On Activity monitor kernel_task shows 1GB used but at the bottom stats Memory used is 15GB. I can't figure out the strange behviour.

Question

On Activity monitor kernel_task shows 1GB used but at the bottom stats Memory used is 15GB. I can't figure out the strange behviour.

I am running Yosemite on MBP Retina Late 2013 model with 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 16 GB RAM.

I was checking my activity monitor for RAM usage and found this strange behavior that all my processes are using 1 GB of memory where as in the stats it says that almost 16GB of memory is being used.

Anyone knows why this happens?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.2), null

Posted on Apr 23, 2015 1:21 AM

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Answer 1

iW00

Level 6

8,542 points

Apr 23, 2015 11:22 PM in response to jupiterseeker

jupiterseeker wrote:

I was checking my activity monitor for RAM usage and found this strange behavior that all my processes are using 1 GB of memory where as in the stats it says that almost 16GB of memory is being used.

This is NOT a strange behavior. Since OS X Mavericks the way how OS X is working with RAM changed completly: it is not anymore how much RAM is in use but it is about memory pressure.

Looking at the screenshot that you have posted, your Memory pressure is low and there is no need to be worried about it.

Read this articles - go to "Memory" section:

How to use Activity Monitor - Apple Support

Additonal subjects that you might check:

Compressed Memory: https://www.apple.com/osx/advanced-technologies/

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