processes. – Johnny Apr 06 '17 at 17:43
  • We don't see your top output here! – Anwar Apr 06 '17 at 17:46
  • @bodhi.zazen running free -m shows I have 3G of memory left. I would expect more as I'm not running anything intensive. – Johnny Apr 06 '17 at 17:47
  • See the link I gave you. Are you having a problem ? If not, why would you not want your system to use your RAM ? Did you read the link I gave you and can you clarify what you are asking. I can not tell if you have an actual problem, do or do not understand how Linux uses RAM, or if you have a bug in your graphical application. – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 17:49
  • @bodhi.zazen I run into trouble as soon as I run my application. It runs fine on one computer, I can run many applications alongside it. On the other computer it quickly freezes up the whole system. – Johnny Apr 06 '17 at 17:50
  • Freezing is also a broad topic. What app and what makes you think it is because you are out of RAM ? See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingSystemCrash . You need to start by checking logs. – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 17:53
  • IntelliJ running an application I wrote. I think RAM is the culprit because it climbs to full usage (or nearly so) when I run it. – Johnny Apr 06 '17 at 17:54
  • I completely disagree that unused RAM is wasted RAM and that the OP needs to "justify" why he wants help. FWIW, I build my systems with way more RAM than they will ever need and strive to avoid resource constraints. Note that the 3 Gb of in use swap space indicates that there is an issue. Often, there will be an app (or two) that is using a lot of RAM or has exited but not released it's RAM. There's plenty of threads on here on how to fix the latter. You could try exiting apps, one at a time to see who the offender is. If you use Viewnoir (as a screensaver for example) which can hog RAM – jones0610 Apr 06 '17 at 18:22
  • Debugging applications / programs is also a broad topic. We would need to see the code and logs. – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 18:48
  • @jones0610 - While you are entitled to your opinion your comment is shades of grey. The question is - Is the RAM use normal or abnormal ? The use or non-use of SWAP is not an indicator or normalcy. In order to determine if RAM use is normal or abnormal we need additional information , what is the user doing, what is running on the system, and the logs. In this case the user is running " an application I wrote" a home grown application. We need a lot more details before you can characterize the RAM use. – Panther Apr 06 '17 at 18:55
  • The system monitor window is scroll-able so your snapshot of it doesn't tell us (or you) anything concrete, You might find a look at /proc/meminfo for a more complete picture of what your RAM is doing. It's not your RAM that is the culprit, it's your understanding of the situation. You might read this for a free education. – Elder Geek Apr 07 '17 at 21:38
  • same issue here.. can't believe no one can provide an answer to this, but everyone has an opinion on the topic. Used memory in system monitor is x, how do we list the processes that use it so that p1 memory + p2 memory + .. = x ? – Alex G Aug 13 '19 at 20:58

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