Activity Monitor Indicates 16+TB Memory Usage !

Has anyone ever seen an application's memory usage displayed in the Activity Monitor as 'Terabytes?' I recently noticed that Photoshop CS3 was using [get this] '16,777,216.00TB' of Real Memory. I spoke with both Adobe & Apple, and neither has any reports of anything like this. Weird!

Did restart, but haven't had a chance to run PS yet. I did repair permissions via Disk Utility and there were quite a few corrections. Whether that had anything to do with it remains to be seen. I did read once that incorrect permissions [set incorrectly by installers] can cause a host of application-related issues [such as app crashes and the inability to launch them]. Other app memory usage looks normal.

Similar Messages

Activity monitor not showing all memory

I just upgraded to 10.7.4 on my Mac Mini from a fresh install of 10.6.3. Activity Monitor shows 3 GB available, while System Profiler shows 4GB:
But when I boot back into 10.5.8, all 4GB are there usable in AM.
When I upgraded from 10.5.8, with 10.6.3 Activity Monitor started showing total of 3 GB of RAM instead of 4 GB as System Profile does show. I ran Rember and all tests passed. It showed 4 GB total memory and 1690 MB available memory which seems about consistent with AM's Free memory.
I use Virtual PC and it has a slider bar to set the RAM for the PC. It shows a little more than 3.5 GB available though above 3 GB it is highlighted in yellow, as if caution about trying to use it. So I set it to a little more than 3GB, started V PC and watched its usage climb in Activity Monitor. When it reached about 3GB the whole Mac OSX locked.
So, then I tried a fresh install of 10.6.3 and it has the same behavior and upgrade to 10.7.4 still the same.
Any ideas why the system seems to "see" (System Profiler) all the memory but not be using it (AM)?
Here is a related issue and the poster's solution was to switch the riser cards around:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11022205?tstart=0#11022205
Maybe I need to swap my memory cards around.

Well, I finally decided to go on and search for the specs on my Mini, even though all 4 GB work under 10.5.8. Here it is:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP7
"1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMMs; supports up to 2GB"
I bought it in 10/2007. Even for that long ago, it seems like 2GB would have been quite limiting. I upgraded to 4GB soon after I got it. So, I suppose that I get anything above 2GB is a bonus.
Seems strange and sad to me but I suppose it is true.
Still will try swapping the cards around... maybe I can still get the newer OS and all 4GB back by some quirk as before.

Ai CS4 & CS5: Can't move objects, huge memory usage. Tips?

Okay guys this is my first post here, so bear with me.
I'm just wondering if anyone can give guidance or refer me somewhere I can find a solution. I both CS4 and CS5 of Ai installed on my mac. Everything works just great, until I attempt to move an object. Something simple as a single line with freeze my system if I attempt to move it from one location to another.
It is odd. I can scale/transform objects without any issue. Its just when I click an object to drag it to another location my system will freeze for about 5 seconds. The object won't move still. I opened up Activity Monitor and noticed my Memory usage sky rocketed as soon as I tried to move the object.
Is there configurations for memory allocation in Illustrator like there is in photshop?
(PS I have 3GB RAM and a 120GB HDD with 30GB free space, 2.0 Intel Core 2 processor, it's a 2007 Mac Mini)

How big is the file? and is it complex if so then you simply do not have the resources. Also you might have a font cache issue.
But I think the lack of resources.

Activity monitor says I have 1 -3% of System Memory free, yet CPU usage shows less than 10% total of all processes

Activity monitor says I have 1 -3% of System Memory free, yet CPU usage shows less than 10% total of all processes

I think you should review what you wrote. There is no question, hence, my reply. I can't tell by the AM listing what applications are using memory. You need to click on the Real Mem column once or twice to display in descending order.
Aside from what you see in AM, what exactly is your problem or perceived problem. You are very low on Free Mem at the moment the screen shot was taken. Those displays are not depicting your computer's instantaneous memory usage.
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Memory Usage Performance Guidelines- About the Virtual Memory System
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

Activity Monitor showing incorrect amount of virtual memory size

Hi,
I noticed that in Activity Monitor that the Virtual Memory size was incorrect.
Does any body else have the same issue?

Ignore that. The method it's calculated works as following:
1. You have the Finder and Safari open.
2. Both programs and no other ones use the content of a single block of data. This block takes up 2MB of RAM or swapfile space.
3. The block is counted as 4MB in the VM size entry because it's being used twice.
Expanding the scenario over many processes and blocks adds up to a VM size figure which is far larger than the actual amount in use or the combined total of RAM and swapfile space.
(48360)

Activity Monitor: System Memory. Questions

Hi apple community. I have a questions about this picture above.
This is my MBP retina performs in system memory.
What is the wired thing (mark in color red)?
Does this lower my mac's performace?
if it do so, how to prevent things to being wired?
and also the inactive (mark in color blue)
what does it do? and does it effect my mac?
if it looks bad, can u make suggestions for me on what to do to improve my mac performance like brand new?
i have my mac for 7 months now.
ur help will be much appreciated.
Thanks.

Apple support articles which seem to answer your general questions.
Memory - Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
Memory - Check whether more RAM will improve performance

Massive memory usage when using latest version of final cut, 10 minutes after restart.

Hey I am really struggling with using Final Cut Pro X and I suspect there is some software issue.
I am editing a one minute video clip, the video files are 1080 h264. I restart my computer and only open final cut. After 10 minutes of editing I cant barely navigate my computer anymore as it is going so slow, until eventually I have to force reboot my computer. I can scarcly export anything out of final cut, when I do my computer feels like its about to die and if it exports I seem to get broken frames and/or missing media.
I reinstalled my mac only about 2 months ago.
System specs.
Mac book pro.
13-inch, Late 2011
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 4 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 384 MB
On my previous mac book pro (early 2010, 4 gm ram), running snow leopard and previous versions of final cut I was able to edit 3, 1 hour documentaries with very little problem, but now I cant even manage a one minute clip.
Not sure what to do. Here is a screen shot of my memory usage. Im getting massive swap memory and lots of inactive memory. It seems very strange. Especially after only 10 minutes running only final cut.

FCP is only using 409 MBs of memory out of your 4 GBs. But whatever else you have open is using up virtually all the physical RAM you have. This is forcing the memory manager to page memory out to the disk-based VM file. That's a major reason for major slowdowns.
You have 4 GBs of RAM. How many applications are you running concurrently? If you look at Page outs: you will note the positive number in parentheses. That means your computer is hitting the hard drive a lot because the memory demands are too high. If possible cut down on how many concurrent applications you run or put more RAM into the computer, if that's possible.
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used
Memory Management in Mac OS X
Performance Guidelines- Memory Management in Mac OS X
A detailed look at memory usage in OS X
Understanding top output in the Terminal
The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.
Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently. It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster. What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent. It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

HELP: iPhoto 6.0.6 memory usage problem, iMac getting *slow*

Hi,
I have a 20" iMac with 2 Gig RAM.
I have iPhoto 6.0.6 with lots and lots of pictures and little movies (taken with an old digital camera) -- a "get info" on the "iPhoto Library / Originals" folder says there are 9836 items in there.
When I open iPhoto, the Activity Monitor indicates iPhoto is using 130meg real memory, 130meg virtual memory. With every "page down" in iPhoto (the thumbnails are running about 6 items across) about 50 meg of memory gets added to real memory, and even more gets added to virtual memory.
After just a few minutes of usage it now looks like this:
Real Memory: 382.43 MB
Virtual Memory: 1.18 GB
Eventually the computer gets extremely slow and unresponsive; I've seen the iPhoto memory usage as high as:
Real Memory: 1+ GB
Virtual Memory: 2+ GB
Does anyone have any suggestions for how I can fix this problem?

I have to say that the Virtual Memory numbers compare quite okay with both my Macs here, the Actual Seems slightly higher but noting spectacular. That said, the highest you’ve seen do see quite extraordinary.
Something to try:
Create a new account (systempreferences -> accounts) and make a library there. Import some pics and see if the problem is repeated there.
Regards
TD

When I am in e-mail. I get the spinning color wheel. Then, when I check the activity montior, it notes high cpu usage (99%) for "Safari web content.". then I quit this process and cpu usage drops way done. but I have to log in again to my e-mail. what can

When I am in e-mail, I sometimes get the spinning color wheel, which lock up everything. when it doesn't go away, I see on the activity monitor, that CPU usage is very high (99%), for a process calles " Safari web content'. When I click on the proccess and quite, the CPUusage goes way down. Problem is that I have to then log back in to e-mail. What can I do to eliminate this proble. thanks

How much FREE RAM do you have when this occurs. It's easy to tell, when it beach balls open Activity Monitor (Applications - Utilities - Activity Monitor) click the System Memory tab and note how much FREE RAM is listed. If it's 500MB or less it's time for a RAM upgrade.

Logic Pro 8, Kontakt 2.23 & Memory usage

Hello -
*What type of known memory problems might exist between Logic (Logic 8 in particular) and either Kontakt 2.23 or Kontakt Player 2.23??*
*If there are known memory usage issues, what can be done to help/fix the situation??*
My computer set up is listed below. I have not upgraded to Leopard (but did upgrade to Logic Pro 8). By-in-large, Logic Pro 8 works fine. However, I usually "network" the Logic sequencing projects with Muse Research's Receptor (version B) and/or an aging Dell Precision Workstation 650 using Musiclab's MIDIoverLan CP3. This has proven stable for me. For my most recent project, I decided to see how many instrument plug-ins I can utilize within the Logic Pro 8 program (without benefit of this "network" set-up). For this project, I'm using one instance of MusicLab's RealGuitar and 16 instances of +*Kontakt Player version 2.23*+ for a total of 17 instrumental tracks. The instrument libraries used are Garritan's GPO and JABB. With this many individual (not multi) track instances used, the activity monitor is showing high RAM usage. For some of the instruments, I could not use the KS choices (trumpet, trombone) because the extra RAM caused Logic to crash as I mounted more instruments.
I tried adjusting the DFD. Still, there remained high RAM usage and the occasional crash. For some of the crashes, I either got the endless colored spinning wheel or a message basically stating that there was no memory available for the DFD. I am no expert with the advanced workings of Logic and the DFD associated with the Kontakt plug-ins. But I am surprised that using just 17 instrument tracks with this newer Mac Pro computer (with 5 GBs RAM) is causing problems. Sadly, I am not an expert Apple user to be able to tell whether it's the computer or Logic or Kontakt. I suspect, though, its some kind of issue between Kontakt and Logic.
For my audio, I use MOTU's 2408 MK3. For my midi in-put I use M-Audio's Keystation Pro 88. I do not think either one of these devices are causing the apparent memory problems.
By the way. . . before I purchased my newer MacPro computer, I had a similar instrumental set-up using my aging Dell Precision 650 workstation with 2 GB of RAM using Steinberg's SX 3 program. I used the same GPO and JABB sound libraries. It did "challange" the Dell computer (I had to adjust buffer/latency settings to MOTU's 828 MK2 used with the Dell computer), but the computer didn't crash like what I'm experiencing at present.
I don't mind "networking" my computers together in order to use larger instrumental plug-in tracks. But I would think that given the "power" of my newer MacPro I should be able to handle more than 17 GPO & JABB tracks. Yes? No?
*Given my current computer set-up, how many instrumental tracks (using libraries associated with Kontakt or the Kontakt Player) should I get??*
Thank you in advance.
Ted

Sadly, I can chime in with the same basic problem. Namely, that
Kontakt2 seems to leak ram. I've watched the activity monitor show
an increase in ram allocation to logic if i simply LOOK at a kontakt
instance. Just clicking on the instance causes ram to be allocated, and no matter how much I purge samples, I just can't retrieve that ram. Once 2 gigs are sent to logic, crash.
The only solution I've found is to save & restart before it climbs too high. I can then work for an hour or so until the ram overflows again. This is obviously a major bug, and I agree that Logic doesn't appear to be the culprit.
Have either of you tried K3? I wonder if the problem is more under control there? There's no way Kontakt will bother to fix this bug
in v2.23 with v3 on the shelves. The question is, how do we know that v3 fixes it without buying it? I've heard reports that v3 is even
more bloated than v2.
I've recently done a clean install of leopard on a blank drive, and
i'm patiently waiting until NI updates the installers for K2.
Then, i'll have a clean OS, clean newly installed logic 8, and
a cleanly installed K2. Maybe that will help mitigate, if not solve the problem.
I'm almost sure that Kontakt is the source of the problem, but
I've also been told that Intels have serious flaws in their ram
allocation WITH TIGER.
Some people with G5's have reported having access to 3.5 gigs ram.
Intells can only use 2 gigs with any one app. This was thought to be a problem with Tiger and and Intels. So maybe Leopard will expand the RAM wallet, and then we just have to wait for Kontakt to stop spending so much.

Kernal task using 1.03GB RAM in Activity Monitor?

Hello,
I have a 13inch MBP running Mavericks 10.9.4 with a 2.7 GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 500GB HD. I just recently had the machine Factory Reset. The only APP's I've added are PAGES, NUMBERS and KEYNOTE. When I check the ACTIVITY MONITOR it indicates that out of 16GB of RAM MEMORY, 5.51GB is being used. Usually ACTIVITY MONITOR indicates that as much as 9GB RAM is being used. This MBP is 3 years old and I clearly upgraded the RAM from 4GB (I think) to 16GB. Since this MBP used to run with only 4GB of RAM total; it seems to me that the current amount of memory being used, from 5.51GB up to 9GB out of 16GB total RAM is unusually high. In addition, the above numbers were displayed when only Safari and Activity Monitor are running. Is this normal for Mavericks OSX?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dennis

I have a 16GB Macbook Pro, and my kernel_task has 1.12GB or RAM, 15.85GB used, split between app memory at 6.67GB, file cache at 7.36GB, and 1.83GB wired.
So what. My Mac is running fine. I do not care how RAM is used, as long as I am getting good performance.
Unused RAM is wasted RAM. My Mac is making sure I get full value from my money.
If you are having an actual performance issue, please describe what you are seeing, what apps you are running at the time, and if you have an anti-malware or Mac cleaner apps running on your system (historical trouble makers).
If your system is running fine, then either do not worry about it, or follow the pointers Linc has provided.

Can't see system ram/memory usage in Mavericks dock icon anymore

I used to be able to select memory usage for the dock icon, but now it seems to be gone, or not there, in Mavericks. All I see now is CPU, Network, and Disk Activity. Anyone know where memory usage went?

.....update, I found this answer on another post. (I may have to use third party options untill Apple provides an updated memory "pressure" usage to the dock icon.
This is no longer an option, especially since Mavericks has new memory management routines (ie, memory compression) that make the charting of memory usage less straightforward. Apple has switched to a new "Memory Pressure" approach to viewing memory usage, which is available in the Memory section of Activity Monitor, but so far has not been added as a Dock icon option. Hopefully Apple will do so, as this would perhaps be one of the more useful Dock icon options.

Memory usage gets high and stays high

I'll use my current project as an example, but I've been noticing this issue ever since I started monitoring my computer's memory usage. If I have an hour long Premiere CC timeline and render it, during rendering my computer's memory will go up to about 90%. After rendering is done, task manager shows that Premiere is still using about the same amount of memory, and it stays that way until I restart my computer. It's like it has locked into using certain resources and cannot let go. Any way to remedy this? I currently have 10gb memory (ordered 2gb more that is arriving this week), so it's not the fastest machine around, but should handle memory better in my opinion. I am fine with the rendering speed itself, it's just the tied up resources afterwards that seem like it could be fixed.
One more point - one solution is forcing Premiere and all its components to close. This gets the memory back to normal. Unfortunately, sometimes after I render a long timeline and force restart Premiere, when I get back all my render files don't properly reconnect and I'm forced to re-render the timeline. The fact that it doesn't reconnect to the render files is another related-issue I need help with too, if anyone can offer feedback. Thanks!

On the lost renders.
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1144624?tstart=30
On the memory issue, I'm not sure anything is wrong here. You say PP releases it when you close PP. That's the expected behavior.

Stupid Rainbow Ball/Activity Monitor

My computer has really been getting hung up a lot lately and it is driving me nuts. I have a 1.33 ghz powerbook g4 with 768 Ram. I am really new to troubleshooting this mac, so I'm not sure what to do. I have performed the disc utilities and mac janitor (which seemed to help slightly). However, it still gets hung up. For example, it just got caught on running word, firefox and activity monitor at once. This doesn't seem like it should be such a big deal!
I don't know if this is relevant, but according to activity monitor, under system memory, there is around 85 mb 'wired', 342 'active' and 278 'inactive', leaving me with 60 free mb (obviously much less if I open one more program). Does the inactive actually affect performance? If so, how do I fix this? Is 768 no longer enough memory to perform basic operations?
Thank you.

This Apple note tells you about each type of memory: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
While in the activity monitor, on the system memory tab, note the page ins/outs. If page outs are 10% or greater of your page ins, you can use more memory for what you run. The numbers reset when you reboot.
I had issues with Safari using a gaggle of memory, so I switched to Firefox, which seems to be more behaved when using system resources.

How to determine memory usage?

Is there something built into OSX that permits me to monitor and/or log memory usage?
I use Logic Pro and FCP and would like to know if I reaching the limits of my memory (4GB) with the type of work I do.
Thanks, Rob.

How To Determine Your Memory Needs >>
-Bmer
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Activity Monitor Indicates 16+TB Memory Usage !

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