On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 2:47 PM, Greg Smith <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Aaron Turner wrote: >> >> Are newer PG versions more memory efficient? >> > > Moving from PostgreSQL 8.1 to 8.3 or later should make everything you do > happen 2X to 3X faster, before even taking into account that you can tune > the later versions better too. See > http://suckit.blog.hu/2009/09/29/postgresql_history for a simple comparison > of how much performance jumped on both reads and writes in the later > versions than what you're running. Memory consumption will on average > decrease too, simply via the fact that queries start and finish more > quickly. Given an even workload, there will be less of them running at a > time on a newer version to keep up. > > Given the size of your database, I'd advise you consider a migration to a > new version ASAP. 8.4 is a nice stable release at this point, that's the > one to consider moving to. The biggest single problem people upgrading from > 8.1 to 8.3 or later see is related to changes in how data is cast between > text and integer types; 1 doesn't equal '1' anymore is the quick explanation > of that. See http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Version_History for links to > some notes on that, as well as other good resources related to upgrading. > This may require small application changes to deal with. > > Even not considering the performance increases, PostgreSQL 8.1 is due to be > dropped from active support potentially as early as next month: > http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/PostgreSQL_Release_Support_Policy > > Also: PostgreSQL 8.1.3 has several known bugs that can lead to various > sorts of nasty data corruption. You should at least consider an immediate > upgrade to the latest release of that version, 8.1.22. Small version number > increases in PostgreSQL only consist of serious bug fixes, not feature > changes. See http://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning for notes about > the project's standard for changes here, and how it feels about the risks of > running versions with known bugs in them vs. upgrading. > > -- > Greg Smith, 2ndQuadrant US greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Baltimore, MD > PostgreSQL Training, Services and Support www.2ndQuadrant.us > Author, "PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance" Pre-ordering at: > https://www.packtpub.com/postgresql-9-0-high-performance/book > > Thanks for the info Greg. Sounds like I've got an upgrade in the near future! :) Again, thanks to everyone who's responded; it's been really informative and helpful. The PG community has always proven to be awesome! -- Aaron Turner http://synfin.net/ ; Twitter: @synfinatic http://tcpreplay.synfin.net/ - Pcap editing and replay tools for Unix & Windows Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. -- Benjamin Franklin "carpe diem quam minimum credula postero" -- Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance
