Bug 127365

Summary:	New GarbageCollection algorithm, makes my computer hanging every few seconds
Product:	[Eclipse Project] Platform	Reporter:	Karsten Becker <java>
Component:	Runtime	Assignee:	platform-runtime-inbox <platform-runtime-inbox>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P3	CC:	john.arthorne
Version:	3.2	Keywords:	vm
Target Milestone:	---
Hardware:	PC
OS:	Windows XP
Whiteboard:

Description Karsten Becker

2006-02-11 05:48:30 EST

Hi,
I got a AMD 2400+ System with 2 GB RAM. I pimped up my eclipse.ini to use -Xms256m -Xmx1024m but when I'm running eclipse and listening to music from itunes, everytime the Garbage Collector gets called, my music stucks..
This has not been the case using 3.1, so I guess something changed, but I don't know what.
I even tried lowering the Process priorities from Eclipse&JVM to below normal, and the iTunes one to above normal, but that doesn't help.
My JVM version is 1.5.0_b05
I tried all of the following GCs:
-XX:+UseSerialGC
-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC
-Xincgc
-XX:UseParallelGC
-XX:+UseParNewGC
(I know some of them obviously make no sense on a 1GB 1CPU mashine.. Just for completlyness)
using -server didn't help either

Comment 1 Pascal Rapicault

2006-02-12 22:57:14 EST

Eclipse does not have any GC policy nor does it trigger the GC (or at least it should be pretty rare). I think that you should see the same problem with any other application and similar settings. My bets are that the heap is so huge that a GC takes a long time and requires so much CPU that it alters other processes. 

You should try with another VM.

Comment 2 John Arthorne

2006-02-13 10:52:02 EST

See: 

http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=5101898

Apparently fixed in 1.5.0_06

I suspect -Xmx1024M is overkill, since the cost of a full gc will be proportional to allocated heap size.  You may actually get better performance with a *lower* max heap.