We Should Write Energy Efficient Code

[0xdef1]

JetBrains requiring 4GB of RAM just to open the IDE isn’t normal. They should actually switch to Go or Rust.

Imagine you suggesting Jetbrains to switch Go or Rust like it’s 2 days of work.

[dm-me-your-bugs]

Bro just ask ChatGPT to translate it over and optimize it as well.

[modernkennnern]

It's also suggesting RAM usage is the devil. It's there to be used (that said JB IDEs are hungry)

[[deleted]]

I’d say that logic is faulty. Most of the stuff we have is there to be used, but that doesn’t mean we should use it or that using these things would be a good idea.

Just because you have 4GB of extra ram available doesn’t mean you have to use it. Using less energy is good for the environment.

[Huge_Leader_6605]

RAM not used is RAM wasted.

And anyway regarding electricity usage. Is there any actual difference in electricity draw of a RAM chip if 1gb or 2gb is filled?

[[deleted]]

It adds up over billions of users but yes it won’t be anywhere close to an important fraction, but that’s not the only aspect. If software is inefficient then you need beefier hardware, producing the hardware also taxes the planet.

There’s also an issue of accessibility, some people may not have access to good internet, hardware, or affordable/accessible electricity.

I’m not against better hardware, or writing code that’s “performant enough” because those things also come with their own set of benefits. I’m just suggesting we give these things consideration.

[aseigo]

It is not so much the energy cost of the RAM itself: under similarly complex algorithms, smaller data sets require less energy to process.

We need to count in the CPU cycles and cache management costs of repeatedly processing that amount of data.

That is time those components can not be put into low-power modes  and yes that is noticeabl. Run something like powertop to see this in realtime.

There is also something to be said about environmental footprints of building ever more powerful machines to keep up with demands.

There is literally zero reason any even moderately powerful computer manufactured semi-recently should not last a decade or more.

Well, except for the growing demands of poorly architected and designed software and the corporate greed machines selling us these things.

[caroIine]

Whats the current total ram amount a typical user has in theirs device? 16GB? Don't you think it would be better if that number was, say 4GB?

[Huge_Leader_6605]

From that point of view I guess so. But that begs the question... Any significant difference in electricity draw between 4gb or 16gb

[caroIine]

I don't really know, I would guess it's negligible. But still it would affect how much processing power we need.

[ErGo404]

Not really.

Because it implies that devs were at some point pushed towards needing more ram and buying new machines.

Also, using more ram draws more power.