Why is gimp using so much memory? Is there any way to reduce this?

[anon2101]

I think gimp is using too much memory because of which I'm unable to open any other applications while using gimp. While startup of gimp, it uses only like 80 MB, but as soon as I open any file or image, it jumps directly to 500 MB and from there it only keeps increasing. Is there any way to reduce this without affecting any overall performance of gimp?

Version- 2.10.28.
Windows 8.1 (64 bit)/ 4 Gb of ram.

[Ofnuts]

In the low-precision 8-bit/channel Gimp uses 4 bytes per pixel, so a 1000x1000 image is already 4MB. Repeat for each layer, plus each undo history step (which is mostly keeping a copy of the layer(s))... In the preferences you can reduce the undo "depth" and the tile cache size (which is basically how much RAM Gimp can use), but this can quickly get uncomfortable (if you limit the RAM Gimp will swap to disk).

[rich2005]

Instead of Windows task manager, get a better breakdown of what is happening by using the Gimp Dashboard Windows -> Dockable Dialogues -> Dashboard (bottom of the list)

This example, on its own, just opened, largish-image, 150 MB in memory. Add layers / layer group / layer mask and bottom line is 756 MB A bit different in the dashboard but still an increase. screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/53qjVJ3.jpg

One source of consumption is the undo stack, delete that and recover some memory: https://i.imgur.com/8QZOZeX.jpg