Running out of Physical Memory "Mavericks"

Are you experiencing problems, slow downs? I'm guessing no because this is the way Mavericks has been made. It is more efficient with your memory. You don't want any swap used so having 0 is a very good thing. You also have low pressure, which is good. Free memory is wasted memory, so Mavericks is using everything it has to make your system run as fast as possible.

I'm having memory trouble, too. Using After Effects CS6. I have 24 Gigs or RAM and my system grinds to a halt.

Activity monitor shows that all 24 Gigs are being used. I close EVERYTHING running and OSX. 10.9 is still using 15.89 Gigs of the RAM.

Can't purge any more.

I used to have this sort of thing happen with earlier versions when I had Safari or Firefox open when I was using After Effects.

Since I can't purge any more, my only solution seems to be rebooting several times a day.

I;ll be watching this thread.

cbs20 is right your system is fine zongo saiba.

Your menubar application is crap, it is lying to you. I think it is out of date & doesn't understand the new Mavericks memory compression system. RAM used to run out before 10.9, now the OS simply compresses the RAM, those meters don't understand that the OS will simply compress RAM before doing the bad 'swap to disk'.

Ask the developer if the meters supports Mavericks or update it. You will be happier if you disable it & allow Mavericks to work as designed & ignore the lies.

You are both probably making matters worse by purging memory.

You don't have a problem with RAM & Activity Monitor is trying to tell you that fact but you don't know how to read it.

Please look at the two images in this Mavericks review (He also explains the new memory system).

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/#compressed-memory

The first image is the system running normally, with enough RAM.

The second shows that he has overloaded the RAM upto 24GB! … but, but, but he only has 16GB installed!

Eventually the OS cannot compress any more RAM & it has to swap to disk. That is illustrated by the Swap Used: figure and the thin red stripe on the memory pressure graph. I assume the orange bar is memory compression (I have yet to witness this).

zongo saiba, both of your screenshots show 0 bytes of Swap Used - your RAM is perfectly healthy at this point!

The memory pressure is green - perfectly healthy.

The amount of compressed RAM is tiny - 6.3MB & 267MB is not enough to push the system to 'Swap to disk'.

If you continue to purge RAM the OS will simply need to reload it, it will also need to do any recalculations too, so that will add to CPU load.

RAM is not like a battery, if an OS can use it all it will load faster & be able to handle more tasks, unused RAM is simply a wasted resource.

If you are experiencing genuine slowdowns I suggest that is because of other issues such as old applications running at a system level. If they are using up all the IO looking at the RAM won't show you anything.

Please post an EtreCheck report to troubleshoot these issues, this fixation on RAM is not the cause of your woes, sorry to be so blunt, but it is clear you are looking at the wrong metric.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Bigmike246, I think most of that applies to you too, Mavericks will always try to use all the available RAM - this is a good thing & is NORMAL. You should worry when it shows it has used swap that is the slowest RAM process.

Hi Guys, Here's a capture of my memory. My system is, for the most part, frozen at the moment. It may be and After Effects issue because I am using "Liquify," which is very memory intensive.

I have to get this project done today. I'll revisit it tomorrow if I get it turned in on time.

Thanks!

You have 24GB of RAM the Memory used is ONLY 19.8GB

You have 0 bytes of Swap Used - that is healthy

Green memory pressure all the way to the right - that is healthy

You have 1.7MB of compressed RAM - that is healthy

I suggest you look at Disk Activity (data & IO) or CPU load because this is not showing any reason for a slow Mac.

Liquify will probably use the GPU for it's calculations, that means the data will travel between the CPU & GPU & RAM. The image shows RAM that is fine.

You are looking at the wrong thing, (please take this as it's intended - advice).

Hello,

I checked into /var/vm and found swap files. Can I assume that my system is doing swap eventhough "Activity Monitor" is not reporting any ?

No. This is normal. Swap files are generated automatically upon boot in the event that your machine needs to use your drive as a scratch disk once you run out of RAM (paging out). This does mean that paging out is occuring-it is just reserved space. Before Mavericks, only 1 swap file was generated. Two swap files are now created upon boot in Mavericks.

What is "File Cache" in Mavericks ?

File Cache is just inactive memory.

Inactive memory is not a bad thing. I suggest reading this

"What is causing my system to be left with no physical memory ?"

No swapping has occurred. You have not run out of physical memory.

Deleting caches constantly will slow your computer down. Messing around in the /var/ folder is an easy way to cause permissions problems and corrupt your file system. Please run this program and post the output in your reply:

Etresoft: EtreCheck

I have a MBAir 2012 4GBMemory and I am goetting the "Force Quit Application" Running out of Memory for the past week or so. It this was a NetBook I would understand- but a MBAir with Safri, Mail and Finder????

This never happend with Lion or Mounitan Lion.

HELP- How do I get Mavericks OFF this machine?

Zongo,

Thanks for starting this thread, I have had the same issue as you. After installing mavericks, I call my Macbook Pro (2012 8Gb RAM) a "piece of sh*t" everytime I use it. I can't believe how much it hangs and how terribly slow it is. This is my tool for photo editing and I hardly have anything else installed except for my tools. I did take the machine to apple, and they did replace the motherboard, but it still has not worked like I expect it to...like it did when it was new. From restart my memory used is 7.12 GB, with nothing running!

I have been contemplating wiping it clean and starting fresh, seems like this may work based on your experience.

I have 16GB of RAM, and most of it is used. This is normal.

Any problems you are having relating to slowness are unlikely to be related to the memory usage.

Run EtreCheck and post the results here.

Thank you Benwiggy for your reply. Below is the etrecheck stats after fresh power up.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2

1 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores

8 GB RAM

Video Information:

Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB

System Software:

OS X 10.9.2 (13C64) - Uptime: 0 days 0:20:42

Disk Information:

TOSHIBA MK7559GSXF disk0 : (750.16 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 749.3 GB (494.89 GB free)

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GS31N

USB Information:

SanDisk Cruzer Blade 4.02 GB

SG (disk1s1) /Volumes/SG: 4.01 GB (2.75 GB free)

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Western Digital External HDD 500.11 GB

My Passport (disk2s1) /Volumes/My Passport: 500.11 GB (428.67 GB free)

Apple Inc. iPhone

Seagate Expansion Desk 2 TB

TIMEMACHINE (disk3s1) /Volumes/TIMEMACHINE: 750.53 GB (330.15 GB free)

NAS1 (disk3s2) /Volumes/NAS1: 1.25 TB (1.19 TB free)

Apple Inc. Apple Thunderbolt Display

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Display)

Apple Inc. Display Audio

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Apple Inc. Thunderbolt Display

Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 17

Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.optek.iokit.fretlight (1.0.1 - SDK 10.8) Support

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist Support

[loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.uc.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.witnessd.plist Support

Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist Support

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.UCAgent.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.WitnessUserAgent.plist Support

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist Support

[loaded] com.citrixonline.GoToMeeting.G2MUpdate.plist Support

[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist Support

[failed] com.google.GoogleContactSyncAgent.plist Support

User Login Items:

EvernoteHelper

iTunesHelper

BetterSnapTool

Google Chrome

Internet Plug-ins:

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.3.0.18358 Support

nplastpass: Version: 2.0.11 Support

OVSHelper: Version: 1.1 Support

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 3.2.0.16 - SDK 10.8 Support

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 11.0.06 - SDK 10.6 Support

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.201 - SDK 10.6 Support

DivXBrowserPlugin: Version: 2.2 Support

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20125.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.201 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.3.0.18358 Support

SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.2.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 11.0.06 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.8.0 - SDK 10.9 Mismatch! Oracle recommends Java 7 Update 55

Safari Extensions:

Evernote Web Clipper: Version: 6.1

LastPass: Version: 3.1.0

DivX Plus Web Player HTML5 <video>: Version: 2.1.2.145

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 2.0 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 203.2 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

iTunes Plug-ins:

Quartz Composer Visualizer: Version: 1.4 - SDK 10.9

User Internet Plug-ins:

CitrixOnlineWebDeploymentPlugin: Version: 1.0.105 Support

Picasa: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.4 Support

3rd Party Preference Panes:

DivX Support

Flash Player Support

Flip4Mac WMV Support

Witness Support

Time Machine:

Mobile backups: ON

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 697.84 GB Disk used: 236.94 GB

Destinations:

TIMEMACHINE [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 698.99 GB

Total number of backups: 44

Oldest backup: 2013-06-01 15:16:05 +0000

Last backup: 2014-04-26 17:36:14 +0000

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 698.99 GB < (Disk used 236.94 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

2% WindowServer

1% sysmond

1% Messages

0% fontd

0% WitnessUserAgent

Top Processes by Memory:

213 MB mds_stores

147 MB Mail

147 MB Evernote

139 MB iTunes

131 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

Virtual Memory Information:

3.67 GB Free RAM

2.82 GB Active RAM

648 MB Inactive RAM

903 MB Wired RAM

538 MB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

Fall_Guy wrote:

Thank you Benwiggy for your reply. Below is the etrecheck stats after fresh power up.

It is always best to start your own question instead of piggy-backing on someone else's question from last year.

Also, an EtreCheck report is more valuable if you don't restart first.

However, there are some unusual processes running that would be the first things to look for.

Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 17

What names are being redirected in your hosts file? I have seen numerous reports where people are trying to get around Adobe licensing by hacking up their hosts files and then complain about slowness.

Launch Daemons:

[running] com.orbicule.uc.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.witnessd.plist Support

Try uninstalling this software and see what happens. I have never seed it before.

Launch Agents:

[running] com.orbicule.UCAgent.plist Support

[running] com.orbicule.WitnessUserAgent.plist Support

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Witness Support

Yes, I agree, would have been best to start my own thread. This happened unintentionally as I had only intended to give thanks for this thread which I had found informative.

Witness, is iwitness program, It has been installed shortly after I purchased the machine. I did not have any issues at that time. iwitness allows me to track my machine in the event that it gets stolen.

I'm not sure what hosts are being redirected. This is my first mac so I'm still have lots to learn before I can catch up to my understanding of windows.

Thanks for the replies, I think that it's best for me to wipe my machine clean and start fresh. All my contents are backed up so it shouldn't be much of a hastle.

Best Regards