MAC OS X Lion performance problem - broken memory management

Starting with OS X 10.5 there are evident memory management problems in MAC OS X. The web was already then cluttered with complaints about system slowing down dramatically after some time. Back then i had slower machine, Mac Mini with 1GB RAM, so i (wrongly) concluded that it was due to inferior hardware.
Now i have 2010 MBP, core i7, 8 GB RAM, dual GPU.
Mac os X Snow Leopard was pain, but after migrating to OS X Lion, working some serious stuff on MAC started to be a nightmare.
I finally managed to reproduce the problematic scenario, so i run the test and recorded the screen, into video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5wZwZh61_4
I run the tar+bzip command, which is basic unix stuff, on the large amount of picture files, in my Pictures/ folder. Just before start, i run the "purge" command, to delete inactive/cached program data.
You can see on the video that free memory starts to drop very fast, and inactive is constantly rising. If you take a look at "bsdtar" command, it takes only a fragment of RAM, so the problem is not in this process. You cannot say that it is a program memory leak, because then the problem would not be in inactive ram, rather in active/wired.
When the free memory dropped below 100mb, i started some apps, like Safari, iPhoto and MS Word, and you can see in the video, that it takes even minutes to start an app, when normally (when there is free RAM), it would take some 3-5 secs to load.
I run the same scenario and the same commands on my Linux Centos 6 box, no problem there ! Memory usage is some 10-20mb, no problems with cache/buffer.
The memory management must be very broken in Mac OS X !

Broken? That's a bit harsh.
Immature? That's perhaps a better explanation.
This paper describes Priority Paging as implemented in Solaris 2.7 back in 1998, and that's essentially what Mac OS X is in need of today:
The problem is that when pages are needed, no differentiation is made between system file cache pages and application pages, and worse, the file cache can actually steal pages needed by applications.
Finally when Dynamic Pager starts up and needs to start swapping things out, it's fairly heavy weight in operation, and causes the UI not responding cursor (aka the spinning beach ball) to appear.

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thanks for that info guys. I will download the 10.7.2 update and see if that fixes it.
regarding booting into safe mode: I haven't tried that but I am able to boot the computer up normally after the crash. It's just annoying that I have to reboot it at all.

Problems with memory management

Since my adoption of 10.7, I have noticed a problem that is really reminiscent of 10.2 and 10.3 of poor memory management. This is quite distressing as it has taken away from the performance of the operating system and has created many pages of VM files that are just below the engineering standards of Apple. Any suggestions along this line to clear this up would be greatly helpful. I have 3 GB of memory that is over utilized and over taxed.

I have read a bit about the "better" memory management, but that is all in theory. In the real world, Lion eats RAM and i upgraded from 4 to 8 Gb last week, that makes all the difference. If i close all apps now, 5.5 Gb RAM is still used, and i know that has something to do with Lions special workmemory management that is supposed to work to our favour, but it doesnt! Now after upgrading, fairly cheap but nothing for mainstream people, things work the way i suppose they are meant to work, but when Windows 7 and soon 8 are working towards less RAM needed, Apple seems to say one thing and do another. That is, they claim to have a improved (superior, fantastic?) system for RAM, but in reality it eats RAM for breakfast. Now i dont haveto close one app before opening another just to avoid the little spinning ball of colours.
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Mac OS X Lion being a HUGE memory hog. What to do?

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The MBA is much less capable than your MBP. I have attempted many times to push its limits and have failed to experience anything remotely resembling what you have described. What I do not have though is any AV junk or whatever Splashtop is, but you haven't indicated a willingness to address those concerns. You have also ignored repeated requests for information that may help diagnose what's wrong.
This creates the impression you are more interested in complaining than solving your problems.
If you believe that is an unjustified conclusion I suggest you post a new, more appropriately worded question. There are plenty of knowledgable people willing to help.

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Your question is too vague... More details are required...

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Hi, i have upgraded my mac to OS Lion. mail problem

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Please Please help me.
thanks,

thansk for you answer, but i have mail in my Applications foler, and when i try to open it, it gives me the same answer: "you have mail 4.4". i think i have to upgred it. how do i do it?
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Mac OS X Lion - Crash problems

Hi, it often happens that my computer's blocking after boot. This since I upgraded to Lion. It shows the dock and a few moments later compare the colored circle instead of arrow and the computer stop to work. I tried with disk utility, the permission repair and the disk repair, but they doesn't had effect. What can I do?
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Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

Hi Guys/Ladies,
What is the last operating system available for OS X Lion?
Does anybody knows about incompatibility of OS X Lion with Kespersky? It seems like, Kespersky has resloved the issues according to the recent (2014) information provided.
Does anybody recommends any other security software?
Thanks

Uninstall Kaspersky, you don't need it and it is garbage software that can slow down your Mac and cause other performance problems. 10.7.5 is the latest Lion and I don't think they will be coming out with any new updates besides security updates. Look to see if your Mac can upgrade to Mountain Lion or Mavericks.
OS X Mountain Lion system requirements
To install Mountain Lion, you need one of these Macs:
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space
To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Your Mac also needs:
OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space

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It appears that the full-screen display will only work on the display that has the menu bar.
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Grab the menu bar and drop it on the icon representing your external display.
When you full screen an app it should then full screen on the Cinema display.
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while recent apps few remain in memory untill memory is full.
this is how memory management is supose to work.
pretty much same as windows 7
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3TwBlW5ibk
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why does't this happen ?
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music unlimited again in memory never actualy use
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I rooted my tablet, and when looking at the processor speed in SetCPU, Sony uses a governor for power management that makes the tablet run jagged... I changed the power governor to ondemand, and got MUCH better smoothness and performance, while not sacrificing my battery life. You should try it out, maybe that'll help with games and such.

Mac OS X Lion and Java7 + JavaFX2.1 performance issues

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Glass detected outstanding Java exception at -[GlassRunnable run]:src/com/sun/mat/ui/GlassApplication.m:163
Exception in thread "AWT-AppKit" java.lang.NullPointerException
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2.1 system requirements =>
http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/system_requirements_2-1/jfxpub-system_requirements_2-1.htm
For JavaFX applications to take advantage of the new hardware acceleration pipeline provided by JavaFX, your system must feature one of a wide range of GPUs currently available in the market. Table 1 lists the graphics cards that have been tested with JavaFX. If your system does not support hardware acceleration, then JavaFX uses the Java2D software pipeline.
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Sluggish Flash Builder 4.5.1 performance on Mac OS X Lion

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Tangent

Yes, I have EXACTLY the same problem - except that my project is much larger and FB on Lion never gets to finish!
Going back to Snow Leopard would be a big bind - anyone in adobe care to shed some light on this?

Mac OS X Lion Problems (Sound, Resolution, Missing Partition, and Crashes)

Ohia everybody! So recently I installed Mac OS X Lion (GM) on my Mac Mini. It's been installed for about 2 weeks, but I quickly noticed a couple of problems with it.
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When I had Snow Leopard installed and I held alt to switch into Windows, the menu that appeared to let you switch partitons resolution was correct. Now it seems to be 800x600. Same thing with the boot screen with the Apple logo. When the actual OS is booted up, the resolution is correct (1600x900). Why is it doing this with Lion and now when I had Snow Leopard?
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Note:
I always keep my computer up to date, and have googled all of these problems before with no help. Hopefully someone get help me fix any of these problems.

So I am not the only one with this issue. The sound of my imac g5 sounds buzzing as well. I am hoping for a fix from Apple soon.

MAC OS X Lion performance problem - broken memory management

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