Why is there 1GB of swap memory when I still have 14GB of free memory?

I think the title sums it up.


I have three laptops in my household all running mavericks.


A Macbook pro 13 inch with 16GB RAM - I never see it ever use any swap memory.

An intel core 2 duo macbook with 8GB RAM - I never see it ever use any swap memory.


And a 15 inch macbook pro with 16GB RAM - after waking from sleep it is always running over 1GB swap memory with 14GB free memory.


I find this confusing. I know everyone talks about how mavericks knows what it's doing, but why would it use 1GB of swap memory when it has 14GB free?


Thanks in advance.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on May 9, 2014 1:31 AM

Reply
4 replies

May 9, 2014 1:38 AM in response to Dozzy Foggy

The machine isn't necessary "using" it, but rather allocating space in the event of paging out. A swapfile is automatically generated and varies in size based on the amount of RAM installed and your usage patterns. Download this program, run it, and post the output in your reply:

Etresoft: EtreCheck


If you aren't paging out, there is no issue.

May 13, 2014 11:33 PM in response to nbar

Hi there. Thanks for your interest.


I ran entre check after the computer had been to sleep over night. After waking the computer was using 2GB of swap with 12GB of free ram. Here is the system report from etrecheck:


Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,3

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

16 GB RAM


Video Information:

Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1024 MB

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2048 MB


System Software:

OS X 10.9.2 (13C64) - Uptime: 1 day 20:58:10


Disk Information:

APPLE SSD SM1024F disk0 : (1 TB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

King (disk0s2) / [Startup]: 999.7 GB (217.21 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB


USB Information:

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader


Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad


Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller


Thunderbolt Information:

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus


Configuration files:

/etc/hosts - Count: 15


Gatekeeper:

Mac App Store and identified developers


Kernel Extensions:

[not loaded] com.TrustedData.driver.VendorSpecificType00 (1.7.0 - SDK 10.7) Support

[kext loaded] com.attotech.driver.ATTOiSCSI (3.4.1b1 - SDK 10.6) Support

[not loaded] com.drobo.SCSI.ThunderBolt (1.1 [66012] - SDK 10.8) Support


Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist Support

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist Support

[running] com.attotech.iscsid.plist Support

[running] com.datarobotics.ddservice64d.plist Support

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


Launch Agents:

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

[loaded] com.adobe.CS5ServiceManager.plist Support

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

[not loaded] com.wacom.SketchManager.plist Support


User Launch Agents:

[not loaded] com.wacom.SketchManager.plist Support


User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

Dropbox

Google Drive

Pogoplug Backup

DDAssist


Internet Plug-ins:

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 13.0.0.206 - SDK 10.6 Support

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

Flash Player: Version: 13.0.0.206 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 5.3.1.18536 Support

googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 5.3.1.18536 Support

Silverlight: Version: 5.1.30317.0 - SDK 10.6 Support

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Check version


Safari Extensions:

Adblock Plus: Version: 1.8.1.1182

LastPass: Version: 3.1.21


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


3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player Support

Perian Support


Time Machine:

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

King: Disk size: 931.04 GB Disk used: 728.75 GB

Destinations:

DZA_LAPTOP [Network] (Last used)

Total size: 999.68 GB

Total number of backups: (null)

Size of backup disk: Too small

Backup size 999.68 GB < (Disk used 728.75 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.


Top Processes by CPU:

16% Mail

13% AddressBookSourceSync

4% sysmond

3% syncdefaultsd

3% WindowServer


Top Processes by Memory:

69 MB Mail

66 MB Activity Monitor

66 MB Safari

49 MB WindowServer

33 MB Dropbox


Virtual Memory Information:

12.44 GB Free RAM

1.36 GB Active RAM

45 MB Inactive RAM

1.37 GB Wired RAM

1.36 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

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Why is there 1GB of swap memory when I still have 14GB of free memory?

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