I have an iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012) Intel core i5. When I power up I get around 5Gb available RAM which goes down to around 2.4GB once I open Safari. Even with only one website open (it doesn't matter what site) it regularly drops suddenly to around 600-800Mb. Any thoughts? Thank you
macOS tries to use all available memory at all times because unused memory is wasted memory.
The only important factors for knowing if you are running low on memory for your workload is by using the Mac normally and after a heavy workload examine the Memory information in Activity Monitor. As long as the Memory Pressure is in the green and both Compressed Memory and Swap Used is not using GBs of data, then you have more than enough memory for that workload. Yellow memory pressure indicates the workload may be pushing the memory on your Mac.
If you are having a specific issue with the Mac and want assistance in troubleshooting the issue, then please provide details and run the third party app EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
macOS tries to use all available memory at all times because unused memory is wasted memory.
The only important factors for knowing if you are running low on memory for your workload is by using the Mac normally and after a heavy workload examine the Memory information in Activity Monitor. As long as the Memory Pressure is in the green and both Compressed Memory and Swap Used is not using GBs of data, then you have more than enough memory for that workload. Yellow memory pressure indicates the workload may be pushing the memory on your Mac.
If you are having a specific issue with the Mac and want assistance in troubleshooting the issue, then please provide details and run the third party app EtreCheck and post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
Confirm you are booting from this external SSD?
disk1 - TS1TSJM500 1.02 TB (Solid State - TRIM: No)
External Thunderbolt 6 Gigabit Serial ATA
It appears so because your drive read/write scores are far above what the internal factory mech drive can do (always under ~80MB/sec). However, those scores:
Performance:
System Load: 5.44 (1 min ago) 4.75 (5 min ago) 3.33 (15 min ago)
Nominal I/O usage: 20.35 MB/s
File system: 24.21 seconds
Write speed: 194 MB/s
Read speed: 308 MB/s
are below expected for a drive with those specs. They should both be about 400MB/sec for a compatible external SATA 6G SSD in a USB3 enclosure, and faster for Thunderbolt. I don't know whose SSD Transcend used but, when it comes to Macs, Crucial and OWC have been most compatible.
You can try enabling TRIMforce on the SSD. That might bring up the low Write speed. It helps when the Write speed dropped on one of my aftermarket SSD's after abotu three years of use. NOTE: You will need to use Safe Mode starts several times before the change fully takes effect. Let the computer sit idling in Safe Mode for at least an hour each time to do all teh housekeeping. Repeat until the score increase.
PLEASE let your Mac be a Mac. You have installed gobs of useless third-party stuff:
...what I use to monitor and clean memory hogs is Extreme Clean Memory
A simple restart always cleans the RAM. That app is redundant.
One of these is probably causing WebKit (an underlying technology in Safari), to be RAM hungry:
Safari extensions:
Antivirus One - /Applications/Antivirus One.app
Grammarly for Safari - /Applications/Grammarly for Safari.app
Evernote Web Clipper - /Applications/Evernote Web Clipper.app
I go for voting #1 off the island to start.
Welcome!
To verify that no processes are running abnormally on you Mac, you could run EtreCheck. EtreCheck is a simple, helpful utility to diagnose and identify both software and select hardware issues.
If your Mac is experiencing an issue, such as poor performance or running slowly, kernel panics, apps freezing or quitting unexpectedly, storage issues, and many more, generating an EtreCheck report is a great place to start for troubleshooting issues with your Mac while getting help at Apple Support Community. EtreCheck was developed by a highly respected member of these very Apple Support Community forums, and it is trusted by many users.
Downloading
To get started, download EtreCheck:
https://etrecheck.com/en/welcome.html
Click “download” on the site. The app will be downloaded to your Mac to your downloads location, which is the “Downloads” folder by default. This can be accessed by going to the Finder > Go (in the top menu bar) > Downloads.
Open the app, and generate a report
Open the downloaded application, and follow the initial steps to open the app. Choose a problem in the drop-down menu, and click Start. Creating a report typically takes 2-4 minutes on a healthy Mac.
View your report, and upload a copy to Apple Support Community
Once you have your report generated, you can upload it to Apple Support Community for us to review and provide suggestions. Please refer to this document with instructions for uploading your report and using the “Additional Text” function of Apple Support Community:
If you need help in the meantime, please let us know!
Jack
Hey there SuffolkPete,
Did you try the steps previously suggested? It's also worth checking if your available memory also runs out in a new user account to narrow down the applications which may be causing the issue:
Add a user or group on Mac - Apple Support
Regards.
Hi SuffolkPete,
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities.
We need help understanding the type of support that you're seeking.
When you have a free moment, please provide us with more information regarding the exact issue you're experiencing and what you'd like to accomplish, and we'll do our best to help you find a solution.
In the meantime, it seems that you might have a question about the performance of Safari on your Mac. Is that correct? If so, check out the links below.
If Safari on Mac doesn't open a webpage or isn’t working as expected
If the resources above has nothing to do with the type of support you're seeking, provide us specifics on what you are seeing and experiencing on your end for more help, and we'll continue from there.
Cheers!
Hi J-Johnnyboy
Thanks for replying and my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
The problem is that about once every two hours or more often my available RAM drops from 5gb when booted up to less than 1gb and grinds to a halt. I've got a PeakHour monitor which enables me to remove memory hogs which it does. but it all gets worse again before long. In the end I have to restart the device. The memory goes down when I start Safari but it is not the only factor. I know advice says to look at running applications but most have names I don't recognise so don't know where to start.
ThreMac runs on an attached SSD via Thunderbolt connection and the problem existed before that but I can't be certain to what extent.
The problem is that about once every two hours or more often the Mac grinds to a halt and often has to be rebooted. The RAM drops from 5gb when booted up to less than 1gb and runs so slowly that it is impossible to use and often grinds to a halt. The memory goes down and the Mac slows up when I start Safari but it is not the only factor. I have run EtreCheck and read the report and it tells me of lots of minor problems. I have no idea how to resolve those. I attach the report and am grateful for any help you can give.
I got that a bit wrong as what I use to monitor and clean memory hogs is Extreme Clean Memory
Yes I am
Allan Jones
Thank you very much. I'll try to work through those suggestions over the weekend.
Sudden loss of RAM
