top vs gnome-system-monitor

[musiclover]

I noticed that one of the machines I have reports using a lot more memory using top/free command than with gnome-system-monitor. Its a Dell poweredge server, running CentOS 4.3. It has 6GB ram. When I do a top/free, it reports that about 3.5 GB of memory is in use. gnome-system-monitor however reports close to about 900 MB, which seems like the correct value based on the processes running on it. Which should I trust and why the discrepancy? Any Ideas?

Thanks.

[cybertron]

Probably what's happening is that gnome-system-monitor reports memory in use not counting buffers and cache. If you look at the free output there should be a row that says -/+ buffers/cache:. That number should match up more closely with what Gnome is telling you.

[JayMan8081]

I have an applet on my taskbar in gnome that shows the memory, CPU, and network usage. On that applet it shows both the amount in use by programs and the total in use counting cache. I'm not sure how to get the system-monitor to show the same output. I guess basically, I'm just backing up cybertron's statement.

[musiclover]

Probably what's happening is that gnome-system-monitor reports memory in use not counting buffers and cache. If you look at the free output there should be a row that says -/+ buffers/cache:. That number should match up more closely with what Gnome is telling you.

Thank you for the response. That makes sense.

[cybertron]

Glad I could help.:)