GNOME vs KDE Plasma vs Xfce vs LXDE vs LXQt vs MATE vs Cinnamon - RAM Usage

This video will show you how much memory (RAM) is consumed by GNOME vs KDE Plasma vs Xfce vs LXDE vs LXQt vs MATE vs Cinnamon on Debian 11 Bullseye.

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[thierrybo]

With these these weird results i did my own tests, also on Debian:

Computer : Virtualbox 6.1
Virtualbox Guest Additions: no
Guest OS : Debian testing
Guests Kernel: 5.18
Guests RAM: 8Gb
Guests Video Ram: 128Mb
Guests (default) screen resolution: 1024x768

Ram usage 2 to 4 minutes after boot:

"Net install" without xorg for the common base, then for each DE, intalled htop and each available meta packages for each DE (normally heaviest to lightest):

Gnome 42.4 - task-gnome-desktop : 880Mb (without Recommended packages: 702Mb)
Gnome 42.4 - gnome : 930Mb (without Recommended packages: 795Mb)
Gnome 42.4 - gnome-core : 814Mb (without Recommended packages: 705Mb)

LXDE 0.99.2 - task-lxde-desktop : 322b (without Recommended packages: 204Mb)
LXDE 0.99.2 - lxde : 280Mb (without Recommended packages: 198Mb)
LXDE 0.99.2 - lxde-core : 259Mb (without Recommended packages: 198Mb)

LXQT 0.16 - task-lxqt-desktop : 440Mb (without Recommended packages: 312Mb)
LXQT 0.16 - lxqt : 416Mb (without Recommended packages: 319Mb)
LXQT 0.16 - lxqt-core xorg (openbox) : 382Mb (without Recommended packages: 247Mb)

XFCE 4.16 - task-xfce-desktop : 449Mb (without Recommended packages: 272Mb)
XFCE 4.16 - xfce4 (xorg) : 348Mb (without Recommended packages: 259Mb)

MATE 1.26 - task-mate-desktop : 417Mb (without Recommended packages: 334Mb)
MATE 1.26 - lightdm (xorg) : 401Mb (without Recommended packages: 343Mb)
MATE 1.26 - mate-desktop-environment lighdm (xorg) : 376Mb (without Recommended packages: 336Mb)
MATE 1.26 - mate-desktop-environment-core lightdm (xorg) : 400Mb (without Recommended packages: 347Mb)

KDE 5.25 - task-kde-desktop : 598Mb (without Recommended packages: 393Mb)
KDE 5.25 - kde-full : 568Mb (without Recommended packages: not tested)
KDE 5.25 - kde-standard : 548Mb (without Recommended packages: not tested)
KDE 5.25 - kde-plasma-desktop (sddm) : 550Mb (without Recommended packages: 375Mb)

Cinammon: not tested

What the hell have they did in their tests?

[Rotceev]

I can't believe it. I see for the first time ever, The heaviest and clunkiest Gnome (almost)win the ram usage contest. It is like a Hulk Hogan winning the Miss America.

[mobagenie]

why everyone always comapring how much RAM consumed after boot but no one comparing about CPU consume per app like Chrome or Ffirefox? high RAM but small CPU usage is better than small RAM but high CPU usage

[desrucca]

Gnome 41.1 = 681 mb
Kde Plasma 5.23.4 = 772mb
Xfce 4.16 = 716 mb
Lxde 11 = 599 mb
Lxqt 0.16 = 698 mb
Mate 1.24.1 = 720 mb
Cinnamon 5.0.6 = 830 mb

[aal_san]

How is GNOME can be lighter than Xfce?

[sukuna.al.ashari]

I tried GNOME, Cinnamon and XFCE. Ram usage when the system is idle:

GNOME - around 1GB
Cinnamon - around 700MB
XFCE - around 500MB

[wcdeich]

Interesting. I just Debian GNOME today & it used 1GB ram on my laptop.

[edwinpj]

Did you install all of those DEs in the same debian installation?

[mbahmusalto]

Can you please also benchmark it with some firefox tabs? Afaik some DE doesn't have good boot RAM Usage but it could maintain stable RAM usage after opening some program

[fullmetal]

I have seen Gnome hanging with 3, 4 terminal and 2, 3 chrome windows but xfce managed more than that without a sweat. Memory management in xfce is far better than gnome. Never tested 41.

I installed Fedora 35 so I will test Gnome 41 soon.

[flemtone]

What base are you using to test the desktops on ? My current LxQt uses only 390mb.

[shoddits]

weird, my xfce only uses less than 400MB and kde plasma about 420MB

[code]

Justo lo que necesitaba ver, gracias!

[sophustranquillitastv]

Strange, for me GNOME always used up over a gigabyte at idle no matter the distro. And no other DE do that.

[ridged]

Great stuff, thank you very much. Your numbers are pretty accurate with the way each one of these feel to me.

[tupoprogger]

I have Manjaro KDE 5.24.5 on my PC and it uses about 600MB, but Fedora GNOME 42 uses 1GB with no autostart stuff

[МВолков-сж]

Пожалуй, самый лучший наглядный обзор для новичка, лайк+подписка! Я к сожалению винданутый, и вся эта маркетинговая система всё больше и больше прижимает меня в угол, поэтому хочу всё-таки изучить Линукс. Искал хорошие гайды для новичка, но мало чего находил, а если и находил, то там вначале казалось хорошим, а потом опять непонятно становилось. А тут коротко и без воды, в общем, продолжай делать видео!

P. S.: А для себя я выбрал LXQt, так как он больше всех похож на Windows, и думаю, я лучше освою. Ещё раз спасибо за видос!

[DeirdreYoung]

Thank you so much for this! I've been curious about the new LxQT, interesting to see it's only a little bit leaner than XFCE.

[johnettipio]

On my dual booted laptop
Windows 10: 3.7 GB
Linux Mint (Cinnamon): 1.1 GB