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I have a slow computer, which has 2GB memory RAM. One geth app uses %60 percent of the RAM, which lead me to run only one geth node; I cannot run 2 geth nodes in parallel due to RAM overload.

[Q] Is it possible to decrease RAM usage of go-ethereum(geth)?

Thank you for your valuable time and help.

galahad
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alper
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    It is preferred if you can post separate questions instead of combining your questions into one. That way, it helps the people answering your question and also others hunting for at least one of your questions. Thanks! – q9f Nov 08 '16 at 12:06
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    @5chdn, I am sorry I deleted one of my question. Second question was just an idea to help to first question. – alper Nov 08 '16 at 12:20

1 Answers1

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It is not possible to reduce RAM usage of geth or any other application for that matter. Simply starting a geth node will not consume much of your RAM, but when you start running commands to create accounts, send transactions etc, you can observe a spike in RAM usage. Syncing a lot of blocks at once might also need more RAM.

However, you need low-end devices like raspberry pis and system with low RAM to observe such fluctuations. With just 2GB of RAM, it's better if you don't run geth at all because you wouldn't be able to use your system efficiently for anything else. Also, you can forget about mining. It's suggested that you need to have atleast 4GB of RAM to seamlessly start mining. At least, that's the case in a private blockchain.

galahad
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    Thank you sir for your response. I was using 2GB of RAM server for only geth app, that does mining and syncing. But as you mentioned on the background I was sending dummy 10 send transactions command to geth each minute; I believe it overloaded the RAM usage as you mentioned. – alper Nov 09 '16 at 12:42
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    btw I am working on my local ethereum blockchain. If geth is mining and syncing, it uses %60 of the 2GB RAM, should not be the remaining RAM be enough for the system usage? – alper Nov 09 '16 at 13:47
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    Mining with 2GB of RAM is not feasible. During epoch transitions, you'll most probably get an out of memory error. – galahad Nov 09 '16 at 20:26