http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1004915 Bug ID: 1004915 Summary: Strange discrepancy in memory usage reported by both gnome-system-monitor and mate-system-monitor, vs. the "free" command Classification: openSUSE Product: openSUSE Distribution Version: Leap 42.2 Hardware: Other OS: Other Status: NEW Severity: Normal Priority: P5 - None Component: GNOME Assignee: bnc-team-gnome@forge.provo.novell.com Reporter: neil@neilburgin.com QA Contact: qa-bugs@suse.de Found By: --- Blocker: --- Created attachment 697523 --> http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/attachment.cgi?id=697523&action=edit screenshots of system monitor and "free" side by side contradicting each other I run Xfce. Since that is known for its low memory usage, I was surprised to find that, according to mate-system-monitor, It uses about 900 MB with no apps open. That seemed odd, so I opened my terminal and ran the "free" command. Now of course the total reported memory usage will be much from what the graphical app gives since it includes memory that the kernel is using for disk cache. That's not surprising. But what is surprising is that the "-/+ buffers/cache" line below it, which is supposed to be the "true" memory usage and presumably the same thing that the graphical app is supposed to give a reading of, is 300 MB lower than what the graphical app is reporting. It was giving roughly 600MB, while the graphical app was giving roughly 900. I installed gnome-system-monitor to see if it displayed the same behavior. It did, exactly the same as the MATE version. I tried opening a bunch of apps to drive the memory usage up, and the discrepancy seemed to remain fixed at roughly 300MB of difference between the graphical app and "free". Screenshots of these experiments are attached. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.