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Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i5

Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz

Number Of Processors: 1

Total Number Of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s


Running the latest version of Parallels and Windows 7 64 bit.


Using the Activity monitor I find that I always have a large swap file (even when parallels is not running), a huge amount of inactive memory and a very small free memory. It slows down my system. Any suggestions?


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Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.1)

Posted on Jul 11, 2011 11:11 PM

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1 reply

Jul 11, 2011 11:17 PM in response to yosefzuf

First, upgrade your system to 10.6.7 or 10.6.8. Second, large swap files don't necessarily mean a thing. You might see the following:


About OS X Memory Management and Usage


Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Memory Management in Mac OS X

Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X

A detailed look at memory usage in OS X


Understanding top output in the Terminal


The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.


Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.


Bear in mind you are running Parallels and a VM concurrently with some other OS X applications. Too many concurrent applications will result in using too much memory and increasing swapping.

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