On a Terminal do this as root (use sudo if running Ubuntu)
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
You should see 60. Now change it to 10
sysctl -w vm.swappiness=10
Now is time to work for some minutes with some applications if you see that is better, you can make the changes permanent.
vim /etc/sysctl.conf
and add this line at the end (let me know if it is better to insert this in other file for openSUSE distribution)
vm.swappiness=10
Fonte: http://linux.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/tip-manage-the-use-of-swap-memory/
