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mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Lion - Memory Usage Problems

Why is Lion using all 4GB of RAM running Mail, Safari (2 tabs), and iTunes? Snow Leopard was bad enough at handling memory, eating up every available byte and Lion seems to be arbitrarily using even more RAM. Windows 7 has zero problems handling RAM, there's no reason OS X shouldn't be able handle memory properly.

Can someone explain what Apple is doing here? I'm at a total loss. For users who just need Safari, Mail, and iTunes... I guess this works. But how am I expected to reliably run Logic, Final Cut, or Aperture with OS X using every available resource for Web Surfing, E-mail, and Music. This is totally unacceptable for a multi-million dollar software company greated towards professionals as well as consumers.

The following responses are not acceptable by the way:

Buy more RAM - I did that already, it will eat up 2/4/8GB, doesn't matter. Not to mention Apple still sells numerous 2/4GB confirgurations.
Buy a newer/more powerful Mac - this is a improper handling of memory issue, not a hardware issue.

I'd really love some insight into this. Thanks for reading.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 13" (late-2009)

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 5:45 AM

957 replies

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 28, 2011 2:11 PM in response to mightymilk

mightymilk wrote:

5. I don't need to apologize to R C-R because the man has done nothing to acknowledge that there could be a problem ...

In several posts I have explained that while there could be a memory use problem, Activity Monitor is not an adequate tool to diagnose its cause, why that is so, & some steps to take to try to determine what is. Several users have provided info that points to something other than a flaw in any Apple-provided software.

You have done little besides to insist that you know how memory management works, that you can somehow tell what the cause of your performance issue is without doing anything besides looking at Activity Monitor, & backed that with some absurdly simplistic arguments. You presume all reported problems are caused by the same thing, & that there must be a problem even when no specific problem is reported other than high memory use.

You ignore anything that doesn't support your wild guess that some piece of Apple-provided software is at fault -- even though you are not sure which one it is. You have no explanation why the same issues don't affect everyone. You exaggerate, oversimplify, & attack anyone that doesn't agree with you, frequently by grossly misrepresenting what they say. This is clearly not the result of honest mistakes.

None of this helps anyone. Problems are not solved by making wild guesses that don't fit the facts. I don't care about apologies but I do care about helping people solve problems. I'm not sure what you care about but if a part of it is solving problems, you have a very odd way of going about it.

Jul 28, 2011 2:16 PM in response to mightymilk

I've also noticed increased memory usage and page out rate since upgrading. So much so that I have only this week considered buying more RAM. Heck of a coincidence, don't you think? I don't use Mail at all but I do use Safari, extensively.

My hunch, as a developer, is that there are a few kinks in Safari Web Content (aka WebProcess) that need ironing out. I'm going to wait, agonisingly, until 10.7.1 to see if things improve.

I'm also following this thread about it: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1181523

iVain

Level 1

18 points

Jul 28, 2011 2:17 PM in response to mightymilk

I upgraded my memory to 8 GBs and it's still eating it up. Lion doesn't stop until it makes your entire system fall at its knees.

Jul 28, 2011 2:43 PM in response to iVain

iVain. Another data point for you. It's not always this way, so there must be something different between our systems

I have Lion on my Macbook Pro which has 8GBs of RAM and a slow (5400 rpm) 500GB disk.

It has been up for two days now, Spotlight has long ago finished its indexing, Time Machine is doing incremental backups, and I have many apps open.

So far, performance is fine. A few hundred Page Outs over 48 hours, so RAM has not been a problem. That disk is so slow that any significant paging is horrible.

Open apps include

Safari (with no addons except Adobe Flash) - 15 tabs open - using about 750 MBs of RAM

Mail

iCal

QuickTime Player

Preview

Microsft Excel 2011

App Store

Console (because I'm curious)

Activity Monitor (same reason)

System Preferences (to watch Time Machine's antics)

Aperture (yes, the dreaded RAM hog)

Hope this helps - maybe useful when you speak to Apple

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 28, 2011 2:45 PM in response to Matt Sephton

My hunch, as a developer, is that there are a few kinks in Safari Web Content (aka WebProcess) that need ironing out. I'm going to wait, agonisingly, until 10.7.1 to see if things improve.

Note that in that McRumors thread some users are reporting high rates of memory use by older versions of Safari running on Snow Leopard or even older OS versions.

Hunches are fine, but it really helps if they can explain all the facts … 😉

Message was edited by: R C-R

iVain

Level 1

18 points

Jul 28, 2011 2:47 PM in response to John Kitchen

Safari web content alone is using 1.5 GBs with only ad block installed and this tab open...

Jul 28, 2011 3:06 PM in response to iVain

iVain, have you tried removing ad block and restarting Safari?

iVain

Level 1

18 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:07 PM in response to John Kitchen

Yes and restarting and repariing permissions. Safari restarts using a normal amount of memory and then it just grows and grows until my iMac is nearly unusable.

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:21 PM in response to iVain

iVain wrote:

Safari web content alone is using 1.5 GBs with only ad block installed and this tab open...

Do you have any idea about what might be different about your system from John Kitchen's?

Jul 28, 2011 3:28 PM in response to iVain

iVain, are you covered by AppleCare? If so, I'd strongly recommend you go onto the Apple service website and get them to call you at a time of your convenience, providing a description of the issues.

R C-R's question is good too, do you have any non-standard stuff installed that you can think of?

iVain

Level 1

18 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:30 PM in response to R C-R

Not that I'm aware of. I haven't done altered my iMac other than upgrading my memory. I could call Apple because I did just get lion.

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:48 PM in response to R C-R

R C-R wrote:

mightymilk wrote:

5. I don't need to apologize to R C-R because the man has done nothing to acknowledge that there could be a problem ...

In several posts I have explained that while there could be a memory use problem, Activity Monitor is not an adequate tool to diagnose its cause, why that is so, & some steps to take to try to determine what is. Several users have provided info that points to something other than a flaw in any Apple-provided software.

You have done little besides to insist that you know how memory management works, that you can somehow tell what the cause of your performance issue is without doing anything besides looking at Activity Monitor, & backed that with some absurdly simplistic arguments. You presume all reported problems are caused by the same thing, & that there must be a problem even when no specific problem is reported other than high memory use.

You ignore anything that doesn't support your wild guess that some piece of Apple-provided software is at fault -- even though you are not sure which one it is. You have no explanation why the same issues don't affect everyone. You exaggerate, oversimplify, & attack anyone that doesn't agree with you, frequently by grossly misrepresenting what they say. This is clearly not the result of honest mistakes.

None of this helps anyone. Problems are not solved by making wild guesses that don't fit the facts. I don't care about apologies but I do care about helping people solve problems. I'm not sure what you care about but if a part of it is solving problems, you have a very odd way of going about it.

I heard all your arguments about the delay in Activity Monitors reporting and everything else you said. You haven't provided a single ounce of help, and have made every effort to rebut any possibility that there is a serious memory issue under OS X. You may not realize it, but you're not the only person with an in-depth understanding of Hardware and Software, and even though making 3 paragraph posts about Page Filing, Activity Monitor, and general OS design might impress people who don't know much about computers... it's extremely evident that your posts are all substance that's wildly off topic and most of the time totally irrelevant to the issue. You won't be able to help anyone until you acknowledge that there is an issue, and from what I can tell you're still trying to hold onto this being business as usual for OS X.

If you have something of substance that will actually help users solve this issue, feel free to contribute.

Otherwise you're wasting everyones time...

Have a nice day.

mightymilk Author

Level 1

32 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:49 PM in response to iVain

iVain wrote:

Not that I'm aware of. I haven't done altered my iMac other than upgrading my memory. I could call Apple because I did just get lion.

iVain everything you've said is being reported by numerous users, and most likely an issue with Lion itself. These issues just don't appear out of no where, as I'm sure you already realize. I suggest you contact Apple Feedback immediately, as well as call Apple and let them know what's going on.

Good luck.

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:52 PM in response to mightymilk

If you expect to be taken seriously, explain just one thing that you seem intent on ignoring:

If there is a there is a serious memory issue with Lion, why doesn't it affect all users?

R C-R

Level 6

17,782 points

Jul 28, 2011 3:56 PM in response to iVain

iVain wrote:

Not that I'm aware of. I haven't done altered my iMac other than upgrading my memory. I could call Apple because I did just get lion.

Have you tried a safe boot or creating a brand new, temporary user account & logging into just that account after a restart?

Lion - Memory Usage Problems