RAM memory filling up soon on my iMAC, after upgrading to OS X 10.9 Mavericks..

The new OS's do 'consume' more RAM; I increased mine to 8 GB as simply running Firefox and Mail would result in close to 4 GB usage. I think 4 GB is an absolute minimum and you'd benefit from at least doubling it (depending on your usage - if you do a lot of video or graphics editing, then more is better).

Before spending money (I have a 2012 MBP 2.5ghz i5 with 4GB RAM that runs fine on 10.9), please use this Apple article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473

to see if you have background processes that are out of control.

NOTE: The article has not been updated since 10.9 relasead so, in Step 3, you select "All Processes" not as shown in the article but from Activity Monitor's "View" menu:

This is an important step to finding the real culprits.

Also, this test is best done after you have used the computer normally for a while. Shut down any apps you started before running. The test is not reliable just after a restart.

Unless you're having problems, what you describe sounds normal. Mavericks does often show most memory being utilised, especially with 4GB available - but that's not the same as running out & getting slow-downs due to swapping out to disk.

Interesting - neither my iMac nor my test machine MBP will run Lion, ML, or Mavericks well with 4 GB - kernel panics, slowdowns, crawls, freezes, etc. As soon as I doubled the RAM on the MBP, all of the above symptoms disappeared, so my solution was to increase the RAM - although I still get some slowdowns with 8 GB when working with video (iMovie, FCE, etc). And, I do not get why kernel_task needs about 1 GB (Apple explained it with 64 bit vs. 32 bit architecture).

This is what I read on another forum about Mavericks:

"Basically Mavericks tries to use all memory as much as possible all the time by preloading app cache data to the RAM to speed up app speed and compress data on the RAM to accommodate for new apps you just opened for example.

That's why in activity monitor you get pressure instead of paging because now it is a question of how much more room of compression can they get before actually using the swap"

It makes sense really because ram just sitting free, and not been used is wasted if it can be put to use by the system for the things mentioned above.

I too have seen more ram used when doing the same on Mavericks as I was with Mountain Lion.

You can turn off dictation to save a lot of memory.

rkg_kr24 wrote:

Do I need to upgrade the RAM?? Or is there any other options?

Which iMac? 4 GB modules for my mid-2011 one are going for about $50 USD. Get a pair and get on with your computing life.

Hi,

I have the same problem as the OP. My system massively slows down as soon as my RAM maximum is reached, which is unfortunately quite soon after booting and always happens.

As CPU load is very moderate (like 15%ish), it must the RAM overuse that is slowing down the system massively.

I have already upgraded my 2008 iMac to the maximum possible RAM, which is 6 GB (Apple says the maximum is 4 GB, some people claim to have successfully installed 8 GB, but for me the maximum was 6 GB after trying different brands and consulting with the local Apple Store).

Apps that are open are iTunes, Chrome, Finder, Dropbox and the like, nothing special and I could not narrow it down to one app.

Irritatingly, the RAM load by "All Processes" does not add up to 6 GB (more like 1.5 GB)!

I have tried SUDO PURGE in Terminal as a last resort, which brings RAM load down from 6GB to 4.5GB, but only for a few minutes.

Guys, I really need your advise / ideas here: What are my options? I would prefer not to downgrade the OS or by a new iMac unless all other options are exhausted.

Cheers

<Personal Information Edited by Host>

Mavericks uses RAM much differently that previous versions of OS X.

Mavericks will take all of the available memory and dole it out to other applications as needed.

Your Memory Pressure Indicator is still all green with no yellow or red in it indicating your memory use is very minimal.

This is normal.

I agree with MichelPM.

I’ve read on numerous sites that if you have unused ram. Mavericks looks upon this as wasted ram and puts it to use to help the system run smoother/faster. I do agree with this approach as ram isn’t of much use if its lying around empty.

Daniel. Your Memory Pressure is still in the green range, so this is fine and normal. You have got some Swap Used though and this would slow down your system a little whilst this was going on. But the Swap Used figure isn’t a massive amount.

Mavericks will firstly, compress things in ram (this is your Compressed figure of 1.94 GB) that haven’t been used for a while to free up more free ram, doing this does not impact on the systems performance from what Apple mentioned about this feature.

Secondly if it can’t compress anymore to free up ram, then it will Swap Used. This will impact on the systems performance.

Hi MichelPM and tal1971,

Thank you for your thoughts.

I understand that Mavericks fills up the remaining RAM which might be a good idea, I agree.

However, in relation to my slowness problem, I need to note two additional things:

1.) The bar is typically "yellow"... it is only "green" in the screenshot, because I had just run 3 x "SUDO PURGE" (before posting the above in frustration)

2.) The system is very slow with Mavericks, despite increasing RAM from 4 to 6 GB. Since I have no changes in the applications I am using, and CPU load is at 15%. Hence, still the RAM use is my prime suspect of making my system slow (much slower compared to previous Mac OS versions).

Any additional thoughts, specificically in term of what actions I could take to make my system faster?

Thank you

Do you run any antivirus software on your Mac? Antivirus software can slow down the normal operation of OS X as well as have negative effects on OS X overall performance.

Do you have apps like MacKeeper or any other maintenance apps like CleanMyMac 1 or 2, TuneUpMyMac or anything like these apps, installed on your Mac? These types of apps, while they appear to be helpful, can do too good a job of data "cleanup" causing the potential to do serious data corruption or data deletion and render a perfectly running OS completely dead and useless leaving you with a frozen, non-functional Mac.

Running any Google software?

Completely uninstall ALL Google software per the instructions on Google's website. Currently, all Google apps are not playing well and are NOT 100% compatible/compliant with OS X Mavericks. Until Google releases an "official" fix or update for OS X Mavericks, completely uninstall all Google apps. If you do not like Apple's Safari Web browser, as an alternative, try using Mozilla FireFox. Mozilla constantly updates FireFox and just released a new update recently.

Make sure to update all of your third party software if there are OS X Mavericks updates that can be applied.

You may need to go the third party developers' websites if there are no updates through the Mac App Store.

Update all of your Web browser Internet plugins,extensions and add-ons, also.

Also, if you have any third party devices, like keyboards, mice, drawing tablets, hubs, card readers, etc, you need to update the drivers for these devices to OS X Mavericks compatible versions.