set safari ram limit?

Question

Level 1

90 points

set safari ram limit?

as much as I like safari, it's ram use is outright ridiculous. I was wondering if perhaps it's possible to set a ram-limit, so it never use more ram than set by this limit?

I do know OS X handles (or is supposed to handle) ram use intelligently, but with safari easily gobbling up 300mb real ram, I think it's time to intervene; either by setting a limit (if possible) or switching browser (i hope not!)

thanks

macbook pro | 2.33ghz | 3 gb ram | cinema display 20", Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on May 5, 2008 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

May 5, 2008 10:18 AM in response to macsterdam

Hmmm.... I currently have Safari, Photoshop, Keynote, Word, Powerpoint, Pages, and a handful of other apps open, with multiple documents open in each of them, and I still have 677 MB of my 2 GB free.

It might be how you interpret what Activity Monitor is showing you. If you are assuming you are having problems because your free memory is very low, relax. I currently show a paltry 30 MB as "Free" memory. However, the available "free" memory is actually the sum of Free and Inactive memory (which is why I have 677 MB free). Status monitors like MenuMeters report free RAM properly (as Free + Inactive).

Apple states +"... you shouldn't worry when the Free memory is low. The only time Free memory should be high is right after the computer starts up. As you use applications or services, memory is used and transitions to Inactive. Applications that need more memory will take from the Inactive, but the Inactive is there just in case you need it again. If the combination of Free and Inactive is very low, then you might need more memory."+

Read more here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918

Hope this helps...

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Answer 2

May 5, 2008 9:36 AM in response to macsterdam

You cannot set a RAM usage limit for Safari _or any application_ under the Mac OS (i.e. switching browsers won't help). You used to be able to do that (back in the pre-OS X days), but no longer. As you state, the Mac OS is quite good at allocating RAM. Besides seeing 300 MB in use by Safari (which, of course is only 10% of your system RAM, which I personally wouldn't call "gobbling"), are you experiencing anything which leads you to believe that Safari's RAM usage is a problem for you?

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Answer 3

macsterdam Author

Level 1

90 points

May 5, 2008 9:47 AM in response to macsterdam

I feared as much.

With regards to the 10%, that's just average, it can easily go as high as 400 - 500MB. Since this is just a browser, and not photoshop, I think even 10% is way way too much. And yes, I do notice it has an effect on my macbook pro's performance. Say I'm doing work for a presentation. So, I launch photoshop, keynote and motion and meanwhile search the internet for relevant information. All in all, nothing too fancy. In this day and age I think it's ridiculous that I should quit safari to regain some ram just to finish my work. Sure, I'd love to add another GB of ram (or more), but although I have a fairly new machine, that's simply not possible. seems I will have to switch back to Camino.....

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Answer 4

Episcript

Level 2

454 points

May 5, 2008 5:39 PM in response to macsterdam

Nope. The only thing I can think of is restarting it every once in awhile. Otherwise try a different browser. Camino and Firefox from my experience have always ended up using less RAM than Safari under similar usage patterns.

When running low on RAM OS X pages out to the HD when required. It really shouldn't be a huge deal unless your current usage patterns have you running low on RAM constantly and the high page-out rate is having a significant affect on your system performance. In that case using another browser might help save you some RAM, I would guess anywhere between 50-200 mb depending on usage pattern.

Ideally you should be upgrading the memory if you are constantly running low on RAM and HD thrashing is having a significant impact on your speed.

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Answer 5

macsterdam Author

Level 1

90 points

May 20, 2008 2:45 AM in response to macsterdam

well, it seems quitting safari every now & then is the only option. it seems that applications using webkit use a lot of memory. I have my macbook pro maxed out with 3GB, so I can't add more ram.

checking activity monitor right now shows safari using 598mb & mail 225: that's over 700mb for two very basic application. serious weirdness if you ask me.

thanks everyone for the help.

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