Zegla

Q: Memory Management

Hi,

 

I have a mid-2012 macbook pro with OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 (Inter core i5, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HD). The problem that I have with it is the memory management. For some reason my 4GB of RAM is almost full all the time, even when I restart the computer, it starts with around 95% of its memory in use.

 

When I open the activity monitor I found that the apps are taking around 2.5GB of the RAM even when I am just using safari (1 tap) with no other apps open. Also the file cache, wired memory, and compressed memory are always high.

 

The machine became unusable for me, it is very slow because of this issue. I did not find any explanation for it, I am afraid that my mac has some kind of malware which is causing this.

 

I appreciate helping me resolving this issue and bring life back to my mac.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Aug 5, 2015 2:45 PM

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Q: Memory Management

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  • by BobTheFisherman,

    BobTheFisherman BobTheFisherman Aug 5, 2015 2:56 PM in response to Zegla
    Level 6 (15,654 points)
    Aug 5, 2015 2:56 PM in response to Zegla

    Yosemite will use all available RAM. It will use as much RAM as it possibly can to make the system as snappy as possible. If you have 8GB RAM, it can easily idle on 6GB. Same for 16, 32, etc. It's a common misconception that high RAM usage is either a bug or causing poor performance.

     

    Check the memory pressure to see if you are using too much RAM. Use Activity Monitor on your Mac - Apple Support

  • by BobHarris,

    BobHarris BobHarris Aug 5, 2015 3:05 PM in response to Zegla
    Level 6 (19,655 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 5, 2015 3:05 PM in response to Zegla

    If you are getting slow performance, it is not just because all your RAM is being used.  OS X will always try to use as much RAM as it can to speed up operations and avoid using the much slower disk.

     

    You might want to post the EtreCheck output for analysis

    <https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Aug 5, 2015 7:33 PM in response to Zegla
    Level 10 (208,037 points)
    Applications
    Aug 5, 2015 7:33 PM in response to Zegla
    it is very slow because of this issue

    No, it's very slow because of some other issue.

    When you see a beachball cursor or the slowness is especially bad, note the exact time: hour, minute, second.  

    These instructions must be carried out as an administrator. If you have only one user account, you are the administrator.

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

    Each message in the log begins with the date and time when it was entered. Scroll back to the time you noted above.

    Select the messages entered from then until the end of the episode, or until they start to repeat, whichever comes first.

    Copy the messages to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of it useless for solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

    When you post the log extract, you might see an error message on the web page: "You have included content in your post that is not permitted," or "The message contains invalid characters." That's a bug in the forum software. Please post the text on Pastebin, then post a link here to the page you created.