Not enough memory?

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Level 1

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Not enough memory?

I have a late 2013 15' retina macbook pro. I just got it and I love it except for the fact that so much of ram is being used up and I don't under stand how. As you can see in the activity monitor, there are aren't even enough processes, including the ones not pictured, to fill up 7 gigs of ram. I mean all I'm running is chrome. It doesn't make since to me because i used to run after effects on my last laptop and it only had 6 gigs of ram. What is using all of my memory?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 21, 2013 9:44 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

mende1

Level 10

93,568 points

Dec 21, 2013 9:48 AM in response to spencebld

Everything is working fine in your MacBook Pro. If you have a look at the bottom right corner of the screenshot you have taken, you will see what is taking up the RAM of your Mac, and if you have a look, you will see that all processes are taking less than 3 GB of RAM. However, cache takes 3.16 GB and wired memory takes another 1 GB of memory.

See > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890

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Answer 2

Dec 21, 2013 9:49 AM in response to spencebld

I would not try to micro manage your RAM.

Is it performing well or do you have a problem?

Mavericks is designed to use all available RAM.

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

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Answer 3

spencebld Author

Level 1

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Dec 21, 2013 9:50 AM in response to leroydouglas

I havaen't had any problems running anything especially programs like final cut and motion, but I just got nervous after I saw the activity monitor.

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Answer 4

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Dec 21, 2013 9:51 AM in response to spencebld

spencebld,

your Late 2013 MacBook Pro comes with Mavericks, and Mavericks handles memory usage differently than previous versions of OS X. As long as your “Swap Used” is at 0 bytes, you’re fine — everything is being held in RAM. If you look at the lower right section of your image, you’ll see that File Cache is occupying 3.16 GB; Mavericks is currently caching many of your files in RAM to increase your MacBook Pro’s performance.

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Answer 5

mende1

Level 10

93,568 points

Dec 21, 2013 9:51 AM in response to spencebld

Do not worry about that.

Also, leroydouglas mentioned compressed RAM as the reason why OS X Mavericks takes so much RAM, and that's not correct. If you have a look at your screenshot, you will see that compressed memory only takes 56 MB

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Answer 6

Dec 21, 2013 9:52 AM in response to spencebld

spencebld wrote:

got nervous after I saw the activity monitor.

Don't look at it. 😁

Good computing !

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Answer 7

Dec 21, 2013 10:05 AM in response to mende1

mende1 wrote:

Do not worry about that.

Also, leroydouglas mentioned compressed RAM as the reason why OS X Mavericks takes so much RAM

Sorry mende1- never said that.

The reference is supplemental reading to the KB link you posted on the activity monitor. The take home lesson is there is more going on with memory management in Mavericks then meets the eye if the OP stays fixated on managing Memory.

Mavericks seems to be doing a good job as the screen shot clearly shows above.

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