How to 'copy' matrix without creating a temporary matrix in memory that caused memory overflow?

Question

By assigning a matrix into a much bigger allocated memory, matlab somehow will duplicate it while 'copying' it, and if the matrix to be copied is large enough, there will be memory overflow. This is the sample code:

main_mat=zeros(500,500,2000);
n=500;
slice_matrix=zeros(500,500,n);
for k=1:4
    parfor i=1:n
        slice_matrix(:,:,i)=gather(gpuArray(rand(500,500)));
    end
    main_mat(:,:,1+(k-1)*n:1+(k-1)*n+n-1)=slice_matrix; %This is where the memory will likely overflow
end

Any way to just 'smash' the slice_matrix onto the main_mat without the overhead? Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

The overflow occurred when main_mat is allocated beforehand. If main_mat is initialized with main_mat=zeros(500,500,1); (smaller size), the overflow will not occur, but it will slowed down as allocation is not done before matrix is assigned into it. This will significantly reduce the performance as the range of k increases.

Answer 1

The main issue is that numbers take more space than zeros. main_mat=zeros(500,500,2000); takes little RAM while main_mat = rand(500,500,2000); take a lot, no matter if you use GPU or parfor (in fact, parfor will make you use more RAM). So This is not an unnatural swelling of memory. Following Daniel's link below, it seems that the assignment of zeros only creates pointers to memory, and the physical memory is filled only when you use the matrix for "numbers". This is managed by the operating system. And it is expected for Windows, Mac and Linux, either you do it with Matlab or other languages such as C.