On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 09:26:44AM +0300, dalios wrote: > * The computer is used for basic office tasks and the usual internet > browsing (sometimes with many firefox tabs open). I am not using any > particularly heavy programs like scientific computing, video rendering > etc. However I am experimenting sometimes with virtual machines > (usually with qemu-kvm). Not something professional, just as a hobby > (I am trying to teach my self things by performing tasks that I > wouldn't normally try on my main system). > * With the 4 GB RAM that I now have available, I have noticed my PC > becoming slow and the memory usage going quite high. After booting, > with just Gnome running, I see conky reporting that memory usage goes > to something like 800 MB. Firefox adds ~800MB more and Thunderbird > adds up to a total of more than 2 or maybe 2,5 GB! After launching > Transmission (bit torrent client) I see that I have to restart Firefox > quite often in order for the PC to be usable (especially after > browsing a little and having many tabs open or even after some tabs > have been closed). I have noticed that things got worst after > upgrading to Stable (I was on oldstable until recently). > * I haven't been checking on swap usage a lot so I don't know how is > that used.
Given the above, the odds are that a benchmark will not provide you any meaningful absolute metrics. That said, tripling your memory will almost certainly result in your computer rarely touching swap. That alone, will make a huge difference in your day-to-day computing experience. Additionally, the benchmark may still be a fun "gee whiz" sort of thing to do. It can be nice to get some idea of how your machine performs in a quantitative sense. It will certainly let you establish a baseline against which you can compare future upgrades or future replacement systems. Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sánchez