M1 Pro Max RAM Usage/Memory Pressure

Please make sure you are not stressing over something that reflects a major RAM management change in Oct 2013. Starting with macOS 10.9, Apple re-engineered its RAM allocation scheme based on the principle that “unused RAM is wasted RAM.”

"Free RAM" may be good for Windows but the metrics for Mac RAM evaluation are now "Memory Pressure" and "Swap Used."

If Pressure is in the green and Swap Used is zero or nearly so (like under about 300MB), everything is working normally.

This screenie is from an older iMac after updating to OS 10.9 and the new RAM scheme. Note how much of its installed RAM was being used, yet the computer was running perfectly with low pressure and zero swaps.

The propeller-head version is here: Introduction

If you are still worried about RAM usage, all you need do is to restart the computer once a week or so to reduce the swap value.

Dude I have exactly the same issue.

after a day or two my new M1 mini becomes unusable.

there is absolutely a memory leak somewhere with these new M1’s.

my old MacBook Pro could stay booted with all my apps open and no restart for literally a month.

Now, this thing can’t last a couple days. It’s driving me crazy.

Since you can't add memory, you have to take the pressure off. That means running fewer apps or apps that use less memory. My experience is you sometimes have to reboot to regain memory ... memory leak?

There may be a problem with the OS and if there is hopefully another will address that.

You can make a bug report to Apple: https://tidbits.com/2020/06/17/how-to-report-bugs-to-apple-so-they-get-fixed/

I just purchased a new 16" MBP with 32 go of ram. I did notice it went yellow in the memory pressure as I exported 23 photos. Beings as I wasn’t running as much as I usually do, wondering if I should return it for a 64 gb. I have 64 on my intel iMac and that runs fine.

Thanks for any help.

There was a reported memory leak issue. But it is reported fixed in the latest version of MacOS.

Be sure your macOS is completely up to date, or you may be anguishing over issues already seen and solved.

You can also add additional items to the memory (and other) activity monitor displays. I especially like to add %-CPU, and place it in the leftmost column and sort by that column.

Activity Monitor > View > Columns ...

check %-CPU.

move %-CPU column to the leftmost position.

click on %-CPU to sort on that column (if it sorts up, click again to get highest at top).

Well I’m on 12.3 .. and it’s occurring on that.

I just noticed a new minor release 12.3.1 that only came out a week or two ago, so I’ll install it and see. But given the notes make no mention of memory leak fixes I’m not exactly confident.

Over a span of several days, it is expected behavior to see memory usage has crept up. You have invoked MacOS features that were dynamically loaded, and have no provision for unloading -- you might need them again.

That is why periodic Restarts are a considered a best practice. Usually on the order of weekly, but many Users go for months without restarting, and are Just fine.

You Mac is way "into the green" with low memory pressure. If it ever moves out of green there may be cause for concern, but as long as it stays green you're fine.