Hello all
Using MBP 15 2014 Retina
Since upgrading to High Sierra, I have noticed my ram usage is exceptionally high. My device is showing WindowServer is constantly using 7GB - 10GB of ram. I have also noticed that activity monitor doesn't even list WindowServer, however iStat Menu does.
I know what WindowServer is used for but my question is, is anybody else experiencing this?
MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13)
Does the problem happen if you boot into Safe mode?
<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>
This will not load any 3rd party additions, it will load some more conservative Apple drivers (may cause screen flicker), and it will clear some kernel caches (a cache is saved data in a form that can speed up a program, but is totally redundant to the original source, and thus can be safely cleared). Booting into Safe mode is just an experiment, but can often times eliminate any 3rd party interference, or a cached item out-of-sync with the world.
Booting into safe seems to have resolved my issues !
Thank kind thanks BonHarris
Does the problem happen if you boot into Safe mode?
<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>
This will not load any 3rd party additions, it will load some more conservative Apple drivers (may cause screen flicker), and it will clear some kernel caches (a cache is saved data in a form that can speed up a program, but is totally redundant to the original source, and thus can be safely cleared). Booting into Safe mode is just an experiment, but can often times eliminate any 3rd party interference, or a cached item out-of-sync with the world.
Booting into safe seems to have resolved my issues !
Thank kind thanks BonHarris
The bug's been triggered when using not "default" but "scaled" screen resolution.
It's been fixed in 10.13.1 (which is beta 2 of now).
You'd need "to enrol your mac to beta testing program" to download it from Apple.
P. S. Apple's stuff don't read this forum.
As per reports in other forums and my own experience this hasn't been fixed. Currently I'm on 10.13.2 Beta and end up with 20 MB RAM left when not on the default resolution. Switching to default resolution eliminates the problem. My machine is a mid 2012 Retina MacBook Pro.
Yeah, this is exactly a blunder Apple made.
And even worse — memory doesn't get freed if you'd close all video RAM demanding apps (such as Chrome and so on). Note — it'd get freed with El Capitan. It's no more the case with HighSierra.
Currently I'm seeing 7 GB of swap in use and 43.38 GB of "Memory" (I suppose it's VSS they call so in Activity Monitor) — and all this after I closed all memory hogs. Previously it would almost fully release swap and would deflate WindowServer's memory use as well significantly.
Stay away from HighSierra if you're heavy video RAM user. You'd be forced to reboot or at least terminate your session to get resources back with it until they fix it.
Also note it's not possible to preload shared library to WindowServer process (worked with El Capitan), so one can't preload some modern memory allocator to see if it's not a leak but fragmentation issue instead.
Same problem here, occurs when I use the "More Space" setting in Display preferences (with "Default" setting it doesn't use abnormal amount of RAM), seems like a memory leak. Reboot is only way to reset the WindowServer RAM-usage.
UPDATE:
I tried using onyx to clear cache, I tried resetting PRAM & SMC, and booting in safe mode, I reinstalled the OSX and also formatted my computer and installed a fresh copy of High Sierra and the problem persisted.
My current test: changed the screen resolution to default, restarted the computer and reset the PRAM (waited 2 chimes). So far the memory has been stabled at 68.8 mb (after opening safari and full screen youtube videos).
Conclusion: for what I've tested, this is indeed a problem using small text (more space) screen resolution with retina display.
PS: I contacted apple via phone service and they don't have a concrete answer for this problem neither. The specialist suggested to reset PRAM and reinstall OSX without formatting. But these steps wont fix the problem. also suggested to bring the computer to an apple store but this seems to be a software problem.
I can confirm that setting my scaled MacBook Pro display back to 'default' fixed the problem of high RAM usage and jerky GUI interactions but I am not able to confirm that 10.13.1 fixed the problem. 10.13.1 was my initial install of High Sierra and thus my first experience with it. Hopefully a patch is out soon because EVERYTHING IS SO BIG ON MY SCREEN NOW. 😮
Do you have Activity Monitor set to show "ALL" processes? I see WindowServer via my Activity Monitor.
Have done a reboot? I'm guessing maybe you have, but I need to ask the question.
Does the problem happen if you boot into Safe mode?
<http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564>
This will not load any 3rd party additions, it will load some more conservative Apple drivers (may cause screen flicker), and it will clear some kernel caches (a cache is saved data in a form that can speed up a program, but is totally redundant to the original source, and thus can be safely cleared). Booting into Safe mode is just an experiment, but can often times eliminate any 3rd party interference, or a cached item out-of-sync with the world.
Please post the EtreCheck output as a "Reply" to this thread
<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174> or <https://etrecheck.com>
Use the EtreCheck "Share" button to "Copy Report" (See the image below)
And then Paste in a "Reply" to this thread.
If, AND ONLY IF, you get the error:
"The message contains invalid characters"
then try posting to PasteBin.com, and give us a PasteBin URL link.
.
EtreCheck is a tool that helps Apple Support Community volunteers debug problems without any access to the troubled computers. Debugging problems can be a difficult task even when the machine is in front of you. Attempting it via a discussion forum is extremely difficult. EtreCheck is a great help that regards.
Yes. Firstly, the memory problem was solved in 'safe mode'. This allowed me to research the issue without the computer seizing up every few minutes. Secondly, the 10.13.2 upgrade appears to have solved the problem in regular operating mode. It has been stable for more than an hour and the memory is exactly where I would have expected it, and stable as well. Fingers crossed.
macOS 10.13.1 update seems to have fixed the high RAM usage by WindowServer, tho it is still high when I set the high resolution that is scaled (does not get as high at recommend non scale).
That would imply there is something running when you boot normally that is triggering this effect.
Posting the EtreCheck report might give us a clue about what that might be.
follow-up: session termination wouldn't work. You either have to reboot the whole system or at least restart WindowServer service
This fixed it for me. My windowServer RAM usage went from 23GB (yes, you read that right) to 229MB immediately after updating to 10.13.1. Thanks for this!
MBP 15 late 2013 Retina, it is better with 10.13.1 when using the Intel GPU it is not as bad. When the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M is used a lot more RAM is used by Window Server .
EtreCheck version: 3.4.5 (455)
Report generated 2017-09-28 01:38:15
Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com
Runtime: 2:05
Performance: Excellent
Click the [Lookup] links for more information from Apple Support Communities.
Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.
Problem: Other problem
Description:
High ram usage from WindowServer
Hardware Information: ⓘ
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,3
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4870HQ) CPU: 4-core
16 GB RAM Not upgradeable
BANK 0/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
BANK 1/DIMM0
8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
Handoff/Airdrop2: supported
Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 632
iCloud Quota: 4.93 GB available
iCloud Status: One pending file
Video Information: ⓘ
Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1536 MB
Color LCD 3360 x 2100
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M - VRAM: 2 GB
Disk Information: ⓘ
APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0: (500.28 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)
[Show SMART report]
EFI (disk0s1 - MS-DOS FAT32) <not mounted> [EFI]: 210 MB
(disk0s2) <not mounted> [APFS Container]: 499.42 GB
USB Information: ⓘ
USB30Bus
Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Virtual disks: ⓘ
Mac SSD (disk1s1 - APFS) / [Startup]: 499.42 GB (223.18 GB free)
Encrypted: Yes (Unlocked)
Physical disk: disk0s2 499.42 GB (223.18 GB free)
(disk1s2) <not mounted> [Preboot]: 499.42 GB
Physical disk: disk0s2 499.42 GB
(disk1s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 499.42 GB
Physical disk: disk0s2 499.42 GB
(disk1s4) /private/var/vm [VM]: 499.42 GB
Physical disk: disk0s2 499.42 GB
System Software: ⓘ
macOS High Sierra 10.13 (17A365) - Time since boot: less than an hour
Gatekeeper: ⓘ
Anywhere [Fix Gatekeeper security]
Kernel Extensions: ⓘ
/Applications/iTube Studio.app
[not loaded] com.Perfect.Driver.SystemAudioRecorder (1.1.0 - SDK 10.6) [Lookup]
/Library/Extensions
[loaded] com.globaldelight.driver.Boom2Device (1.2 - SDK 10.10) [Lookup]
System Launch Agents: ⓘ
[not loaded] 9 Apple tasks
[loaded] 172 Apple tasks
[running] 107 Apple tasks
System Launch Daemons: ⓘ
[not loaded] 37 Apple tasks
[loaded] 182 Apple tasks
[running] 110 Apple tasks
Launch Agents: ⓘ
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2017-08-24) [Lookup]
Launch Daemons: ⓘ
[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (? 2afb3af7 4898e928 - installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]
[not loaded] com.apple.installer.cleanupinstaller.plist (? 1963bf56 0 - installed 2017-09-25)
[loaded] com.apple.installer.osmessagetracing.plist (Apple, Inc. - installed 2017-09-21)
[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.daemon.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]
[loaded] com.bjango.istatmenus.installerhelper.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]
[running] com.nordvpn.NordVPN.Helper.plist (TEFINKOM & CO S.A - installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]
[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2017-08-24) [Lookup]
[not loaded] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist (TeamViewer GmbH - installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]
User Launch Agents: ⓘ
[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.agent.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]
[running] com.bjango.istatmenus.status.plist (Bjango Pty Ltd - installed 2017-09-27) [Lookup]
[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist (Google, Inc. - installed 2017-09-20) [Lookup]
User Login Items: ⓘ
NordVPN Application
(/Applications/NordVPN.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ
FlashPlayer-10.6: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-25) [Lookup]
QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (installed 2017-09-21)
Flash Player: 27.0.0.130 (installed 2017-09-25) [Lookup]
Safari Extensions: ⓘ
[enabled] Adblock Plus - Eyeo GmbH - https://adblockplus.org/ (installed 2017-09-20)
[enabled] YoutubeWide - Pedrocc - http://www.pedrocc.com/safari (installed 2017-09-20)
[enabled] Translate - SideTree.com - Apps for Mac - http://SideTree.com/extensions.html#Translate (installed 2017-09-20)
3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ
Flash Player (installed 2017-08-29) [Lookup]
Time Machine: ⓘ
Mobile backups: OFF
Auto backup: NO - Auto backup turned off
Volumes being backed up:
Mac SSD : Disk size: 499.42 GB Disk used: 276.24 GB
Destinations:
Time Machine [Local]
Total size: 501.02 GB
Total number of backups: 2
Oldest backup: 23/09/2017, 13:01
Last backup: 23/09/2017, 14:00
Size of backup disk: Too small
Backup size 501.02 GB < (Disk used 276.24 GB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ
8% Safari
6% WindowServer
4% com.apple.Safari.History
3% kernel_task
1% parsecd
Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ
974 MB kernel_task
605 MB Safari
504 MB WindowServer
401 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
271 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
Top Processes by Network Use: ⓘ
Input Output Process name
33 KB 35 KB parsecd
22 KB 13 KB mDNSResponder
25 KB 4 KB Safari
6 KB 13 KB apsd
10 KB 2 KB cloudd
Top Processes by Energy Use: ⓘ
5.38 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
3.82 coreaudiod
3.08 WindowServer
2.56 Safari
1.76 hidd
Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ
9.18 GB Available RAM
4.56 GB Free RAM
6.82 GB Used RAM
4.62 GB Cached files
0 B Swap Used
Software installs: ⓘ
Boom 2: 1.6.1 (installed 2017-09-19)
Decompressor: 1.1 (installed 2017-09-19)
Battery Health: 5.5 (installed 2017-09-19)
Disk Speed Test: 3.1 (installed 2017-09-19)
Boom 2 Device: (installed 2017-09-20)
TeamViewer: 12.0.82953 (installed 2017-09-20)
Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-09-22)
Adobe Flash Player: (installed 2017-09-25)
Install information may not be complete.
Diagnostics Information: ⓘ
2017-09-25 22:32:20 com.apple.WebKit.WebContent Crash [Open]
Cause: Bundle controller class:
BrowserBundleController
After High Sierra update WindowServer High Ram Usage
