Macbook Pro Core i5 Memory Issues

k.panic wrote:
So when you look in Activity monitor at all processes, and sort by memory use, what's using up all the RAM? What processes specifically are at the top of the list, and how much RAM are they using? It stinks that many people are experiencing this, so let's find the cause.

I can attest that having lots of wired or inactive memory is completely normal, but if you're (or others who have posted) noticing that off a fresh boot and launching a couple of apps 2GB is used, that's out of the ordinary.

Things are generally fine, I don't have any 2GB "memory hogs" that shouldn't be there. I'm not sure if the others had either?

It's just that I have a nagging feeling my measly C2D basic plastic Macbook handled 4GB of memory better than this, which isn't good.

My experiences might actually not be applicable to these other guys' issues, since mine are mostly related to performance in music software (Logic 9, Pro Tools 9), and for that this is probably in the wrong part of the forum.

But in case somebody knowledgeable is reading, perhaps I'll explain. Just loading a couple plug-ins (albeit memory intensive and notoriusly flakey NI's Kontakt 4), it's really easy to get Logic or Pro Tools to hover around the 2GB mark, with something ridiculous like 10MB of memory free. "Wired" can be something like 1.1GB.

I've also got plenty of drive space free, about 180GB.

Perhaps you OSX aficionados can educate me, but I just keep wondering those numbers in Activity Monitor. For instance, with just Photoshop CS5 and Firefox open, I've got 2.5GB Free, 500MB Wired and 250MB Inactive. But if I load Pro Tools for instance, I might have something like 850MB in Inactive. Why isn't that distributed, if it's "needed" elsewhere?

I have the same problem, and i'm trying to narrow down the cause. I'm starting to suspect that it's the graphics switching, because it seems when I force the computer to use Intel graphics it runs much better.

I'm in the process of turning off file vault too, to see what that gets me.

there are times i can hear the HD churning quite a bit, for no appearant reason.

I was happier with my 13" macbook which, sadly, was stolen.

OSX is designed to use all available memory. Safari is designed to take up as much memory as the system will give it. Note that Snow Leopard is mostly 64 bit and it will inevitably consume more memory than 32-bit systems of past years. There's a good guide to understanding what the numbers mean at the link below.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342

Basically, if it's not red, don't count it. I write this with 2.31GB free out of 4GB and a total of 700MB wired memory. So practically nothing to complain here.. Now if only the Nvidia driver worked as it should...............

p.s. your i5 takes roughly the same time as the c2d but have you noticed idle temperatures? Also it has 4 logical cores. Not all applications take advantage of that. For heavily-threaded software it's a world of difference.

g.

I have a 2010 Core i7 2.66 MBP. 4 other colleagues in my office bought core i5 MBPs. We all purchased in the last few months. ALL of us are complaining of system slowness. My system seemed fast at first for a few days or the first few weeks, but now it feels sluggish and unresponsive. My previous MBP (2006 C2D 2.16) seemed faster in some ways. I'm disappointed in how this machine is handling. I get the **** beachball all the time on things that shouldn't be a big deal. I've read that some think the hand drive is part of the issue, but I don't feel like I should have to replace that to have much better performance than I had with a 4 year old MBP. I have been using Pro versions of the Mac laptop of 9 years now. I have through my constant advocacy gotten 8 people to make the switch in the last few years. This is awkward for me as our company president was one of the ones who just switched and he went back to his old sony viao. I wish someone would provide some definitive answers for what's going on with these laptops. I'm looking like an *** for supporting the switch to products that are not performing to the hype I gave them. It isn't helping that MS office 2011 is garbage either.

Does anybody have any real clues as to why these systems are performing so sluggishly? 5 MBPs, all purchased in last 90 days... ALL THE SAME PROBLEMS!

Hi!, I had the same problem with my macbook with only one week of use!!! and the problem was Paragon NTFS!!! Unisntalling it or installing the last version 8.0 solved the problem for me

Best Regards

+1 here, purchased my MBP i5 4GB in Nov'10, and it is way to sluggish after say 2hrs of uptime compared to my good old C2D of same configuration.
What's up apple? Hello anybody listening? I am going to take my laptop to Apple store this weekend.
Apple has charged premium price and given a crappy solution this time - also I hate iPhoto 11 that it had, well, that is another thread.

I'm also having issues with mine.
I've done a few posts on the apple forums, Macrumors etc.
I'm getting extremely frustrated with the lack of power this new machine seems to have.
I've done side my side comparisons and simple stuff like opening itunes and safari my 1.25ghz PPC will beat this by at least 5 seconds.
Just in the last couple of days the windowserver has started crashing randomly.
Happened 9 times within 30mins, Got the crash logs if anyone wants to have a look.
Would like Apple to sort out either a fix or replace these machines as they are inferior to older products imo.

I am also having issues with a new mbp i5 2.53gh.
Seeing the rainbow pinwheel a lot. Apple please fix this

Out of interest, Do people find any apps in particular that are bad ?
I've found Safari to be one of the worst and will constantly hang for up to 2-3mins at any given time.
Firefox is better but also has its moments.
If there is this many of us having issues than it's fairly obvious something strange is going on eh.

Yes, I had so many issues with Safari a few months ago that I pretty much couldn't use it anymore. I use Google Chrome now which is generally fine; Firefox was far too slow for me.

And, as someone mentioned earlier, Logic Pro 9 is a mess for me. Always consuming tons of memory and having system overload errors, but I'm really not too sure why because (get this), I could open a complete project file from Logic Pro 8 on this MBP i5 and have system overloads (using a MOTU 828mk2), but I could open the SAME Logic Pro 8 file on my 933MHz iBook G4 (with the MOTU), in Logic 8, and not have a system overload during playback. Seriously there is something wrong here.


My friend with the same computer has the same issues as me, except more severe as he gets grey-screens-of-death atleast once a week.

edit: delete. sorry.

Message was edited by: zkdub

I just upgraded to 8 gig ram.. it's better but apps still start slow. What;s funny is.. it's perfectly fine in windows 7 bootcamp. Apps start amazingly fast (maybe because of windows's prefetch stuff)

Im guessing it has something to do with the HD. Windows experience index rates it a 5.6.. where everything else is 6.4-6.8

Hey guys,


Just an interesting update.
I was in the Christchurch earthquake last week.
Laptop was at home sitting on my bed closed and sleeping when it hit.
Interesting thing is that after it flew half way across the room it ran like lighting.
For the first day or so it was running like a dream, Well how I would expect a machine of this spec to run.
iTunes would open instantly, Same with Aperture and all the other trouble apps.
It has sadly gone back to it's old issues now but for a day or so there it ran amazingly.
I'm guessing it's some weird kinda hardware issue perhaps something dodgy on the logic board I'm not to sure.
Apple techs can't seem to narrow it down to anything yet either.

Looking forward to hopefully someone sussing this out soon.

To add : One more thing I've noticed that my devices have started randomly unmounting for no reason, Such as iPhone cameras etc.

Message was edited by: nickmcgillnz

In regards to that, It's quite normal for that unless you have a SSD.
I've got a WD Black HDD in my gaming PC and it only gets a 5.9 where the rest of my hardware maxes it out.
Haven't seen a 7200 drive get higher than that yet, Just FYI 🙂

It is not the ram or hard drive.

I added 8GB of Crucial Technology Ram with no difference and then added a Seagate Hybrid 500GB 7200rpm, also showing no difference. This laptop should be highly responsive but it just feels like my Macbook Pro 13".

It makes me wonder why Apple jumped to Quadcore for the Macbook Pros?