Methods and apparatus are provided for tuning a garbage collection algorithm. The apparatus includes a request generator configured to generate a transaction request including parameters Ta, Te, and M, where Ta represents a transaction request inter-arrival time, Te represents a transaction request execution time, and M represents a transaction request memory allocation amount. The apparatus also includes a memory allocation module, an active request queue, and a garbage collection (GC) module. The memory allocation module is configured to admit the formatted transaction request to the queue if at least M heap memory is available, and to initiate a GC routine if M heap memory is not available.