11-15-2022, 12:21 AM
Gimp has a "tile cache". Fundamentally, all data could be on disk, but to make things faster, some of this data (usually, all of it) is kept in RAM. How much RAM this can take is defined by the "Tile cache size" in the preferences. This sort of puts a cap on how much memory (real or virtual) Gimp will use. On modern system you can of course set a value much larger than your RAM, and Gimp will use your system swapping. If you set it to something more reasonable (like all your RAM minus 8GB) Gimp will do its own swapping (that can be more efficient than the system one, because Gimp knows what it needs to be in RAM, while the OS sapping heuristics could be far from optimal).
Gimp also assumes that the system is in good shape. When Gimp starts swapping, the system is usually already under considerable strain and this is when software bugs and hardware problems show up. Gimp is very often not the culprit, but just an agent provocateur (Gimp is also very good at pointing at empty mouse batteries and worn out mouse button contacts).
You can of course report a bug with your damaged XCF as the smoking gun.
Gimp also assumes that the system is in good shape. When Gimp starts swapping, the system is usually already under considerable strain and this is when software bugs and hardware problems show up. Gimp is very often not the culprit, but just an agent provocateur (Gimp is also very good at pointing at empty mouse batteries and worn out mouse button contacts).
You can of course report a bug with your damaged XCF as the smoking gun.