How can a program use more memory than there is in the system?












0














Earlier today, I was doing some 3D modeling in Blender when I noticed in the status bar that it was using over 34,000 MB of memory.



I checked my system stats, and to my surprise, it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM without slowing down my OS at all.



enter image description here



enter image description here



I'm no math genius, but the numbers simply don't add up. 5.58 GB of swap is used, which obviously isn't enough to fit Blender.



How does this work? My computer has only 8 GB of RAM, and I don't even have an extra 35 GB free on my hard drive.










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  • 1




    it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
    – Akina
    Dec 20 '18 at 6:50








  • 1




    "Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
    – David Schwartz
    Dec 20 '18 at 7:48
















0














Earlier today, I was doing some 3D modeling in Blender when I noticed in the status bar that it was using over 34,000 MB of memory.



I checked my system stats, and to my surprise, it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM without slowing down my OS at all.



enter image description here



enter image description here



I'm no math genius, but the numbers simply don't add up. 5.58 GB of swap is used, which obviously isn't enough to fit Blender.



How does this work? My computer has only 8 GB of RAM, and I don't even have an extra 35 GB free on my hard drive.










share|improve this question




















  • 1




    it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
    – Akina
    Dec 20 '18 at 6:50








  • 1




    "Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
    – David Schwartz
    Dec 20 '18 at 7:48














0












0








0


1





Earlier today, I was doing some 3D modeling in Blender when I noticed in the status bar that it was using over 34,000 MB of memory.



I checked my system stats, and to my surprise, it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM without slowing down my OS at all.



enter image description here



enter image description here



I'm no math genius, but the numbers simply don't add up. 5.58 GB of swap is used, which obviously isn't enough to fit Blender.



How does this work? My computer has only 8 GB of RAM, and I don't even have an extra 35 GB free on my hard drive.










share|improve this question















Earlier today, I was doing some 3D modeling in Blender when I noticed in the status bar that it was using over 34,000 MB of memory.



I checked my system stats, and to my surprise, it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM without slowing down my OS at all.



enter image description here



enter image description here



I'm no math genius, but the numbers simply don't add up. 5.58 GB of swap is used, which obviously isn't enough to fit Blender.



How does this work? My computer has only 8 GB of RAM, and I don't even have an extra 35 GB free on my hard drive.







memory






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share|improve this question













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edited Dec 20 '18 at 20:30









fernando.reyes

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844216










asked Dec 20 '18 at 6:27









clickbait

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4411412








  • 1




    it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
    – Akina
    Dec 20 '18 at 6:50








  • 1




    "Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
    – David Schwartz
    Dec 20 '18 at 7:48














  • 1




    it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
    – Akina
    Dec 20 '18 at 6:50








  • 1




    "Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
    – David Schwartz
    Dec 20 '18 at 7:48








1




1




it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
– Akina
Dec 20 '18 at 6:50






it was indeed using 35 gigs of RAM No. It is virtual memory size. The most part of it is cached into swap file(s) and is not present in physical memory. It will be restored from file to memory when needed (instead of some another memory blocks which will be stored into swap to free up some physical memory for this restoring). As in library - you can read one book, but you can put it back and take any another to read.
– Akina
Dec 20 '18 at 6:50






1




1




"Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
– David Schwartz
Dec 20 '18 at 7:48




"Memory" and "RAM" are completely different things.
– David Schwartz
Dec 20 '18 at 7:48










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