<i>&gt; may require a quick look at the API docs </i><p>But that tradeoff of memory footprint vs performance implemented by Oracle is <i>not</i> in the API documentation[1] for Java 7 nor Java 8.<p>One would have to stumble across other sources such as unofficial blogs[2] written by non-Oracle employees like Mikhail Vorontsov.  That blog article then triggers an explanation from the actual coder that&#x27;s buried in a reddit thread[3].<p>Hunting down why your business-domain java code is now suddenly slower because of hidden GC tuning is <i>taking time away</i> from &quot;solving the problem.&quot;<p>Your rebuttal consists of:<p>-- repeating the &quot;premature optimization&quot; meme which is not relevant in this case.<p>-- recommending to look at the API docs, which doesn&#x27;t even have the information!<p>[1]v7:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.oracle.com&#x2F;javase&#x2F;7&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;java&#x2F;lang&#x2F;String.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.oracle.com&#x2F;javase&#x2F;7&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;java&#x2F;lang&#x2F;String.h...</a><p>v8:  <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.oracle.com&#x2F;javase&#x2F;8&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;java&#x2F;lang&#x2F;String.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.oracle.com&#x2F;javase&#x2F;8&#x2F;docs&#x2F;api&#x2F;java&#x2F;lang&#x2F;String.h...</a><p>[2]<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;java-performance.info&#x2F;changes-to-string-java-1-7-0_06&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;java-performance.info&#x2F;changes-to-string-java-1-7-0_06...</a><p>[3]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1qw73v" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;comments&#x2F;1qw73v</a>