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Refterm v2 - Resource usage, binary splat, glyph sizing, and more

Molly Rocket · demo · Watch on YouTube

Software performance & optimizationComputer graphics & renderingGraphic design & typography

What it is

Casey Muratori follows up his refterm proof-of-concept, a GPU-based terminal renderer, with a second part covering memory usage, glyph sizing and correct Unicode and VT handling. It is built to show that a terminal can be fast and correct without heroic effort.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN points to it as proof that a small, straightforward renderer can beat Windows Terminal on speed and memory, whenever software slowness comes up.

  • 3 people recommended it
  • 4 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2021, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “he shows that in-use-memory is half that of Windows terminal, whilst simultaneously being >100x faster.”

    Shows refterm using half the memory and being far faster than Windows Terminal

    fredrikholm, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “Looking at the Performance of Refterm”

  2. “You should look into Casey Muratori's quest[1] against Windows terminal slowness on github and youtube.”

    Latest in Casey Muratori's proof-of-concept fast GPU terminal series

    mariusor, 2021-07 · Recommendation · in “Warp: Fast, Rust-based terminal (waiting list)”

  3. “watch Casey Muratori's rant about Microsoft's poor track record with performance”

    Rant about Microsoft's poor track record with performance

    jiggawatts, 2021-08 · Recommendation · in “WireGuardNT, a high-performance WireGuard implementation for the Windows kernel”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: refterm, gpu rendering, windows terminal, unicode, software performance

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