Improved garbage collector in the .NET 4.5 runtime

Garbage collection (GC) is one of the perennial features in the .NET framework, and most of the times, developers don't need to think much about it: it just works. However, in certain situations, the process of garbage collection can hamper the performance of your .NET application, which isn't optimal of course.

In .NET 4.5, Microsoft has taken the steps to further improve the garbage collector, and improve its performance both on the client and in server (remember that there are two implementations of the garbage collector algorithms, one for workstations/desktops and another for servers). For instance, there's now less blocking situations, and also better performance for large-scale server applications.

For a more thorough discussion on the topic, see this announcement blog post on the .NET Framework blog on MSDN.