After a X server restart the memory is a lot less: USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND root 27493 5.8 0.9 30336 20488 tty7 SLs+ 16:53 0:05 /usr/bin/X -br -nolisten tcp :0 vt7 -auth /var/run/xauth/A:0-NfXjOZ Only 204K RSS and 303 VM