Peripateo
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Q: Why is my ram usage so high while nothing much is running?

Hi,

 

I've just bought the 15" Retina Macbook Pro that has 16GB of RAM. I am very surprised to find out (from Activity Monitor) that the memory in use is 15.88GB while I only have a few applications (iTunes, iPhoto, Safari, Mail, Calendar, Contacts)  and a 10 safari web pages running.

Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Oct 27, 2014 6:44 PM

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Peripateo

Q: Why is my ram usage so high while nothing much is running?

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  • by Kappy,

    Kappy Kappy Oct 27, 2014 6:49 PM in response to Peripateo
    Level 10 (271,850 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 27, 2014 6:49 PM in response to Peripateo

    What is that based on? Can you post an image of it in Activity Monitor?

     

    To post screen shot do this:

     

    1. Press COMMAND-SHIFT-4 which will change the cursor to crosshairs.
    2. Hold down the mouse button and use the crosshairs to select the part of the screen you wish to capture.
    3. Release the button and the image will be saved to your Desktop.
    4. Click on the Camera icon in the toolbar of the forum message editor.
    5. Drag the image onto the Choose File button and click on the Insert button.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Oct 27, 2014 6:50 PM in response to Peripateo
    Level 9 (61,390 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 27, 2014 6:50 PM in response to Peripateo

    Your idea of "a few Applications running" is wildly optimistic.

     

    If you want it to use far less memory, open far fewer of those road-hog Applications at the same time.

  • by Peripateo,

    Peripateo Peripateo Oct 27, 2014 8:36 PM in response to Kappy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 8:36 PM in response to Kappy

    Screen Shot Activity Monitor.png

    Here is a screen shot that I took this morning. It was showing Memory Used of 14 GB. I tried adding up those processes that are running as shown in the activity monitor. They do not add up to 14GB.

     

    Also is virtual memory the amount of HDD that is being used like a RAM? I have the PCIe flash storage. I heard that it is not good for this type of storage to be used like a RAM as it will reduce the life span significantly. Is this true? Is there a way to stop the use of virtual memory?

  • by Peripateo,

    Peripateo Peripateo Oct 27, 2014 8:40 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 27, 2014 8:40 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Hi,

    Thanks for your reply. So do you mean that I actually had too many applications opened at the same time? But I thought those applications like Calendar, Contacts etc are not very process intensive applications, and should not take up too much RAM?

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Oct 28, 2014 8:32 AM in response to Peripateo
    Level 9 (61,390 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 28, 2014 8:32 AM in response to Peripateo

    Having free memory sitting around doing nothing has no value. Having memory instantly available when requested, and having previously-read file data near-at-hand is the goal.

     

    With that in mind, Mavericks and Yosemite completely re-vamped how memory is used. Now, regardless of how much you install in your Mac, you will see that almost all the installed memory will appear to be used up used in short order. Previously-read file data are kept in a special section so that when requests are made, this category is instantly re-allocated to fill your Applications' memory requests. In addition, certain portions of memory are stored in compressed form, which can be un-compressed for use in a tiny fraction of the time needed to fetch from a Drive.

     

    The important factor to inspect to see if your memory is being used in an optimum way is the new "Memory Pressure" graph. If all green, your memory use is optimum. This is explained in this new article under Memory:

     

    OS X Mavericks: About Activity Monitor


    .