I currently have my system configured to clear the entire cache every week. With an empty cache, my database is about 1.1Gb, while with a full cache, it's about 4.5Gb.

I've noticed that the larger the cache, the higher my average server load gets. At any given time my forum has between 650 and 1300 users online, yet this doesn't seem to affect the load as much as cache size.

With a large cache, server load is 3.3-3.8, while with an empty one, it stays in the 2.0-2.5 range. This isn't bad at all, as I have a 16-core server, but I was just wondering if such a behavior is to be expected with the fluctuating database size!

Thanks,
Adam