ZRAM vs Swap File vs Swap Partition – What Do You Use on Linux?
I've been setting up Manjaro Linux on my PC and have been looking at how Linux handles swap.
My PC has 16 GB of RAM, but I noticed Manjaro wasn't using any swap at all. I've now set up ZRAM, giving me around 7.8 GB of compressed swap using Zstd.
I'll add a screenshot of my current setup below.
What I'm wondering is, what does everyone else use on their Linux machines?
Do you use:
- ZRAM
- A traditional swap file
- A dedicated swap partition
- Zswap
- Or no swap at all?
With a modern PC that has 16 GB or more RAM, is there still much benefit to having traditional disk-based swap, or does ZRAM make more sense nowadays?
I'm also interested in whether anyone has noticed a genuine difference in performance, responsiveness or stability after switching to ZRAM.
And for anyone running Manjaro or another Arch-based distribution, what setup are you using?
Be interesting to hear everyone's thoughts and experiences.
Screenshot: My current Manjaro setup showing 16 GB RAM and approximately 7.8 GB ZRAM.
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