According to the latest comparison between J2D and SW pipelines ( http://aurora.ru.oracle.com/performance/faces/ChessBoard.xhtml?reportName=FX2-pipeline&parameters=[latestBuild]144[shownbenchmarks]%281%3D1%29[release]8.0[build]140[jdkrelease]1.7.0_04[hwclass]Linux-Mid-Range[refJFXConfig]Prism%2Fj2d[JFXConfig]Prism%2Fsw&splitting=[X+axis]fxBuild%2C+metricName[Complement]fxRelease%2C+benchmark%2C+os%2C+jdkBuild%2C+jdk[Y+axis]benchmarkName%2C+benchmarkConf%2C+fxConf[Z+axis]hwclass%2C+benchmarkSuite%2C+jdkRelease&reference=[Others]fxRelease%2C+fxBuild%2C+fxConf%2C+os%2C+jdkRelease%2C+jdkBuild%2C+jdk%2C+benchmarkSuite%2C+benchmarkName%2C+metricName[Reference+Set]benchmark%2C+benchmarkConf%2C+hwclass&mixReference=false&flags=&significance=empty&hideDataConfiguration=false&calculateSummary=false&showSummaryExpanded=false&showSummaryContents=true&showComplementAttributes=false&compactTables=true&viewStyle=chessboard&filter=&filter_override= ) SW pipeline is consuming significantly more memory than J2D in ColorfulShapes test suite. It should be fixed.