Issue
I have several "out of memory" problems using MATLAB. I don't understand exactly if Matlab can use (or not) all the ram memory of my computer. This is the problem: my computer has 4gb of ram memory and 2 gb for Swap memory (my OS is Linux/Ubuntu 12.10), but Matlab only uses up to 2.6 gb and then shows the warning: "out of memory".
Is it possible to fix this and allow Matlab to use all the "available" memory?
Thanks.
Solution
It sounds like you're running 32bit linux and or 32bit MATLAB.
If you allow for enough swap, a process can take up to its virtual memory address space worth of memory.
Generally for 32bit linux you're limited to 3gb of address space for any process (the last gb is kernel memory space). It's entirely possible, depending on usage patterns, that at 2.6gb the next request for memory can't complete because there isn't enough /contiguous/ memory to satisfy it. This is especially common when growing large arrays.
Upgrading to a 64bit version of linux/windows/macOS with 64bit MATLAB should solve this problem but even so, using 3gb+ of virtual address space on a system with 4gb of ram is probably going to start making things very slow.
Answered By - user1816847 Answer Checked By - Marilyn (WPSolving Volunteer)