[X4U] Having Windows open drain resources?

[Eugene]

On Sun, Apr 05, 2009 at 10:02:18AM CDT, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote:
> At 11:48 AM -0700 4/4/09, zapcat wrote:
>>
>> I hope this question doesn't sound silly..does it put a drain on CPU  
>> or RAM resources, or even VM to have several windows constantly open?
>
> Yes, but...  There are trade offs, and I think that's what you're  
> running into here.

Everything is a trade off.  The question is whether it is tolerable.
For example, I disable Dashboard because I think it's a CPU drain. :)

>> I'm trying to improve my work efficiency by changing some of my work  
>> habits, and I find it helps to have 3 or 4 or more windows always  
>> open, since I end up opening them anyway...I have a habit of always  
>> closing out all windows..which is dumb bcs I always open them back up!
>
> You don't even want to know how many windows I have open at any given  
> time.  Even worse, how many browser tabs I have open (on as many as 3  
> web browsers).

I often have 3-6 browser windows open, each window with 2-10 tabs open.

>> I think this behavior might be a hold over from something I heard or  
>> read advising closing windows as soon as you're done with them.
>
> You don't mention which system you're running.  I'm running a Rev.0 G5 
> 2x2, and I've taken it up to 7GB because I value my own time. Most of the 
> time the benefit of having most of what I want open already running is of 
> a greater benefit than the performance hits I take.
>
> Where I do find benefit in shutting everything I'm not using down, or  
> better yet, just plain rebooting, is when I'm doing a lot of graphics  
> work in Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop.

There are days I wish OS X was more aggressive towards consolidating swap.


-- 
Eugene
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/