Massive Mountain Lion memory leak

I assumed it is obvious. Since you asked, let me do so.

1. Collect a large amount of users' data, who reported the problem.The data should include, but not limited to: the routine applications, the memory allocation to different applications, the applications start and end time, etc.

3. Use some other MAC machines and try to duplicate the problem.

4. If the reason is from some applications, which cause memory leak. Identify why the OS can't prevent such intentionally malicious behaviors.

5. If the reason is that the OS can't release memory properly, fix it!

Csound1

Ok, maybe I'm wrong. I will appreciate for your help.

My VM data from "top":

VM: 287G vsize, 1284M framework vsize, 2541445(0) pageins, 325389(0) pageouts. Networks: packets: 4324216/4543M in, 3364271/387M out.

Do a google search and you'll find that so many people observed that when "free memory" is eaten to a certain level (say < 200M), the VM paging becomes crazy. I don't think all those people use the same set of applications. So with a high probability, the OS is the culprit.

Same questions

dalibocai wrote:

Do a google search and you'll find that so many people observed that when "free memory" is eaten to a certain level (say < 200M), the VM paging becomes crazy. I don't think all those people use the same set of applications. So with a high probability, the OS is the culprit.

Can you supply some attribution, yes or no.

sergibondarenko wrote:

Csound1

Ok, maybe I'm wrong. I will appreciate for your help.

My VM data from "top":

VM: 287G vsize, 1284M framework vsize, 2541445(0) pageins, 325389(0) pageouts. Networks: packets: 4324216/4543M in, 3364271/387M out.

Can you open Activity Monitor and give me 2 figures from it. (Post a screenshot)

Pageouts and VM size

And how much Ram is in your Mac.

Csound1

Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 3 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MBP71.0039.B0E

SMC Version (system): 1.62f7

Serial Number (system): WQ*********TM

Hardware UUID: 6325CC93-F67A-5B45-A7FA-BD97B02483FC

Sudden Motion Sensor:

State: Enabled

<Personal Information Edited by Host>

You are swapping 30% of your Ram load to disk (since the last reboot)

You are using more than 4GB, get more Ram, you do not have enough. (Chrome alone is using 0.5GB, ridiculous amount for a browser)

Csound1

>> You are swapping 30% of your Ram load to disk (since the last reboot)

I saw it already.

>>You are using more than 4GB, get more Ram, you do not have enough.

OS X 10.8 general requirement is 2GB RAM: http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

I was very comfortable with 4GB on the OS X 10.6. I think those little features the OS X 10.8 brought do not justify such performance downgrade. A 4GB RAM PC with Ubuntu or Windows 7 on board is more effective for proffesional usage, you can open more tabs in a web browser and run more applications than in OS X 10.8, as simple as that.

Look on the Mavericks feature set. Most of them are performance improvements. This is not an accident.

>>Chrome alone is using 0.5GB, ridiculous amount for a browser

Safari is even worse!

What systems performance do you have? If you have a SSD and 8 or 16GB RAM, you only masquerade the performance issues.

Then do as you wish, 4GB is a realistic minimum level for Mountain Lion, if you don't wish to get more that's your choice but I would.

The question is not just "Buying more RAM". It's not a problem to buy more RAM.

The question is "Why the OS X has become less efficient with the RAM use?"

When I bought my macbook, I wanted it not because it's a shiny thing but because it was a powerfull computer. And now when I compare it to other notebooks with similar hardware I notice that the OS X 10.8 doesn't meet my expectations.

I hope Apple will correct the performance issues in Mavericks, at least it is already promised.

http://www.apple.com/osx/preview/advanced-technologies.html

But why are you blaming Apple? One look at your screenshot tells the story. There is one "application" that is taking all your RAM and it is the same one that apparently can't be bothered to update code to 62-bit.

The specific issue in this thread is not going be solved by more RAM. There is probably a single process that's eating available RAM and causing these fairly large pageouts.

If this were me, that is what I would do:

1. Do one Safe Book to clear caches.

2. Then do a normal boot (the first real boot after a safe boot will take longer).

3. Open Activity Monitor and leave it open. Make sure "All Processes" is chosen. Set it for a 2 second update interval.

4. One by open, open the apps suspected of causing this. Don't just open an app, but do the things you normally do in that app and monitor Activity Monitor while you are doing those things.

I think it's still true that every tab in Google Chrome uses a separate process. The good news is that one crash of a process in one tab won't bring down the app. The bad news is that it eats RAM.

I'm constantly using LibreOffice, Word & Excel (because I have to), Pages, iTunes, Safari and Firefox, Mail, Messages, Contacts, Calendar, iPhoto, Preview, GIMP all of the time. I have a mid-2011 13-inch MacBook air with a 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. I typically reboot once a day in the morning. It only takes about 15 seconds so it's no big deal. I do monitor free RAM and pageouts and almost never have any pagouts.

There is something else going on here.

And yes, under normal conditions, having lots of free RAM doesn't do you any good. I want to have all 4GB of my RAM in use. The secret is not to have a lot pageouts.

etresoft

Look on 64bit Safari with only two tabs, not better than 32bit Chrome.

Zero extensions.

It isn't a question of memory usage, but app usage. The only people who complain about Mountain Lion VM usage are people who use Photoshop or Chrome. Both Adobe and Google don't support running any other apps. The expectation is that if you are running Chrome, you are only running Chrome. You don't need any other web browsers, e-mail clients, productivity apps, etc. All you need is Google. I don't know what they are doing differently than anyone else, but something is different. I don't use those apps and even though I regularly get very low free RAM (from 10-100 MB), I don't experience any performance problems. Why is that?