Help! My Macbook Air has a high memory pressure.

Question

albertheguy Author

Level 1

9 points

Help! My Macbook Air has a high memory pressure.

Product: Macbook Air in early 2015

Specs-

256GB flash storage

1.6 GHz- Processor

4GB memory

OS X Yosemite- Version 10.10.5

For a few weeks my Macbook Air's memory pressure continued to increase, most of the time it has been in the green area however there has been a few times that I had the memory pressure to be in the yellow area with a few tabs in Google Chrome. Also, the Kernel_Task is steadily increasing as it was around 380-390 MB a few weeks ago and now it has increased to over 500 MB. I have attempted to restart and shut down the computer a few times as attempts of decreasing the Kernel_Task and even thought the memory pressure is high, the CPU doesn't have much problems as it is mostly idle between 65%-80%.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Jul 1, 2016 4:12 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

129,316 points

Jul 1, 2016 8:31 AM in response to albertheguy

What does it look like without all eleven (shown) Google Chrome processes running? You should never see Swap Used, and that tells me that you are running too many applications for your available 4GB memory in your machine. With this limited RAM, you need to be very selective of what applications, and browser tabs are open (that you are using) and quit all the rest.

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Answer 2

albertheguy Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 1, 2016 8:34 AM in response to VikingOSX

After quitting Google Chrome, it has significantly decreased however, the Kernel_Task continues to remain the same and that is the part that I am still currently worried about.

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Answer 3

Lanny

Level 6

13,265 points

Jul 1, 2016 8:55 AM in response to albertheguy

Stop using Google Chrome. Try using Safari instead, it makes more efficient use of RAM.

Since the RAM is not upgradable, it points to the advantage of purchasing the maximum amount of RAM at point of purchase.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

129,316 points

Jul 1, 2016 9:13 AM in response to albertheguy

That kernel task controls the running of all your processes, and will normally be quite large due to that involvement.

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Answer 5

Lanny

Level 6

13,265 points

Jul 1, 2016 9:14 AM in response to albertheguy

After quitting Google Chrome, it has significantly decreased however, the Kernel_Task continues to remain the same and that is the part that I am still currently worried about.

That's normal, ever since Mavericks, OS X handles RAM differently, keeping as much stuff active as possible to allow better use of the available RAM. This saves the time involved in taking things out of RAM only to have to reload them a short period later.

Read: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/

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