Mass resource link update causes RAM usage spike

[AntonioNg]

What I did: Update 100 pngs that were exported with Publisher. Each PNG was meant to be exported at 300 dpi, at about the size of ~3x1.5 inches (Check image1 for RAM Spike)

The project was a huge Table Name containing up to 511 different Rectangles of names (check image2 for a snippet of a photo to the work)

My Question: Is this RAM usage spike expected behavior, or do I have alternatives to mitigate this RAM spike? because it personally felt awful to wait 5 times waiting for everything to update. (p.s. Assume that being smart with updating only actually changed resources can't be the solution because I wanted to change the font color or something to everything)

Alternative ways of doing this:
What other alternatives way I had to doing this? I made a 3x1.5" sheet in Publisher, and used the Data Merge feature to read a Excel file list, and generate me 500+ sheets with the names (The List might change or enlarge either because the customer miswrote the chinese name, or wanted to add more names to the list) which is enclosed by a colored Rectangle, which I would then export as PNG and import linked to Affinity Design.

Related topic I found about RAM usage and Linked resources:

[Callum]

Hi AntonioNg,

I'd say that the RAM spiking when updating a large number of images is to be expected you can adjust the amount of RAM the app is able to use by adjusting the RAM usage limit slider in the apps performance preferences.

Thanks
C

[anto]

31 minutes ago, Callum said:

you can adjust the amount of RAM the app is able to use by adjusting the RAM usage limit slider in the apps performance preferences

It seems to me that the RAM setting is not working correctly. What does 65GB of RAM mean when I only have 40GB available? How can I explain this? The slider settings do not match the total available memory.

[Callum]

1 hour ago, anto said:

It seems to me that the RAM setting is not working correctly. What does 65GB of RAM mean when I only have 40GB available? How can I explain this? The slider settings do not match the total available memory.

Hi Anto, 

64GB of RAM is the upper limit on Mac due to its age more than anything else, this slider was coded in 2014 and 64GB of RAM was more than we thought anyone would need at the time. Obviously things have changed a lot in the world of computing in the 11 years since then and as a result this is something we are looking into changing. In regards to what 64GB of RAM means when you only have 40GB available it doesn't really mean anything, as you only have 40GB available this is the maximum that will ever be used. As for why the slider doesn't match total available memory this is because it is hard coded to show 64GB as the limit this will likely change when we increase the upper limits of the slider.

Thanks
C