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User profile for user: nik233
nik233 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

extremely high Ram usage on 2020 mac book pro

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a new mac book pro with 8Gb Ram.

Appart form a whole array of issues from the start (keyboard disconnecting, longtime till waking up from stby mode, discolouring case, crashing apple tv app, trackpad disconnecting, clunky keyboard - of that has been addressed by apple repair team - though i would have thought they would replace the whole machine as all problems were there right from the start).


Big issue now that remains: my Ram usage is huge - i am not a computer wiz but right now i am running activity monitor and safari and my Ram usage is 7.7Gb Ram with only 200-300mb idle according to clean my mac app. Activity monitor shows about 6something Gigs used and 2gigs idle. Even when i run excel and mail and whatsapp in background, it does not change.


Now this does not seem normal at all to me. My old 11inch apple air managed to handle that with less than 2Gb Ram and was only half busy.


What is going on here? i am not an expert but that is not normal. i was told this will be the fastest machine i will ever own, but old one was much quicker. Haven't even started proper graphics app yet - i guess that thing will just crash?

anyone encounters similar issues or do i just have a "Monday morning model" where everything went wrong. How do i fix this issue?


all input is welcome


Posted on Oct 3, 2020 5:03 AM

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User profile for user: Allan Jones
Allan Jones
User level: Level 9
72,224 points

Posted on Oct 3, 2020 8:37 AM

Yes, CleanMy Mac must go. Performance-checking apps show Macs run faster without that stuff.


A Mac is like a cat—it cleans itself. You just paid Apple a shed-load of money for the sophisticated self-maintenance capabilities they build into the OS. Adding third-party cleaners only conflicts with what the Mac OS has featured for about 20 years,


As for RAM, Bob has already alluded to modern Mac memory management. I believe you are applying pre-2013 standards--or worse, WindowsOS standards--to how modern Macs use RAM. Starting with macOS 10.9 "Mavericks" (Oct 2013), Apple changed memory management to a new system to make better use of RAM and allow faster access. One of the tenets of this change is "Free RAM is wasted RAM," so the OS stages RAM for quicker availability.


The new metrics for RAM usage, shown in the "Memory" tab of Activity Monitor are “Memory Pressure” and "Swap used." If Pressure is in the green, all is normal.


In this real-world example, the iMac has 12GB of physical RAM and, applying pre-2013 metrics to the 11GB “Used,” appears to be in abysmally deep trouble:




However, the true situation is shown in the fact that Memory Pressure is nil and Swap used (a measure of Virtual Memory usage) is zero. And, at the time that chart was generated, the computer worked without issue.


If Swap gets too big, simply restart the computer. On our Macs with 8GB RAM, we try to restart them once a week. That clears out a lot of deadwood. Your "Swap" being close to 1GB, I suspect it has been a long time since the computer was restarted, or CleanMyMac is up to its usual chaos.

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User profile for user: Allan Jones
Allan Jones
User level: Level 9
72,224 points

Oct 3, 2020 8:37 AM in response to nik233

Yes, CleanMy Mac must go. Performance-checking apps show Macs run faster without that stuff.


A Mac is like a cat—it cleans itself. You just paid Apple a shed-load of money for the sophisticated self-maintenance capabilities they build into the OS. Adding third-party cleaners only conflicts with what the Mac OS has featured for about 20 years,


As for RAM, Bob has already alluded to modern Mac memory management. I believe you are applying pre-2013 standards--or worse, WindowsOS standards--to how modern Macs use RAM. Starting with macOS 10.9 "Mavericks" (Oct 2013), Apple changed memory management to a new system to make better use of RAM and allow faster access. One of the tenets of this change is "Free RAM is wasted RAM," so the OS stages RAM for quicker availability.


The new metrics for RAM usage, shown in the "Memory" tab of Activity Monitor are “Memory Pressure” and "Swap used." If Pressure is in the green, all is normal.


In this real-world example, the iMac has 12GB of physical RAM and, applying pre-2013 metrics to the 11GB “Used,” appears to be in abysmally deep trouble:




However, the true situation is shown in the fact that Memory Pressure is nil and Swap used (a measure of Virtual Memory usage) is zero. And, at the time that chart was generated, the computer worked without issue.


If Swap gets too big, simply restart the computer. On our Macs with 8GB RAM, we try to restart them once a week. That clears out a lot of deadwood. Your "Swap" being close to 1GB, I suspect it has been a long time since the computer was restarted, or CleanMyMac is up to its usual chaos.

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User profile for user: BobTheFisherman
BobTheFisherman
User level: Level 10
81,631 points

Oct 3, 2020 8:16 AM in response to nik233

Uninstall CleanMyMac. It is interfering with the designed functionality of your MacOS.

What is your plan for unused RAM? You bought 8GB RAM why do you not want to use it? Unused RAM is wasted RAM. The OS manages RAM so that your computer is responsive and ready by keeping what is needed in RAM. If your RAM is needed for something else the MacOS will immediately change out the content of RAM to what is needed.

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User profile for user: nik233
nik233 Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Oct 4, 2020 10:57 PM in response to Allan Jones

Thank you Allan,

this was very well explained and I understand it now. my analytics is indeed pre 2013.


Deleted clean my mac. in regards to that: Is there any need for a anti virus programme (or does mac take care of that itself by default) - I am running an Avast security software in background - should i get rid of that too? any recommendations?


clean my mac helped with getting rid of unused junk files etc - is there any alternatives which run smoothly or no need for this at all.


On another note: my mac seems to take a lot of time to wake up from stay mode (10-15 seconds till i can move track pad cursor) any advice on settings or trouble shooting?


Thanks a million for advice.


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extremely high Ram usage on 2020 mac book pro

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