Hey everyone, I'm using CachyOS with a KDE Plasma Wayland desktop and I have 32 GB of RAM installed. But I find myself only using around 4 GB at any time, and even after optimizing by symlinking my cache to a RAM disk, I only reach about 12 GB usage. I know RAM is way faster than traditional storage and I'd love to maximize its use—ideally, I'd like to utilize at least half of it. Does anyone have tips or settings I can adjust to help me increase RAM usage? I've mostly found advice on reducing it instead of increasing it!
5 Answers
If you really want your system to rely more on RAM, consider engaging in more intensive tasks. If you're not hitting swap memory, you might just not be running anything that demands more RAM yet.
What are you trying to do with all that RAM? If you’re already using a RAM disk, you're on the right track! However, running resource-intensive applications or games can help. It mainly depends on your actual usage.
You could start by opening tons of tabs in Google Chrome—it'll definitely push your RAM usage up! Just be aware it might be overkill if you're just trying to use your resources wisely.
Have a look at the Preload tool from Arch Wiki—it helps pre-load applications in RAM, but its benefits might vary. Just using your system generally fills up the cache over time, so monitor your buff/cache values with the `free` command to see how it changes.
Why not run some virtual machines? They can be memory hungry and will definitely help you utilize more RAM effectively.
I used to find Preload helpful back when I had HDDs. Not sure if it makes as much difference with SSDs, though.