Which one should I use: zswap or zram?

[dalto]

@mbod

I am using zram in conjunction with gimp and very big pictures. Sometimes the gimp operations eat up all RAM and swap while it is applying CPU intense filters to the image. With zram this is not a problem at all. With traditional swap on a fast nvme it is not usable. Therefore I do not believe that your CPU load argument is valid.

That is a different use case than the OP. A use case in which you are consuming lots of RAM and lots of CPU.

Obviously, the best solution would be for the OP to actually test both with their specific workload. However, I have seen plenty of reports of zram decreasing performance when the CPU does not have available cycles.

Every workload is different so in the absence of being able to test both it is all speculation.