Is the entire blockchain stored in RAM? Bytecoind takes up 80% of my 4 GB of RAM and 2 GB of swap space. Bitmonerod takes up a small fraction of that..
Yes it is. These coins will need to implement a blockchain database eventually. For now more swap space may work, since most of the block chain is never touched.
Oh right, I forgot about saving. You will need more RAM or waiting for a block database to be implemented to get any improvement.
Run the daemon with lower IO priority and it will smooth things up, eliminate IO race and cut off your blockchain read/write time significantly
Code:
ionice -c 2 -n 7 bytecoind
I believe the real devs are keeping an eye on us . 
He just gave us a solution for those huge ram usage and he is a newbie registered in 2013 but the first post is suggestion of cryptonote which is almost a mystery for more than of the people here .
He's satoshi