This is just not true. The RAM consumed/used is not dependent on the bits being search...it comes down to your DP setting and how often you save the work file. I don't see your settings/flags when starting the program but you are using a very low -d setting or that plus using a long save to file time.
I can see now that searching a 256-bit interval will become feasible if we use 128+ bits of DP mask

How feasible are you talking? So you are working on searching 256-bit interval using 128 + bits of DP mask too?