diff --git a/src/memory.lua b/src/memory.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b02883b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/memory.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+
+local garbage_collector_cycle_timing_history = {}
+local garbage_collector_average_cycle_time = 0
+function run_garbage_collector_cycle()
+    local time, result = fprofile(collectgarbage, "collect")
+
+    table.insert(garbage_collector_cycle_timing_history, time)
+    -- re-calc average gc timing
+    local total = 0
+    for _,v in pairs(garbage_collector_cycle_timing_history) do
+        total = total + v
+    end
+    garbage_collector_average_cycle_time = total / #garbage_collector_cycle_timing_history
+end
+
+function check_if_can_collect_garbage_for_free(frame_start_time, min_goal_fps)
+    -- often this will be polled at the end of a frame to see if we're running fast or slow,
+    -- and if we have some time to kill before the start of the next frame, we could maybe run gc.
+    --
+    if (am.current_time() - frame_start_time) < (1 / min_fps + garbage_collector_average_cycle_time) then
+        run_garbage_collector_cycle()
+    end
+end
+