JVM heap parameters

The JVM will start with memory useage at the initial heap level. If the maxheap is higher, it will grow to the maxheap size as memory requirements exceed it's current memory.

So,

• -Xms512m -Xmx512m

JVM starts with 512 M, never resizes.

• -Xms64m -Xmx512m

JVM starts with 64M, grows (up to max ceiling of 512) if mem. requirements exceed 64.

To summarize the information found after the link: The JVM allocates the amount specified by -Xms but the OS usually does not allocate real pages until they are needed. So the JVM allocates virtual memory as specified by Xms but only allocates physical memory as is needed.

You can see this by using Process Explorer by Sysinternals instead of task manager on windows.

So there is a real difference between using -Xms64M and -Xms512M. But I think the most important difference is the one you already pointed out: the garbage collector will run more often if you really need the 512MB but only started with 64MB.

Apart from standard Heap parameters -Xms and -Xmx it's also good to know -XX:PermSize and -XX:MaxPermSize, which is used to specify size of Perm Gen space because even though you could have space in other generation in heap you can run out of memory if your perm gen space gets full. This link also has nice overview of some important JVM parameters.