Having Problem with RAM and SWAP sizes

I don't know what is wrong but sometimes my Mac slows down and when I check htop I can see swp is red and full. According to this screenshot, the swap is 6G (but before a second I took the screenshot it was 4.98G/5G). I think I have enough empty RAM around 7G in this screenshot. Question is;


1)Why my mac doesn't use it and using the swap?

2)Can I increase my swap capacity?

MacBook (2017)

Posted on Aug 31, 2023 7:12 AM

Reply
8 replies

Sep 5, 2023 8:22 AM in response to aliyce

The JetBrains IDE, and Unity, and some other apps here—stares at Brave—are heavy consumers.


This Mac is seemingly under-configured for current usage, so some of usage will get offloaded to SSD.


That’s normal and expected in memory-constrained configurations. Such as this.


Yes, it means swapping among apps gets somewhat slower, as sometimes the data has to be read back in from SSD.


If the primary symptom here are the indicators of swapping, then the speed of the SSD is masking the lack of memory. (Current Mac SSDs are as fast as DDR3-era main memory RAM speeds—which is not that long ago.)


If the Mac is perceived as slower and its performance is not meeting your expectations, then you’re left to offload some of the apps and activities, or replace the Mac with one better configured for your current and planned usage.

Having Problem with RAM and SWAP sizes

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