I have a C++ program that has a pretty terrible memory leak, about 4MB / second. I know where it’s coming from and can fix it, but that’s not my main problem. My program is taking up a very large amount of CPU usage and it isn’t running as fast as I want it to. I have two different threads in the program. One by itself takes ~50% CPU, which is fine, and the other by itself takes ~15% CPU, which is fine. Together however CPU usage is 100% and the program cannot run as fast as it needs to.
Can a memory leak by itself cause a problem like this? I know the program will eventually crash due to the leaked memory, but does a memory leak immediately lead to a slower program? By immediately I mean the program is too slow at the very start, not just when the memory footprint is huge.
Thanks!
Regardless of whether or not your memory leak is causing the problem it needs to be fixed. Once you fix the memory leak see if you’re still having the problem. You should be able to answer your own question at that point.