MATE Desktop GTK2 vs GTK3 memory consumption

News 2016-06-10 Martin Wimpress
This post is more than a year old and may be outdated.

The number two question in the Ubuntu MATE community right now is:

Does MATE Desktop built against GTK3 require more memory than MATE Desktop built against GTK2?

The answer is Yes, but No. Read on for a full explanation.

Computer RAM

Let’s also take this opportunity to deal with another claim that cropped up recently, that MATE Desktop 1.14.1 on Ubuntu MATE 16.04 uses significantly more memory that MATE Desktop 1.12.1 on Ubuntu MATE 16.04.

Test conditions

  • MATE Desktop 1.12.1 and MATE Desktop 1.14.1 for Ubuntu MATE 16.04 are both built against GTK2 only.
  • These RAM comparisons were generated using ps_mem, because this is the correct tool for accurately measuring memory consumption, one does not simply measure RAM consumption using System Monitor.

If you want to tinker with ps_mem yourself it can be installed as follows:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python-pip
sudo pip install ps_mem

Method for 16.04

Ubuntu MATE 16.04 was installed in a VM and fully upgraded and Ubuntu MATE Welcome autostart was disabled, but all other defaults were used in all tests. Upon login, CRTL + ALT + t was pressed to start a terminal and the following script was run:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

SLEEP=90

if [ $(id -u) != 0 ]; then
    echo "You're not root you peasant!"
    exit 0
fi

VER=$(mate-about -v | sed 's/ /_/g')
echo "Profiling ${VER}"
echo "Sleeping for ${SLEEP} secs"
sleep ${SLEEP}
ps_mem | tee -a ${VER}.txt
echo "Done"

After the results were collected for Ubuntu MATE 16.04 running MATE Desktop 1.12.1 the system was upgraded to MATE Desktop 1.14.1 and rebooted twice. Upon login the same script was executed in the same way.

Method for 16.10

Ubuntu MATE 16.10 daily was installed in a VM and fully upgraded and Ubuntu MATE Welcome autostart was disabled, but all other defaults were used in all tests. Upon login, CRTL + ALT + t was pressed to start a terminal and the same script, as described above, was run.

Results

Here are the results:

OS Desktop Tool Kit RAM (MiB)
Ubuntu MATE 16.04 MATE Desktop 1.12.1 GTK2 353.0
Ubuntu MATE 16.04 MATE Desktop 1.14.1 GTK2 358.4
Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (pre-alpha) MATE Desktop 1.14.1 *GTK3* 351.7


Conclusions

Here are some quick conclusions:

  • MATE Desktop 1.14.1 does not use significantly more RAM that MATE Desktop 1.12.1, when both are built again GTK2.
  • Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (pre-alpha) using MATE Desktop 1.14.1 built against GTK3 uses less RAM than either Ubuntu MATE 16.04 configuration using GTK2.

That second point needs some explaination because the detailed ps_mem output included at the end of this blog post clearly shows that all MATE applications built against GTK3 use more RAM than their GTK2 counterparts.

Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (pre-alpha) is using less RAM than Ubuntu MATE 16.04 for the following reasons:

  • Tilda is no longer executed by default in Ubuntu MATE 16.10, it is now an option in MATE Tweak.
  • Network Manager uses systemd-resolved via libnss-resolve for DNS lookups in 16.10 as opposed to dnsmasq in 16.04. This makes Network Manager ever so slightly less resource intensive in Ubuntu 16.10.
  • All the default applications and components started in the default Ubuntu MATE 16.10 configuration use GTK3 only, none use GTK2. So only one toolkit is resident in memory, not two as in Ubuntu MATE 16.04.

Full ps_mem output

For completeness here is the ps_mem output for each test.

Ubuntu MATE 16.04 with MATE Desktop 1.12.1 built against GTK2.

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used   Program

156.0 KiB +  43.0 KiB = 199.0 KiB   tee
160.0 KiB +  40.5 KiB = 200.5 KiB   gnome-pty-helper
152.0 KiB +  49.0 KiB = 201.0 KiB   avahi-dnsconfd
224.0 KiB +  32.0 KiB = 256.0 KiB   acpid
276.0 KiB +  46.5 KiB = 322.5 KiB   agetty
320.0 KiB +  51.5 KiB = 371.5 KiB   irqbalance
328.0 KiB +  88.5 KiB = 416.5 KiB   cron
400.0 KiB +  93.0 KiB = 493.0 KiB   rtkit-daemon
464.0 KiB +  95.5 KiB = 559.5 KiB   dbus-launch
564.0 KiB +  21.5 KiB = 585.5 KiB   ssh-agent
624.0 KiB + 108.0 KiB = 732.0 KiB   dconf-service
648.0 KiB + 149.5 KiB = 797.5 KiB   gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
756.0 KiB + 127.0 KiB = 883.0 KiB   gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
776.0 KiB + 198.0 KiB = 974.0 KiB   at-spi2-registryd
836.0 KiB + 141.0 KiB = 977.0 KiB   dnsmasq
932.0 KiB +  72.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB   systemd-logind
784.0 KiB + 243.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB   gvfsd
396.0 KiB + 637.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB   avahi-daemon (2)
900.0 KiB + 187.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   accounts-daemon
896.0 KiB + 199.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
988.0 KiB + 153.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfsd-fuse
924.0 KiB + 296.0 KiB =   1.2 MiB   gvfsd-dnssd
992.0 KiB + 281.0 KiB =   1.2 MiB   gvfsd-trash
  1.0 MiB + 293.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB   gvfsd-network
  1.1 MiB + 248.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB   sudo
  1.4 MiB +  76.5 KiB =   1.5 MiB   rsyslogd
  1.3 MiB + 260.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB   deja-dup-monitor
  1.3 MiB + 320.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB   ntpd
  1.5 MiB +  71.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB   systemd-journald
  1.2 MiB + 472.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB   gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.2 MiB + 546.0 KiB =   1.8 MiB   (sd-pam)
  2.0 MiB +  41.0 KiB =   2.0 MiB   dhclient
  1.6 MiB + 461.5 KiB =   2.0 MiB   cupsd
  1.6 MiB + 432.0 KiB =   2.1 MiB   gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  1.9 MiB + 199.0 KiB =   2.1 MiB   gnome-keyring-daemon
  1.6 MiB + 547.5 KiB =   2.1 MiB   upowerd
  1.5 MiB + 768.0 KiB =   2.2 MiB   cups-browsed
  1.6 MiB + 753.0 KiB =   2.3 MiB   dbus (2)
  1.7 MiB + 724.0 KiB =   2.4 MiB   lightdm (2)
  2.4 MiB + 136.0 KiB =   2.5 MiB   systemd-udevd
  2.6 MiB + 194.0 KiB =   2.8 MiB   at-spi-bus-launcher
  2.1 MiB + 805.0 KiB =   2.9 MiB   polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1
  2.4 MiB + 841.5 KiB =   3.2 MiB   mate-session
  2.1 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   3.3 MiB   whoopsie
  2.8 MiB + 645.0 KiB =   3.4 MiB   dbus-daemon (3)
  2.5 MiB + 930.0 KiB =   3.4 MiB   mate-power-manager
  2.9 MiB + 935.0 KiB =   3.8 MiB   mate-maximus
  3.5 MiB + 362.0 KiB =   3.8 MiB   ModemManager
  3.3 MiB + 898.5 KiB =   4.2 MiB   notification-area-applet
  2.1 MiB +   2.2 MiB =   4.3 MiB   systemd (2)
  3.7 MiB + 633.0 KiB =   4.3 MiB   obexd
  4.4 MiB + 216.0 KiB =   4.6 MiB   polkitd
  3.5 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   4.7 MiB   bash (3)
  4.8 MiB + 377.0 KiB =   5.1 MiB   udisksd
  3.9 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   5.2 MiB   trashapplet
  5.2 MiB + 612.0 KiB =   5.8 MiB   pulseaudio
  4.7 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.9 MiB   marco
  4.7 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   6.1 MiB   clock-applet
  4.4 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   6.4 MiB   mate-volume-control-applet
  6.1 MiB + 824.5 KiB =   6.9 MiB   NetworkManager
  5.2 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   7.0 MiB   wnck-applet
  6.9 MiB +   1.7 MiB =   8.6 MiB   mate-settings-daemon
  6.8 MiB +   2.2 MiB =   9.0 MiB   mate-terminal
  8.1 MiB + 921.5 KiB =   9.0 MiB   gvfsd-smb-browse
  8.3 MiB + 923.5 KiB =   9.2 MiB   mate-screensaver
  8.7 MiB +   1.9 MiB =  10.6 MiB   mate-panel
  8.8 MiB +   7.6 MiB =  16.4 MiB   update-notifier
 10.9 MiB +   8.1 MiB =  18.9 MiB   nm-applet
 16.9 MiB +   2.9 MiB =  19.8 MiB   applet.py
 14.2 MiB +   8.1 MiB =  22.3 MiB   tilda
 21.7 MiB +   3.1 MiB =  24.8 MiB   caja
 21.9 MiB +   5.8 MiB =  27.8 MiB   blueman-applet
 25.2 MiB +   5.9 MiB =  31.1 MiB   Xorg
---------------------------------
                        353.0 MiB
=================================

Ubuntu MATE 16.04 with MATE Desktop 1.14.1 built against GTK2.

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used   Program

152.0 KiB +  48.0 KiB = 200.0 KiB   avahi-dnsconfd
156.0 KiB +  45.0 KiB = 201.0 KiB   tee
164.0 KiB +  43.5 KiB = 207.5 KiB   gnome-pty-helper
224.0 KiB +  33.0 KiB = 257.0 KiB   acpid
292.0 KiB +  46.5 KiB = 338.5 KiB   agetty
324.0 KiB +  49.5 KiB = 373.5 KiB   irqbalance
324.0 KiB +  85.5 KiB = 409.5 KiB   cron
396.0 KiB +  87.0 KiB = 483.0 KiB   rtkit-daemon
460.0 KiB +  94.5 KiB = 554.5 KiB   dbus-launch
584.0 KiB +  21.5 KiB = 605.5 KiB   ssh-agent
628.0 KiB + 112.0 KiB = 740.0 KiB   dconf-service
652.0 KiB + 150.5 KiB = 802.5 KiB   gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
672.0 KiB + 191.0 KiB = 863.0 KiB   at-spi-bus-launcher
824.0 KiB + 131.0 KiB = 955.0 KiB   gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
780.0 KiB + 195.0 KiB = 975.0 KiB   at-spi2-registryd
844.0 KiB + 138.0 KiB = 982.0 KiB   dnsmasq
912.0 KiB +  75.5 KiB = 987.5 KiB   systemd-logind
400.0 KiB + 635.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB   avahi-daemon (2)
884.0 KiB + 198.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
908.0 KiB + 178.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   accounts-daemon
  1.0 MiB + 150.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfsd-fuse
956.0 KiB + 298.0 KiB =   1.2 MiB   gvfsd-dnssd
  1.0 MiB + 276.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB   gvfsd-trash
  1.0 MiB + 291.5 KiB =   1.3 MiB   gvfsd-network
  1.1 MiB + 244.0 KiB =   1.3 MiB   sudo
  1.4 MiB +  80.5 KiB =   1.5 MiB   rsyslogd
  1.3 MiB + 262.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB   deja-dup-monitor
  1.3 MiB + 323.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB   ntpd
  1.2 MiB + 451.0 KiB =   1.6 MiB   gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.6 MiB +  70.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB   systemd-journald
  1.4 MiB + 588.0 KiB =   1.9 MiB   (sd-pam)
  1.6 MiB + 383.5 KiB =   2.0 MiB   cupsd
  1.9 MiB +  40.0 KiB =   2.0 MiB   dhclient
  1.8 MiB + 203.0 KiB =   2.0 MiB   gnome-keyring-daemon
  1.6 MiB + 416.0 KiB =   2.0 MiB   gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  1.4 MiB + 756.0 KiB =   2.2 MiB   cups-browsed
  2.1 MiB + 135.0 KiB =   2.2 MiB   systemd-udevd
  1.7 MiB + 721.0 KiB =   2.4 MiB   lightdm (2)
  2.4 MiB + 230.0 KiB =   2.6 MiB   polkitd
  2.1 MiB + 767.0 KiB =   2.9 MiB   polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1
  2.8 MiB + 243.0 KiB =   3.0 MiB   gvfsd
  2.8 MiB + 373.0 KiB =   3.1 MiB   udisksd
  2.1 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   3.2 MiB   whoopsie
  2.4 MiB + 836.5 KiB =   3.2 MiB   mate-session
  2.8 MiB + 650.0 KiB =   3.4 MiB   dbus-daemon (3)
  2.6 MiB + 926.0 KiB =   3.5 MiB   mate-power-manager
  2.9 MiB + 917.0 KiB =   3.8 MiB   mate-maximus
  3.5 MiB + 374.0 KiB =   3.9 MiB   ModemManager
  3.6 MiB + 525.5 KiB =   4.1 MiB   upowerd
  3.3 MiB + 888.5 KiB =   4.1 MiB   notification-area-applet
  3.7 MiB + 612.0 KiB =   4.3 MiB   obexd
  2.2 MiB +   2.2 MiB =   4.4 MiB   systemd (2)
  3.1 MiB +   1.3 MiB =   4.4 MiB   dbus (4)
  3.6 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   4.7 MiB   bash (3)
  3.9 MiB +   1.2 MiB =   5.1 MiB   trashapplet
  4.3 MiB + 921.5 KiB =   5.2 MiB   mate-screensaver
  5.1 MiB + 662.0 KiB =   5.7 MiB   pulseaudio
  4.7 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.8 MiB   marco
  4.4 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   6.3 MiB   mate-volume-control-applet
  5.0 MiB +   1.6 MiB =   6.5 MiB   wnck-applet
  6.3 MiB + 791.5 KiB =   7.1 MiB   NetworkManager
  6.7 MiB +   1.5 MiB =   8.1 MiB   clock-applet
  6.9 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   8.7 MiB   mate-settings-daemon
  8.0 MiB + 896.5 KiB =   8.9 MiB   gvfsd-smb-browse
  6.7 MiB +   2.2 MiB =   8.9 MiB   mate-terminal
 10.6 MiB +   1.9 MiB =  12.4 MiB   mate-panel
 10.5 MiB +   7.4 MiB =  17.9 MiB   update-notifier
 11.5 MiB +   7.8 MiB =  19.3 MiB   nm-applet
 16.6 MiB +   2.9 MiB =  19.5 MiB   applet.py
 15.4 MiB +   7.5 MiB =  22.8 MiB   tilda
 21.9 MiB +   3.2 MiB =  25.1 MiB   caja
 24.0 MiB +   5.9 MiB =  29.9 MiB   blueman-applet
 27.1 MiB +   5.6 MiB =  32.7 MiB   Xorg
---------------------------------
                        358.4 MiB
=================================

Ubuntu MATE 16.10 with MATE Desktop 1.14.1 built against GTK3.

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used   Program

152.0 KiB +  53.0 KiB = 205.0 KiB   avahi-dnsconfd
156.0 KiB +  52.0 KiB = 208.0 KiB   tee
236.0 KiB +  34.0 KiB = 270.0 KiB   acpid
320.0 KiB +  51.5 KiB = 371.5 KiB   irqbalance
324.0 KiB +  50.5 KiB = 374.5 KiB   agetty
324.0 KiB +  91.5 KiB = 415.5 KiB   cron
408.0 KiB +  96.0 KiB = 504.0 KiB   rtkit-daemon
572.0 KiB +  19.5 KiB = 591.5 KiB   ssh-agent
616.0 KiB + 118.0 KiB = 734.0 KiB   dconf-service
676.0 KiB + 161.5 KiB = 837.5 KiB   gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
768.0 KiB + 141.0 KiB = 909.0 KiB   gvfs-goa-volume-monitor
780.0 KiB + 208.0 KiB = 988.0 KiB   at-spi2-registryd
928.0 KiB +  75.5 KiB =   1.0 MiB   systemd-logind
932.0 KiB +  84.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB   systemd-resolved
388.0 KiB + 659.0 KiB =   1.0 MiB   avahi-daemon (2)
776.0 KiB + 309.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfsd
896.0 KiB + 211.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
892.0 KiB + 218.0 KiB =   1.1 MiB   dbus-launch (2)
  1.1 MiB + 275.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB   accounts-daemon
  1.1 MiB + 260.0 KiB =   1.4 MiB   sudo
  1.2 MiB + 212.5 KiB =   1.4 MiB   gvfsd-fuse
  1.4 MiB +  79.5 KiB =   1.5 MiB   rsyslogd
  1.2 MiB + 419.5 KiB =   1.6 MiB   gvfsd-trash
  1.4 MiB + 296.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB   deja-dup-monitor
  1.2 MiB + 535.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB   gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
  1.6 MiB +  79.5 KiB =   1.7 MiB   systemd-journald
  1.4 MiB + 462.0 KiB =   1.9 MiB   ntpd
  2.0 MiB +  44.0 KiB =   2.0 MiB   dhclient
  1.5 MiB + 560.5 KiB =   2.1 MiB   cupsd
  1.6 MiB + 588.0 KiB =   2.2 MiB   upowerd
  1.8 MiB + 483.5 KiB =   2.3 MiB   gvfs-udisks2-volume-monitor
  1.5 MiB + 984.0 KiB =   2.5 MiB   cups-browsed
  2.1 MiB + 756.0 KiB =   2.8 MiB   lightdm (2)
  2.7 MiB + 131.0 KiB =   2.8 MiB   systemd-udevd
  2.1 MiB + 988.5 KiB =   3.1 MiB   bash (2)
  2.2 MiB + 950.0 KiB =   3.1 MiB   (sd-pam) (2)
  2.2 MiB + 952.0 KiB =   3.2 MiB   gnome-keyring-daemon (2)
  2.9 MiB + 281.0 KiB =   3.2 MiB   at-spi-bus-launcher
  2.9 MiB + 355.0 KiB =   3.2 MiB   polkitd
  2.9 MiB + 451.5 KiB =   3.4 MiB   udisksd
  2.1 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   3.5 MiB   whoopsie
  3.1 MiB + 798.5 KiB =   3.9 MiB   dbus-daemon (4)
  3.9 MiB + 578.0 KiB =   4.5 MiB   obexd
  3.6 MiB + 948.0 KiB =   4.5 MiB   polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1
  2.7 MiB +   2.4 MiB =   5.0 MiB   systemd (3)
  4.0 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.2 MiB   notification-area-applet
  4.4 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.5 MiB   mate-maximus
  4.4 MiB +   1.3 MiB =   5.7 MiB   mate-power-manager
  4.6 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   5.7 MiB   mate-session
  5.2 MiB + 595.0 KiB =   5.8 MiB   pulseaudio
  5.5 MiB + 357.0 KiB =   5.8 MiB   ModemManager
  4.7 MiB +   1.5 MiB =   6.3 MiB   update-notifier
  4.9 MiB +   1.6 MiB =   6.4 MiB   trashapplet
  5.8 MiB +   1.1 MiB =   6.9 MiB   mate-screensaver
  5.0 MiB +   2.0 MiB =   7.1 MiB   mate-volume-control-applet
  6.5 MiB + 926.5 KiB =   7.4 MiB   NetworkManager
  5.7 MiB +   1.7 MiB =   7.4 MiB   wnck-applet
  5.9 MiB +   1.8 MiB =   7.7 MiB   clock-applet
  6.5 MiB +   1.4 MiB =   7.9 MiB   marco
  7.0 MiB +   2.1 MiB =   9.1 MiB   nm-applet
  9.1 MiB +   2.2 MiB =  11.4 MiB   mate-settings-daemon
  9.9 MiB +   2.1 MiB =  11.9 MiB   mate-panel
 11.0 MiB +   2.4 MiB =  13.4 MiB   mate-terminal
 17.0 MiB +   3.2 MiB =  20.1 MiB   applet.py
 21.2 MiB +   4.8 MiB =  26.0 MiB   blueman-applet
 23.3 MiB +   5.1 MiB =  28.4 MiB   caja
 54.0 MiB +   2.8 MiB =  56.8 MiB   Xorg
---------------------------------
                        351.7 MiB
=================================

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