Is Safari 4 having a RAM issue?

Question

Hi to all,
this topic is to ask wether my Safari 4 RAM consumption is within the norms.
Having just about 15 open tabs with not much Flash content (except some ads), RAM consumption hovers between 330MB and 570MB.
I do run other applications at the same time, namely Skype, iChat, NeoOffice and Anxiety.
In my opinion, HUGE, and as a result, the swap file is large (2,7GB) is constantly sollicited, slowing down the computer's responsiveness.
Is such a consumption within the norms?

Answer 1

Hi
I purged the cache, yet RAM usage from Safari increased from 180MB to about 320MB in about 5 minutes of light browsing.
As Klaus posted, these are not unusual numbers, especially for 15 tabs. The more tabs (think of each one as a separate window), the higher the RAM requirement. Quit/restart Safari resets the RAM allocation. Good idea to purge the cache on a regular basis, especially if using high speed internet connection.
OS X Leopard is quite efficient at managing RAM requirements. OS X creates "swap files" to facilitate the use of system resources including RAM and HD available space. A restart of the computer resets the swap files to small file sizes.
In general, 4 GB of RAM ought to be quite sufficient for most users. In your case, unless you are using a number of heavy RAM apps, you ought not to see sluggishness. If you are seeing slowness in Safari (or any other apps), system maintenance is usually the remedy - I use OnyX once a month - basically for running "maintenance scripts", although some times I use it to clear the System or User Caches. For an explanation of the caches have a look here. Also, if you are not familiar with OnyX, I encourage you to read its help section describing its various functions before actually using the program.
Another cause of "slowness" may be directory errors on the HD. Best tool out there for monitoring the health of the HD and repairing errors is Disk Warrior. Apple's Disk Utility (Applications>Utilities folder} is a very basic approach to fixing HD errors, yet it may be an indicator of pending problems. DU's "verify disk" function via the First Aid panel would be an initial step. Note: even if no errors are detected, this is not necessarily an indication of HD health.