OS X Mavericks using SWAP with 16GB of physical RAM? What gives?

Question

Okay. Can someone help me understand why OS X Mavericks is using SWAP and Memory compression when I have 16GB of Physical Memory installed? I&#x27;m also only running Safari, Mail.app, Colloquy IRC and iTunes. That&#x27;s usually the only programs I have open unless I&#x27;m playing a game or something. Also, when I reboot, the RAM is back to normal, but after my Macbook Pro has been on a couple of days (I usually have it plugged into the wall), it starts use SWAP in Activity Monitor and Memory Compression. Here&#x27;s a picture I took before I rebooted, and I will always post my system wide information in case anyone has any ideas on how to keep my computer from using Swap in OS X Mavericks:Also, here&#x27;s what it looks like now that I&#x27;ve rebooted:And, here&#x27;s my system information I grabbed while using EtreCheck:Hardware Information:          MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)          MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro8,3          1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores          16 GB RAMVideo Information:          Intel HD Graphics 3000 - VRAM: 512 MB          AMD Radeon HD 6770M - VRAM: 1024 MBAudio Plug-ins:          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0          AirPlay: Version: 1.9          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3System Software:          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 0:58:0Disk Information:          APPLE SSD TS256C disk0 : (251 GB)                    EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                    Macintosh SSD (disk0s2) /: 250.14 GB (195.77 GB free)                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 650 MB          MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8 USB Information:          Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)          Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad          Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller          Logitech Logitech Dual Action          Apple Inc. iPhone          Canon iP4300          BLUE MICROPHONES Blue Snowball          SanDisk Firebird USB Flash Drive 32.02 GB                    CIDER (disk2s1) /Volumes/CIDER: 32.02 GB (21.87 GB free)          Apple Computer, Inc. Apple Cinema Display          Logitech USB Gaming Mouse          Apple Computer, Inc. IR ReceiverFireWire Information:          G-TECH G-Drive mini Device 00 800mbit - 800mbit max                    EFI (disk1s1) &lt;not mounted&gt;: 209.7 MB                    MARIGOLD (disk1s2) /Volumes/MARIGOLD: 319.73 GB (209.06 GB free)Thunderbolt Information:          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busKernel Extensions:          jp.plentycom.driver.SteerMouse          (4.1.7)Problem System Launch Daemons:Problem System Launch Agents:Launch Daemons:          [loaded] com.absolute.rpcgeo.plist          [loaded] com.absolute.rpcnet.plist          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist          [loaded] com.skype.skypeinstaller.plistLaunch Agents:          [loaded] com.divx.dms.agent.plist          [loaded] com.divx.update.agent.plistUser Launch Agents:          [loaded] com.facebook.videochat.powershaker.plist          [failed] com.valvesoftware.steamclean.plistUser Login Items:          iTunes          Snak          Mail          SteerMouse Manager          Safari          SpeechSynthesisServer          Colloquy          Knock3rd Party Preference Panes:          Flash Player          Flip4Mac WMV          SteerMouseInternet Plug-ins:          Default Browser.plugin          DirectorShockwave.plugin          DivX Web Player.plugin          Flash Player.plugin          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin          Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin          iPhotoPhotocast.plugin          JavaAppletPlugin.plugin          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin          OVSHelper.plugin          QuickTime Plugin.plugin          Silverlight.pluginUser Internet Plug-ins:Bad Fonts:          NoneTime Machine:          Skip System Files: NO          Mobile backups: ON          Auto backup: YES          Volumes being backed up:                    Macintosh SSD: Disk size: 250.14 GB Disk used: 54.37 GB          Destinations:                    MARIGOLD [Local] (Last used)                    Total size: 319.73 GB                    Total number of backups: 94                    Oldest backup: 2012-12-27 18:56:31 +0000                    Last backup: 2013-11-11 20:34:31 +0000                    Size of backup disk: Adequate                              Backup size 319.73 GB &gt; (Disk used 54.37 GB X 3)Top Processes by CPU:               3%          WindowServer               3%          Colloquy               2%          EtreCheck               1%          fontd               1%          PluginProcess               0%          loginwindow               0%          SteerMouse Manager               0%          warmd               0%          coreservicesd               0%          launchservicesdTop Processes by Memory:          197 MB             mds_stores          164 MB             com.apple.IconServicesAgent          147 MB             Colloquy          147 MB             Safari          131 MB             PluginProcess          131 MB             Mail          115 MB             iTunes          85 MB              com.apple.WebKit.WebContent          66 MB              Finder          49 MB              ocspdVirtual Memory Statistics:          11.80 GB           Free RAM          2.33 GB            Active RAM          426 MB             Inactive RAM          1.45 GB            Wired RAM          394 MB             Page-ins          0 B                Page-outs--------------------------------------------------------------If anyone has any ideas, please let me know? Thanks! I&#x27;m baffled here, or maybe I just don&#x27;t know how to read the OS X Mavericks memory chart in Activity Monitor.

Kurt Lang · Answer

While there is a way in Windows to completely disable the swap file if you want, OS X has no such provision. It&#x27;s hard wired into Unix.You could maybe disable it with a Terminal command, but I don&#x27;t know if there is one. It would also be a bad idea. If you&#x27;re running a lot of memory intensive apps and any of them need to do a page out, they&#x27;ll either throw out a message that there&#x27;s no more available RAM, or simply crash.

Topher Kessler · Answer

Re-post your screenshots, as they are not showing right now.

GrandGizmo · Answer

I&#x27;m not really running a lot of apps. That&#x27;s the point as I posted in the question? I&#x27;m only running iTunes, Safari, Colloquy IRC and Mail.app. I&#x27;m not running a lot of memory intensive apps. Plus, I have 16GB of RAM? I shouldn&#x27;t even be using Swap or Memory Compression in OS X Mavericks. I&#x27;m baffled. I&#x27;ve tried to find a memory leak, but I can&#x27;t find any in those four applications I&#x27;m running. Once in awhile, I get a failed QTKitServer not responding in Activity monitor, but I can make that disappear by quitting Safari 7, and then reopening Safari 7.

GrandGizmo · Answer

Here&#x27;s the screen shot where my Macbook Pro was using Swap and memory compression with 16GB of physical RAM installed, which is the max this late 2011 Macbook Pro can hold:And, here&#x27;s what it looks like after I reboot (back to normal with no Swap used):

Kurt Lang · Answer

I&#x27;m not running a lot of memory intensive apps. Plus, I have 16GB of RAM?The swap file should be pretty small then. I also have 16 GB of RAM and the current swap file is a paltry 64 MB. Not worth fretting over as far as losing disk space.You can turn it off. Do note that they also think it&#x27;s a bad idea.

Michael Black · Answer

Memory compression will be used for things that sit idle for some defined period of time, regardless of how much RAM is in use or available.  Compression is always on, and will kick in the minute something sits unused long enough.As far as swap, I don&#x27;t see what you are concerned about.  Swap space is automatically assigned as requested by apps and system services, whether used or not the page space is setup so it is available and ready.  Pageins show as used swap, but that is information read FROM swap into RAM (such as page registries), so is not worth giving a thought to anyway.As long as you see 0 page OUTS, then your system has in fact not written a dang thing to disc in the swap files.In your images, Virtual Memory is merely assigned space, not used space and indicates how much page space has been requested (and the registries set up for).  SWAP is the sum total of Page INS and Page OUTS, and 238MB merely means some trivial bit of overhead or bookkeeping data was created and then read into RAM.I&#x27;d say you are chasing a ghost - you have no memory use problems from what I see in what you&#x27;ve posted.

Drew Reece · Answer

Here is the best article I have seen on 10.9&#x27;s new memory handling…http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/#compressed-memorynbar also linked to this execllent Stackexchange post… (it doesn&#x27;t cover the new memory compression feature) http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/67048/45058The simplest way to read the activity monitor chart is via the memory pressure chart green is fine, orange is compressing &amp; red is swap to disk. The most important figure is the &#x27;Swap Used&#x27;. If that is big or increasing you need to do less or install more RAM.I can send you a built in command that will tax all the RAM if you need to witness it for yourself.The EtreCheck report shows           0 B                Page-outsWhich means the system was fine 🙂

GrandGizmo · Answer

Thanks for explaining all of that, Michael. That&#x27;s what I was wondering about. This new OS X Mavericks has a different memory chart than previous version of OS X. If my Memory Compression graph stays in the green, I shouldn&#x27;t have anything to worry about then? I&#x27;ve heard it can go from green, to yellow and then to red. Is that the only thing I should be concerned with, because my system works fine. Everything runs quickly and apps aren&#x27;t slow at all. I was just concerned is all.

Drew Reece · Answer

Those are all fine 🙂Here is how to see RAM overloaded… Reboot to see the system in it&#x27;s default state.Open TextEdit for the sake of it 🙂 Open Activity Monitor &amp; Terminal from /Applications/Utilities.Select the Memory tabIn Terminal enter the following commandmemory_pressure -l critical# note that is a lowercase LRAM usage will climb, compression will begin the VM will become way more than the system has installed.Eventually the system will start swapping  (look for RED) - Watch the &#x27;memory pressure&#x27; &amp; &#x27;Swap used&#x27; as this happens.Try switching to TextEdit - the system is still coping !Switch back to Terminal &amp; hit ctrl+c to stop the process. Watch the VM &amp; memory pressure return to normal levels.This OS kicks 4ss !Your problems may lie elsewhere 🙂

GrandGizmo · Answer

Thanks for the info. I think my only problem is I was worrying about nothing. 🙂

Drew Reece · Answer

For more fun try the same command but at the &#x27;warn&#x27; levele.g.memory_pressure -l warnThat causes the tool to use RAM right upto the point where the OS starts to recieve warnings. In this mode you will only see orange in the memory pressure graph. It will not swap.I have the worlds most boring video that shows these commands in action, but I haven&#x27;t uploaded it anywhere yet.

Drew Reece · Answer

A lot of users do 🙂Try the commands, once you see it becomes clear on what is normal.