# Memory usage MUCH more than loaded file sizes

**URL:** https://forum.kirupa.com/t/memory-usage-much-more-than-loaded-file-sizes/276786
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Created:** [December 3, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/memory-usage-much-more-than-loaded-file-sizes/276786 "2008-12-03T17:18:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Ev1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@Ev1](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Ev1)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/memory-usage-much-more-than-loaded-file-sizes/276786/1 "2008-12-03T17:18:54Z")

</div>

I’m working on a new website that has a different background image for each page. The file sizes of the images are anywhere from 100-200KB. However, I’m monitoring the memory usage of my browsers, and as each image loads, the memory usage jumps by 5-10 **MB**. Why in the world does Flash need so much memory for an image load?

In an attempt to reduce memory usage, upon each image load I pulled the bitmapData from the loader into a new Bitmap object and unloaded and nulled the loader. Unfortunately that didn’t result in any memory decrease (or increase). If I didn’t pull the bitmapData and just unloaded/nulled the loader, the memory is released just fine, but obviously that leaves me without an image.

I guess my question is: is this normal? Does Flash just use extraordinary amounts of memory to store image data? Is there any way to reduce the footprint?

A million thanks to anyone who has any insight.