sjøgren
Level 1 (56 points)

Q: Mavericks and memory (Ram)

Hi

 

Anyone else noticed how Mavericks uses memory ?

I have a new Macbook Air 2013 with 4GB of memory and after a short wile.

The system have used 3.99GB of the total 4GB Isn't that a big problem. Thats can't be right.

I would think that the computer would suffer greatly after a short time of use and the computer

needs to be restarted. If thats true. The new Mavericks ***** big time on Computers with less

memory. Or is there something i don't know.

 

Thanks

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 8:07 AM

by vea1083,Solvedanswer
vea1083 vea1083
Level 3 (696 points)
A:

As cbs20 said, OS X Mavericks uses RAM much more efficiently than any other previous version of OS X. Mavericks now has a memory compression feature that will compress the memory occupied by applications that aren't being actively used and give the freed up RAM to the application that needs it the most. The result is a much more responsive system and less memory being dumped to a swap file to the HDD which is what reduces the performance of your Mac.

 

If I were you, I would not look at the RAM used number but rather to the Memory Pressure graph that tells you how stressed is the system in terms of memory.

 

I hope this clears out your question.

 

Fore more information about OS X Mavericks new system management technologies visit:

 

http://www.apple.com/osx/whats-new/#advanced-tech

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 8:25 AM

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sjøgren

Q: Mavericks and memory (Ram)

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  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 May 4, 2014 12:46 AM in response to readingsully
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    May 4, 2014 12:46 AM in response to readingsully

    readingsully wrote:

     

    Are you guys employed by Apple or are you just apple experts helping the common man?

    We are all just users like you. I know that Apple employees were recently given permission to post here and I understand they are easily identified as such, but I have yet to see any.

  • by MadMacs0,

    MadMacs0 MadMacs0 May 4, 2014 12:53 AM in response to fentonwinmill
    Level 5 (4,801 points)
    May 4, 2014 12:53 AM in response to fentonwinmill

    fentonwinmill wrote:

     

    My observasions regarging this problem.

    Thank you! Finally a well thought-out analysis of the issues involved. I never considered that SSD's would make any difference. I hope you communicate some of your thoughts to Apple Engineering. Probably the best way for normal users would probably be to joint the OS X Mavericks Beta program and use their Feedback mechanism.

  • by Sami_Smurf,

    Sami_Smurf Sami_Smurf May 8, 2014 9:52 AM in response to sjøgren
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 9:52 AM in response to sjøgren

    I'm sorry to jump in here, but I have read the first 3 pages of posts, and the last 2.

    On my MacBook pro, I am running Mavericks and have 4GB memory. I am reading the stuff about checking the SWAP memory. is 294MB too high? If so, what do I do about it?

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM May 8, 2014 10:09 AM in response to Sami_Smurf
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    May 8, 2014 10:09 AM in response to Sami_Smurf

    No.

    294 MBs worth of Page Outs isn't a lot to worry about.

    I does indicate,though, that you have barely enough RAM installed.

    I would statrt to worry if the Page Out amounts get to 1 GB and higher in size.

    That would be the time to consider installing more RAM.

    WIthout knowing your year and model MBP, no one can tell you what the max. amount of RAM your Mac will take.

    Correct and reliable Mac RAM can be purchased from online Mac RAM sources Crucial memory or OWC (macsales.com).

  • by readingsully,

    readingsully readingsully May 8, 2014 10:25 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (1 points)
    May 8, 2014 10:25 AM in response to MichelPM

    Well, I have finally officially given up on my Mac.  I bought a new PC.  I will keep my Mac and use it 10 minutes at a time before it freezes because of full memory.  But right now it is useless to me.  I am sad.   

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 May 8, 2014 10:37 AM in response to readingsully
    Level 9 (51,447 points)
    Desktops
    May 8, 2014 10:37 AM in response to readingsully

    Then sell it if you won't fix it.

  • by Sami_Smurf,

    Sami_Smurf Sami_Smurf May 8, 2014 10:55 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 10:55 AM in response to MichelPM

    Thank you so much for your response MichelPM.

    My Macbook Pro is around 3 years old. When I click "About this Mac", it says the following:

     

    13inch late 2011

    Processor: 2,8GHz Intel Core i7

    Memory 4GB 1333 Mhz DDr3

    Software: OS X 10.9.2 (13c1021)

     

    I hope this helps?

  • by fentonwinmill,

    fentonwinmill fentonwinmill May 8, 2014 11:01 AM in response to readingsully
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 11:01 AM in response to readingsully

    Why didn't you just install Windows on the Mac via boot camp?

    You would have saved a lot of money. Also once Mavericks is fixed you could have updated.

    I Don't think nk this is a hardware problem

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM May 8, 2014 11:03 AM in response to Sami_Smurf
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    May 8, 2014 11:03 AM in response to Sami_Smurf

    You can install up to 16 GBs of RAM into your year and model MBP.

     

    Good Luck!

  • by fentonwinmill,

    fentonwinmill fentonwinmill May 8, 2014 11:06 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 11:06 AM in response to MichelPM

    The thing is I''ve seen a Gig of swap used with 16gb of memory on board with very little running.

    File cache allocation is far too aggressive forcing you into a swap situation which hammers the boot disk. If you have and sad/fusion drive it saturated the bus. The new memory management makes for an unbalanced system.

    You'd never see and enterprise server set up like this.

  • by Rafale,

    Rafale Rafale May 8, 2014 11:42 AM in response to fentonwinmill
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 11:42 AM in response to fentonwinmill

    Disable the swap file like I have been doing for years. It gives the same benefits of keeping everything in the memory and with Maverick you get memory compression on top of it. The memory utilization may appear high but I see no negative effect of it so far. With 16gb I never seem to have any problems

  • by Sami_Smurf,

    Sami_Smurf Sami_Smurf May 8, 2014 11:45 AM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 11:45 AM in response to MichelPM

    Awesome. Thanks so much! Will go grab some on the weekend

  • by MichelPM,

    MichelPM MichelPM May 8, 2014 12:35 PM in response to fentonwinmill
    Level 6 (14,279 points)
    iPad
    May 8, 2014 12:35 PM in response to fentonwinmill

    I have never experienced this with OS X Mavericks.

    Memory Page Outs are still an indicator of insufficient, physically installed RAM.

    Mavericks handles memory different from previous OS X versions.

    Mavericks does not let free, unused RAM go to waste or stay dormant in the system any longer.

    If there are few apps running under Mavericks, Mavericks will grab all of the remaining RAM for itself, but will start dole-ing out that RAM when more applications launch or when an Application needs more during operation.

    This is different from the old way RAM allocation used to work under older versions of OS X.

    That is leaving unused RAM alone until needed.

    I think the reason Mavericks deals with the free, unused RAM situation differently is because it takes all of the excess, unused RAM as part of the new memory compression routines in Mavericks.

  • by fentonwinmill,

    fentonwinmill fentonwinmill May 8, 2014 2:26 PM in response to MichelPM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2014 2:26 PM in response to MichelPM

    I think the problem is not enough  memory is being left free for compression and managment so it uses swap. With a fast disk the SATA channel is saturated causing temporary freezes.

    In theory the new memory management seems logical but completely tuned enough. I'd like to see some some parameter to set a %free memory.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 May 8, 2014 2:49 PM in response to fentonwinmill
    Level 9 (51,447 points)
    Desktops
    May 8, 2014 2:49 PM in response to fentonwinmill

    Open Activity Monitor and take a screenshot of the Memory Page.

     

    Post it here.

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