Has anyone else noticed that Fusion has a lot of inactive RAM attached to it when its running and continues to look for more until its shutdown and holds onto it.
I find i need to purge the system using purge command which is annoying.
Keen to hear from others about what they think it maybe or a solution or even reviews on other VM machines.
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Are you sure it isn't just the VM that is finally taking all the RAM that it has been allocated once you start opening programs and running files in the VM?
I am using Fusion 4 and have allocated 2GBs of RAM to a Win XP install and don't see any more then 2GBs being uised by Fusion or the XP when it is running.
Maybe Fusion 5 is different but I wouldn't expect it to use more RAM then what is allocated to the VMs you have running.
Fusion itself is using very little RAM, at least on my Mac.
So I'd look at what the actuial VM is using as that may be allocated to much memory.
I have tested it out and while the program is using the allocated ram, more is being allocated out as un used. as soon as i run the vm machine and run anything you can see the change. The vm machine soaks up its 3gb then slowly works its way up to 14gb; most of which is allocated in inactive.
Recently updated the vm and managed to get the ram back after shutdown of vm but still high allocation during use.
Well please post a screen shot.
How much RAM is allocated to the VM?
Seems like its going to make a liar of me now, made a change to the menu turning off hdd buffering and now its holding stable inactive ram is only 2gb which is acceptable.
As soon as i get it to do it ill post a screen shot
Also in Activity Monitor look at what Fusion is using. If that does not rise, and or the VM itself using more RAM then allocated, then it is not Fusion that is hording that memory. Once RAM is allocated to any program, in this case the Fusion program itself not the VM, it can't take or reserve any more RAM that does not show in AM as being used by that program.
No active program can take RAM then just dump it into the Inactive area. That is a function of the memory management system of OS X. OS X May Hold RAM, in the Inactive area, for use by those same programs if needed, but it is not the program itself doing that.
Thats true but the only application that is causimg this untill the last few mins was fusion. but now has stopped
So if its not fusion causing the dump why would osx be dumping it in the inactive when fusion runs?
I have no idea. What other program do you have open when this happens.
And or what programs did you just close before starting Fusion and loadiing a VM.
Inactive memory is usually memory used by programs that have been closed and the OS is reserving that memory just in case you Re-Open that program.
As above tested VM fusion, nothing else running or opened when running it over several tests. Closing it of didnt release the memory back either
Well, If you didn't know, Mac doesn't close programs when you close the window you were working in. For most OS X programs if you don't Quit (Close) the program it will stay open with no on screen window visible.
Are you sure you are Closing programs? Or just closing the windows of those programs. Sorry if this is old news to you but some Mac users don't realize that even if they are long time users.
Programs are very closed, they do not appear in activity monitor anymore or in force close menu
I to have experienced this, VMWare Fusion 6 (and 5, and 4) with OS X 10.8.5, inactive memory starts climbing slowly and will use up everything, forcing memory swaps. My only remedy is to purge, but that doesn't always work.
vmware Fusion Memory leak
