Python pygame continuos image loading FPS - image

Question

Using pygame on a linux machine, continuously loading new images and displaying them slows down the program.
The input images (400x300) are in PPM format to keep the file size constant (360K) - not to affect IO and avoid any decompression delays.
It starts off at 50 frames per second and then after around 2 minutes its around 25 frames per second.
import pygame
pygame.init()
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((800, 600),pygame.FULLSCREEN)
frame=1
while 1:
image = pygame.image.load(str(frame)+".ppm")
screen.blit(image,(0,0))
pygame.display.flip()
clock.tick(240)
frame=frame+1
if(frame%10==0):
print(clock.get_fps())
What can be done to keep the frame rate more consistent?
Most likely it has something to do with old references to images that need to be garbage collected. Maybe not.
Is there anyway to load images continuously without creating new objects and triggering the garbage collector or whatever is slowing the system down?

Answer 1

After many weeks of pondering, I think I finally figured out what your problem is. For some reason, the computer must be remembering the old values of image. After the line that blits, put
del image
I'm not entirely sure, but it might work.

Answer 2

import pygame
pygame.init()
clock = pygame.time.Clock()
screen = pygame.display.set_mode((800, 600),pygame.FULLSCREEN)
frame=1
global image
image = pygame.image.load(str(frame)+".ppm")
#this image can be used again and again
#you can also give ////del image//// but it will load from the first so it takes time but using again and again doesn't do so
while 1:
screen.blit(image,(0,0))
pygame.display.flip()
clock.tick(240)
frame=frame+1
if(frame%10==0):
print(clock.get_fps()):