Hacker News·11 min read·hard

BRIN is 1/4570th the size of a B-tree, until 5% of rows are updated

V
venkat971
BRIN is 1/4570th the size of a B-tree, until 5% of rows are updated
AI Summary

This technical analysis compares the performance of BRIN indexes in PostgreSQL against traditional B-trees. It highlights that while BRIN is significantly smaller, its efficiency degrades rapidly once data updates exceed a 5% threshold.

Why it matters

Provides essential performance tuning advice for database administrators managing large-scale PostgreSQL datasets.

Dive DeeperCreate a free account to unlock

All posts Oracle vs Postgres Aug 27, 2026 11 min read BRIN is 1/4570th the size of a B-tree, until 5% of rows are updated I co-owned the Zonemaps module at Oracle, and BRIN is the same design in Postgres. It stops pruning long before pg_stats.correlation admits anything is wrong — at correlation 0.921, a 28x collapse. Measured on 10M rows, harness inline.

Continue reading on Headlinne

Create a free account to read the full article.

Read full article →
technologyscience
Political Bias
Center
LeftLean LCenterLean RRight
Confidence: 95%

Technical performance benchmarking with no subjective bias.

Get smarter about the news

Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.

Create free account

Already have an account? Sign in