iMac Free up inactive Memory. sudo purge

Question

Level 1

8 points

iMac Free up inactive Memory. sudo purge

1.) Is the Terminal cmd "sudo purge" still correct To clear inactive memory in El Capitan?

I tried 2 different clean memory apps from app store. each gave different results from one another and showed less memory than Activity Monitor.

2.) Also is "vm_stat" still correct for in depth memory info in El Cap?

( I haven't used Terminal since 10.4 )

Thank you,

tonyfrome

OS X El Captan

Version 10.11.6

iMac (24-inch, Mid 2007) - Model ID: iMac 7,1

Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 duo

Memory 4GB MHz DDR SDRAM

iMac, OS X 10.11

Posted on Feb 16, 2020 9:39 PM

Reply

Answer 1

den.thed

Level 10

90,946 points

Feb 17, 2020 6:50 AM in response to tonyfrome

macOS will take back and use Inactive memory without any outside help.

Also note that you can replace a 2GB module with a 4GB module and run your 2007 24" with 6GB of RAM.

see > https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/apple/memory/iMac/Intel_Core_2_Duo

Reply

Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

77,912 points

Feb 17, 2020 9:53 AM in response to tonyfrome

I was not sure If 6GB would work...

We have senior contributors here that have successfully used that config. However, I strongly recommend buying the 4GB module only from OWC as our members have done; other vendors' "similar" modules may not work. Even Crucial USA does not list RAM for that model.

By the way, a simple restart clears "inactive" memory.

Changes to OSX to take better advantage of free and inactive RAM happened with either OS 10.9 or 10.10, so your 10.11 system is definitely equipped with the newer, smarter RAM allocation scheme that views unused RAM as wasted RAM.

Reply