jcmurphy1971

Q: Mac Pro Not Using all Available RAM?

So I'm running Snow Leopard on a Late 2010 Mac Pro... 2.8 Intel Xenon single processor... 8g RAM.

 

I would assume while running Mail, Safari, the OS, and rendering HD video in Final Cut X I would using almost all if not more than the 8g of RAM I have installed. However when I open Activity Monitor to see how much is being used, only 2-3g of the RAM is being used.

 

Is there an issue here potentially? Why won't all RAM be accessed?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks.

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Final Cut X, Final Cut 7

Posted on Apr 18, 2013 12:10 PM

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Q: Mac Pro Not Using all Available RAM?

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  • by jcmurphy1971,

    jcmurphy1971 jcmurphy1971 Apr 21, 2013 1:05 PM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 21, 2013 1:05 PM in response to The hatter

    What's the deal with these Seagate Momentus drives? The 750g drive is $125. How is this compared to a regular 750g SSD?

  • by The hatter,

    The hatter The hatter Apr 21, 2013 1:14 PM in response to jcmurphy1971
    Level 9 (60,935 points)
    Apr 21, 2013 1:14 PM in response to jcmurphy1971

    They are not regular anything.

     

    They are for notebooks, 2.5" and they have tiny tiny SSD "hyrid" used as fast cache that "intelligently" (not sure I believe it) stores the most used files in SSD. Similar to Apple Fusion drives.

     

    Looking for a whiz bang. Stick to tried and true. Want SSD? get a Samsung 840 or 840 Pro. Want an enterprise drive? 5-yr warranted 7.2K you know where those are.

     

    NAS RED are another in the lineup along with Black.

     

    And there is the $220 1TB WD VelociRaptor, 10K. Another class of drives.

  • by BitterCreek,

    BitterCreek BitterCreek Apr 21, 2013 2:51 PM in response to jcmurphy1971
    Level 1 (100 points)
    Apr 21, 2013 2:51 PM in response to jcmurphy1971

    jcmurphy1971 wrote:

     

    What's the deal with these Seagate Momentus drives? The 750g drive is $125. How is this compared to a regular 750g SSD?

    They are antiques, it uses a small SSD cache to temporarily boost write speeds. A true 750GB SSD will cost well over $1000.

  • by twistiejoe,

    twistiejoe twistiejoe Mar 11, 2015 1:03 AM in response to The hatter
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 1:03 AM in response to The hatter

    Hatter can you please help me out.

    I am so confused with SO much conflicting information going on.

    Earlier you helped me to upgrade my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 to 32GB of RAM, which I did, and it's all working.

    My hardware specs say: 2.66GHZ, 2 processors, 4 cores, and 32GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM which I bought under your recommendation.

    My OS is 10.6.8

     

    I bought all of this ram to USE it but the main program I'm using (Vienna Ensemble Pro) is running our of memory EXTREMELY quickly.
    Then I look at how much ram is being used in Activity Monitor when I've maxed out the ram that program, and it's barely using a quarter of my RAM - I have 25.26GB RAM free!!!
    g

     

    So then I read about needing to run in 64 bit Kernel, probably to use all the RAM - is this correct???
    And I also read that I can't run a Mac Pro 1,1 in 64bit? - is that correct???

    So is this RAM just NEVER going to be used by this computer?

     

    What are my options???

    Please help me out here!
    Thanks.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Mar 11, 2015 1:18 AM in response to twistiejoe
    Level 10 (190,332 points)
    Apple Watch
    Mar 11, 2015 1:18 AM in response to twistiejoe

    That is correct, the MacPro 1.1 and 1.2 (2006 and 2007) is limited to 32 bit since the EFI is only 32 bit.  There is a hack to run Mountain Lion and above on a 1.1 and 1.2 to get 64 bit

    http://oemden.com/sixty-four-on-thirty-two-sfott/

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6009611

  • by twistiejoe,

    twistiejoe twistiejoe Mar 11, 2015 1:51 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2015 1:51 AM in response to lllaass

    Many thanks lllaass

     

    This is a little bit above my expertise ... I'm not quite sure how I install it ... is it saying I need to update to Mountain Lion? I'm not sure if I really wanna to do that either tho ...

     

    I might give it a go tho, updating,
    But might there be any other options?
    If I can't get it updated, is there a way or place you know to get money for old computers? I might end up buying a newer tower and just using Migration Assistant or something ...
    I hope I can use my old ram in a new machine too?
    Any advice would be great thanks!!!

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Mar 11, 2015 2:10 AM in response to twistiejoe
    Level 10 (190,332 points)
    Apple Watch
    Mar 11, 2015 2:10 AM in response to twistiejoe

    There is eBay and Craig's list.

    Yesterday I just picked up a 2009 Mac Pro. You really want a 2009 or later.

    You can always try the hack on blank HD so you do not risk erasing your data.

    I am told that now the instructions are relatively to follow so I would give it a try.

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