RAM get used up quickly

I am using a brand new iMac, top spec including the full 32Gb RAM. I am admittedly doing some heavy work with biggish files on Lightroom and Photoshop but after processing just a couple of 5 image blens my Activity Monitir is showing only 5.74GB RAM free. Is this normal? Processing slows down and I am back to rebooting the machine to get back spare memory in order to operate. This was the fastest machine you can buy from Apple (I couldn't wait any longer for the new Mac Pro) so it is a little disappointing unless someone has an explanation or a solution please?

Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor - are any programs taking up huge amounts of memory?
Activity Monitor – Monitor Performance Problems

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RAM gets used up too quickly - any ideas?

I am sure this is a problem which can be solved quickly by one of the many very knowledgeable guys out there:
I have a 2007 MacPro 2.66 Dual core with 8 Gb RAM (well out of date I know) but this is the problem. After booting up with no other programmes just Lightroom and Photoshop I start working on files. The 'Free' RAM on Activity Monitor goes from about 6Gb immediately to about 1.6Gb. The TIFF size I work on is about 220Mb. The computer slows right down and the only solution is to reboot to start working on the next image. This is very time consuming. I have been waiting for the launch of a new MacPro for ages but still there is nothing on the horizon and i may have to plump for a fully loaded iMac. In the meantime is there anything I can do? Something seems to be clogging the system up quickly. It didn't used to happen like this. The VM size is showing as 233 Gb but is this actually being used?
Help please?

Hi Matt,
Thanks for your quick response.
Page Outs (at the moment and it is really slow now) are: 2.82GB. I replaced the original 250 Gb HD with a 500Gb and there is currently 318Gb free.
This is the info from my Mac:
ntel ESB2 AHCI:
Vendor:          Intel
Product:          ESB2 AHCI
Link Speed:          3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit
Description:          AHCI Version 1.10 Supported
ST3500630AS:
Capacity:          500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model:          ST3500630AS
Revision:          3.AAK
Serial Number:                      9QG3HBVH
Native Command Queuing:          Yes
Queue Depth:          32
Removable Media:          No
Detachable Drive:          No
BSD Name:          disk1
Medium Type:          Rotational
Bay Name:          Bay 1
Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified
Volumes:
disk1s1:
Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:          disk1s1
Content:          EFI
Macintosh HD CPC:
Capacity:          499.76 GB (499,763,888,128 bytes)
Available:          318.14 GB (318,138,114,048 bytes)
Writable:          Yes
File System:          HFS+
BSD Name:          disk1s2
Mount Point:          /
Content:          Apple_HFS
Thank you for your help
Colin

RAM Used up quickly, Macbook Pro Becomes Slow

Over the past week or so I've noticed my Macbook Pro getting increasingly slower as the day goes by. Looking in activity monitor, my free RAM is often under a couple hundred MBs - and too often below 50MB. Figuring that I just had to clear up some inactive RAM left over from other programs, I purged the inactive RAM, but only to have it get used up again within minutes.
This hasn't ever been a problem to me in the past year that I've had my Macbook Pro, but now it becomes unresponsive very quickly. As an experiment, I booted up my laptop, and even then I had less than a GB of free RAM (never had that little upon bootup before). The only programs I have setup to start on boot are iTunes Helper, Caffiene, and Mail (Hidden). This hasn't changed in at least six months, so I know it's not one of these causing the RAM hogging.
Here is a log of my current Activity Monitor stats- after rebooting about an hour ago, the only programs I've opened were Chrome, iTunes, and Firefox. Everything was fine for a few minutes, then I noticed severe slow down and massive RAM loss, in addition to the cooling fans exceeding 6000rpm for a short while. Does anything here look abnormal?
*I should also note that I've verified the startup disk and repaired permissions, and the Page in/Page Out ratio is fine.
Active Memory: 1.23 GB
Free Memory: 30.3 MB
Wired Memory: 885.5 MB
Used Memory: 3.97 GB
Inactive Memory: 1.87 GB
Total VM: 219.16 GB
Number of processes: 93
PID    Process Name              User       CPU      Real Mem        Virtual Mem
0      kernel_task               root       1.9      339.3 MB        4.77 GB
1      launchd                   root       0.0      1.8 MB          2.36 GB
10     kextd                     root       0.0      4.3 MB          2.35 GB
11     UserEventAgent            root       0.0      8.6 MB          2.38 GB
12     mDNSResponder             _mdnsrespo 0.0      3.1 MB          2.37 GB
13     opendirectoryd            root       0.1      8.5 MB          2.38 GB
14     notifyd                   root       0.0      1.1 MB          2.35 GB
15     configd                   root       0.0      4.5 MB          2.38 GB
16     diskarbitrationd          root       0.0      1.6 MB          2.35 GB
17     fseventsd                 root       0.1      6.2 MB          2.37 GB
18     syslogd                   root       0.0      980 KB          2.36 GB
19     powerd                    root       0.0      2.1 MB          2.37 GB
20     distnoted                 root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
25     blued                     root       0.0      3.2 MB          2.37 GB
27     securityd                 root       0.0      6.0 MB          2.37 GB
28     coreservicesd             root       0.2      17.9 MB         2.39 GB
49     ntpd                      root       0.0      1.4 MB          2.32 GB
51     warmd                     nobody     0.0      3.6 MB          2.36 GB
52     usbmuxd                   _usbmuxd   0.0      3.3 MB          2.36 GB
54     SystemStarter             root       0.0      1.0 MB          2.35 GB
56     stackshot                 root       0.0      1.2 MB          2.35 GB
59     revisiond                 root       0.0      2.4 MB          2.36 GB
63     mds                       root       0.2      87.8 MB         2.74 GB
65     loginwindow               AMay       0.0      18.8 MB         2.44 GB
67     KernelEventAgent          root       0.0      1.0 MB          2.35 GB
68     kdc                       root       0.0      2.8 MB          2.35 GB
70     hidd                      root       0.1      1.8 MB          2.35 GB
72     dynamic_pager             root       0.0      712 KB          2.32 GB
77     autofsd                   root       0.0      1.8 MB          2.35 GB
79     applepushserviced         root       0.0      7.1 MB          2.37 GB
80     aosnotifyd                root       0.0      4.8 MB          2.37 GB
82     SophosAntiVirus           root       0.1      3.2 MB          640.3 MB
83     InterCheck                root       0.2      142.2 MB        773.5 MB
84     SophosAutoUpdate          root       0.0      9.3 MB          640.8 MB
86     licenseDaemon             root       0.0      4.9 MB          2.36 GB
87     TechToolProDaemon         root       0.0      3.4 MB          644.8 MB
88     qmasterd                  root       0.0      6.8 MB          645.6 MB
102    WindowServer              _windowser 6.5      56.0 MB         2.93 GB
103    netbiosd                  _netbios   0.0      2.2 MB          2.37 GB
118    CVMServer                 root       0.0      1,000 KB        2.33 GB
128    logind                    root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
134    launchd                   AMay       0.0      1.2 MB          2.36 GB
136    coreaudiod                _coreaudio 1.2      4.9 MB          2.37 GB
138    UserEventAgent            AMay       0.0      9.8 MB          2.38 GB
140    distnoted                 AMay       0.0      3.4 MB          2.36 GB
145    Dock                      AMay       0.0      17.0 MB         2.44 GB
146    talagent                  AMay       0.0      7.3 MB          2.39 GB
147    SystemUIServer            AMay       0.0      28.6 MB         2.48 GB
148    Finder                    AMay       0.1      19.6 MB         2.43 GB
150    pboard                    AMay       0.0      912 KB          2.32 GB
158    fontd                     AMay       0.0      5.1 MB          2.40 GB
161    com.apple.dock.extra      AMay       0.0      10.9 MB         2.40 GB
163    warmd_agent               AMay       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
167    imagent                   AMay       0.0      5.2 MB          2.37 GB
172    SophosUIServer            AMay       0.1      11.4 MB         687.5 MB
175    Logitech Control Center D AMay       0.0      8.1 MB          2.40 GB
176    LaunchdDaemon             AMay       0.0      1.4 MB          618.9 MB
180    SpotifyWebHelper          AMay       0.0      3.3 MB          639.3 MB
182    Folder Actions Dispatcher AMay       0.0      6.4 MB          2.40 GB
186    iTunes Helper             AMay       0.0      3.6 MB          2.37 GB
187    Caffeine                  AMay       0.0      8.7 MB          2.40 GB
188    Mail                      AMay       0.0      60.1 MB         3.53 GB
196    cookied                   AMay       0.0      1.2 MB          2.35 GB
204    TechToolProAgent          AMay       0.0      9.3 MB          18.43 GB
215    mdworker                  AMay       0.1      29.9 MB         2.39 GB
255    AppleSpell.service        AMay       0.2      3.1 MB          2.38 GB
289    DashboardClient           AMay       0.0      12.6 MB         672.9 MB
290    DashboardClient           AMay       0.0      36.9 MB         3.43 GB
292    Google Chrome             AMay       0.0      84.4 MB         989.1 MB
297    Google Chrome Helper      AMay       0.0      10.4 MB         740.3 MB
299    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      69.3 MB         785.7 MB
300    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      26.4 MB         757.4 MB
301    Google Chrome Worker      AMay       0.0      27.7 MB         758.7 MB
471    Firefox                   AMay       0.2      357.6 MB        3.65 GB
485    Firefox Plugin Process (S AMay       0.8      48.8 MB         2.58 GB
486    VDCAssistant              root       0.0      5.2 MB          2.37 GB
739    iTunes                    AMay       3.1      72.3 MB         2.53 GB
746    Last.fm                   AMay       1.9      23.1 MB         767.4 MB
748    ath                       AMay       0.0      3.4 MB          2.37 GB
751    AppleMobileDeviceHelper   AMay       0.0      8.8 MB          2.37 GB
783    Quick Look Helper         AMay       0.0      9.5 MB          2.88 GB
841    automountd                root       0.0      2.1 MB          2.36 GB
877    Activity Monitor          AMay       11.6     25.7 MB         2.44 GB
878    taskgated                 root       0.0      2.7 MB          2.37 GB
880    xpchelper                 AMay       0.0      4.6 MB          2.35 GB
881    SyncServer                AMay       0.0      9.9 MB          2.38 GB
884    activitymonitord          root       0.7      1.4 MB          2.33 GB
885    launchdadd                root       0.0      1.7 MB          2.35 GB
886    launchd                   _spotlight 0.0      852 KB          2.36 GB
888    mdworker                  _spotlight 0.0      6.3 MB          2.38 GB
889    distnoted                 _spotlight 0.0      1.1 MB          2.35 GB
890    xpchelper                 _spotlight 0.0      4.4 MB          2.36 GB
891    CVMCompiler               AMay       0.0      20.5 MB         2.35 GB

Thomas - yes, the page outs are less than 10% of the page ins, your site was actually what made me take a look at that haha.The reason that I'm concerned about my free RAM is that it has never been this low, and I like having a certain amount of RAM free when I run certain programs (ex. Ableton Live, a music production program, where ~500MB of RAM is needed to load some drum samples).
I had just installed Sophos Anti-Virus a few hours before my post, so that's probably running at startup along with a few others, which I will have to take a look at. Are there any other startup processes that you noticed that I should look into?
Lastly, I installed Final Cut Pro 7 about a week and a half ago. I only open it maybe three days out of the week, so I didn't think that's what would be causing it. However, there may be some background processes that are running even when the actual program isn't running. Can you spot anything like that?
updating the Mac OS X version was the fix for it.
I eventually will udgrade to Mountain Lion, but I would like to get this fixed first. I'm also looking at buying more RAM, but up until recently, 4GB was working fine. I couldn't have everything running, but the programs that I did have open ran fine.
Simple stop leaving program open that you are done using. Make sure you close the Program and not just close the window that the program is using. By default most Mac programs do not close when you close the window they are using. You have to manual close, Quit, those programs.
That's the thing though- I always close programs that I am not using (cmd+q, not just closing the window). I come from a Windows background, so closing a program entirely became a quick habit of mine!

I'm trying to use the quick selection tool in Photoshop Elements 12 but it keeps getting stuck on minus. How do I fix this?

I'm trying to use the quick selection tool in Photoshop Elements 12 but it keeps getting stuck on minus. I've reinstalled twice and it will work for a little while and then get stuck again. When I select something, I have one shot at it and as soon as I let go of the mouse it switches to minus and I can't add anything else. How do I fix this?

When a tool misbehaves, go over to the far upper right corner of the tool options area and click the four-lined square. Choose Reset Tool from the popout menu.

My ram gets fully used in half hour after switching on my mac please help

my ram get fully used and then my lappy gets very slow and super hot from below
is it a virus or something else
please help

not a virus....
open activity monitor and under all processes, see what using up most of your cpu's resources.....highlight the one's using the highest %CPU and hit quit process.....this is for your overheating issues.
for the memory issues check activity monitor and see what app you have open and see how much memory it is using...
better yet, post a screenshot if you can...

My macbook is getting hot pretty quickly. What are the possible causes? How can I tell if it is mechanical vs. dust?

My Macbook Pro is getting hot pretty quickly. What are the possible causes? I have had the machine about 3 years.

Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder. Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu. Click twice on the CPU% column header to display in descending order. If you find a process using a large amount of CPU time (>=70,) then select the process and click on the Quit icon in the toolbar. Click on the Force Quit button to kill the process. See if that helps. Be sure to note the name of the runaway process so you can track down the cause of the problem.
Install iStat Menus 4.05 to provide actual temperature readings and fan speeds.

PS CS 5.1 crashing when I use the Quick Select took in the neg format

I am using PSCS5.1 and when I use the "quick select" tool and use the "Alt" key to turn it to the negitive so that I can cut out stuff I do not want to select I get a message that say's "Adobe PSCS has stopped working" and it closes down the whole program! I'm using a PC with Vista.
HELP...PLEASE....
Hugs, Theresa

BasicBear2 wrote:
I get a message that say's "Adobe PSCS has stopped working" and it closes down the whole program! I'm using a PC with Vista.
Theresa, it could be helpful if you'd go look in your Windows Application log for error entries corresponding to the Photoshop crashes.
Click Start, type event viewer into the search box, and click Event Viewer when it comes up.
Navigate into Windows Logs > Application, and look for red Error entries.
When you find the one(s) for the Photoshop crashes, look at the info in the General tab specifically for faulting module. List the name(s) immediately following faulting module here.
-Noel

My iMac is home to a 400GB photos library currently syncing to a 500GB iCloud a/c. My 3 MacBooks have much less space which I need and seems to be getting used up fast as it syncs.

My iMac is home to a 400GB photos library currently syncing to a 500GB iCloud a/c.
My 3 MacBooks have much less space which I need and seems to be getting used up fast as it syncs.
How do I reduce the size of the library on the MacBooks - I have already set optimise in preferences but it is using up the space available.
What happens when I download a movie - will it automatically reduce the size of the photos library or am I screwed?

JasonFranks wrote:
OK, had already done all that. My primary concern is whether the system will be fooled by the fact that it will take some time for the 400GB to upload and for the MacBooks to know what volume they are dealing with. It's currently at 100GB after over a day. I guess if it fails I can disconnect from the cloud on the MacBooks and delete the library, right.
If I was transferring data onto the hard drive could it really optimise that quickly?
What is your basis for trusting the magic - have you experienced this?
I've updated my Macs, my wife's Mac, her fathers Mac and my mothers Mac.
It worked everytime, but it takes a while (days or weeks if your library is large)

Macbook Pro running slow and getting hot very quick

So I own a macbook pro, and i bought it last november. Lately its been running really slow, and it gets hot really quickly.
when i go to look at my storage, it says i have 435.14 GB free out of 499.25 GB so i dont think space is an issue.
What can i do to fix this? I can't get on my macbook for longer than 10 minutues without it getting hot, and it takes me forever to load pages, etc.
It's still fairly new so i dont see why i would be having problems already. I only really use it for school and some misc web surfing. can someone help me out please!

You are still under warranty. Call Apple tech support. Let them deal w/it.

OpenGL seemingly deactivates after use of quick selection tool (PS CS5)

Before using the quick selection tool, I am able to smoothly zoom in and out by holding Ctrl+Space and dragging with the mouse.
If I use the quick selection tool, however, the marching ants line turns into a strange box. I no longer am able to zoom smoothly but instead with the technique above I draw a rectangle which I zoom into. This indicates to me, that OpenGL has been deactivated. I want my smooth zoom back!
I noticed that the preferences always show OpenGL as active, no matter which of the above "state" I'm in. I tried updating my AMD graphics card's driver without success. I found a post describing similar OpenGL problems on the same graphics card and installed the linked driver; the post was 2 years old, but it worked. Re-installing more recent version (Catalyst-Version 12.6) brought the problem back. Newer versions of the driver seem all to suffer from the same problem.
I'm using
Windows 7 64-bit,
64-bit Photoshop Extended from CS5 Production Premium,
AMD Radeon HD 4600 (currrently Catalyst-Version 13.1).
I tried:
"Downgrading" the driver (only really old version worked, as mentioned above),
reseting Photoshops preferences (Ctrl+Alt+Shift at start),
deactivating OpenGL (reactivating only works after restart and problem reappears) but I miss the smooth zoom.
I hope I could clarify the problem and thank you for reply!

I seriously can't download version 13.4...
This is my input for the driver search on their homepage (I'm German, that's why some words are German...):
This is the result I get from the above input:
I have not a single clue, how I am supposed to download another version than the current. AMD makes it really difficult for me.
Maybe someone could post a link to another version? That would be really nice!
Also I tried the "Driver Autodetect". Catalyst-Version 13.1 is now installed...
This actually seems to be a thread for the AMD-Support, but maybe someone knows a workaround?

Can I set Acrobat X to increase the proportion of my PC's RAM it uses?

Can I set Acrobat X to increase the proportion of my PC's RAM it uses, in order to speed up OCR processing? Currently, it uses up to 25% of my PC's RAM when OCR processing but I would like to increase this in order to complete OCR jobs more quickly.

Short answer: no.
Long answer: a very few programs can use multiple cores. To do this, they have to split up and run themselves as multiple separate programs (in effect). This is only really suitable when either
(a) two entirely different things need to be done or
(b) a job can be split up into a lot of identical jobs, and all done at the same time.
Photo editing and video editing are the obvious cases of (b), since they have to repeat the same stuff over each bit of a picture, and a picture could be done in slices. Making programs run on multiple cores is awesomely complicated (especially if they previously didn't) but it's no coincidence that Adobe Photoshop and (I think) Adobe Premiere Pro - being image and video editors - are out there using multiple cores.
OCR doesn't lend itself to this terribly well (since the entire page is context), but what could work well is a program which is designed to do OCR on multiple files; it could split up and do them at the same time. Acrobat isn't that kind of high end program, however, it's meant for desktop users doing one thing at a time.

I am having a problem changing a color in a selected area. Using the Quick Selection tool I am able to select the area I wish to change. Using the Brush tool, color, color mode and click drag in my selected area, nothing happens, no color changes. I hav

I am having a problem changing a color in a selected area. Using the Quick Selection tool I am able to select the area I wish to change. Using the Brush tool, color, color mode and click drag in my selected area, nothing happens, no color changes. I have viewed some videos and read numerous articles but haven't found the one to help me. Please point me in the best direction. Thank you Vincent TC

For the sake of clarity and to save people time, Todd is asking about the behaviour of the Patch tool when using it to repair the area next to the young lad's head. Todd gets a blurred dark tone pretty much regardless of the options he uses.
IMO that's what I would expect to happen because of the close proximity of the other image elements i.e. the lad's neck and the strong lines of his shirt. I would not choose to use the Patch tool in this situation. Content Aware Fill makes a better stab at it.

HT204382 I cannot get adobe or quick time for my Mac Air

I cannot get adobe or quick time to download on my Mac Air. Does anyone know how? What do you use instead

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
Consider yourself lucky that your MacBook is still working. Now, turn it off. Wine may have damaged other parts of your computer.
Then, take the MacBook to an Apple Store or reseller. It will be a very expensive repair, as it's not covered by warranty and the logic board has to be replaced. In some cases, it may be better to get a new MacBook.
If you can't take it to an Apple Store, contact with Apple > http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

RAM getting eatin up - memory leak?

ive been using cs5 for about a week now. Been editign various of clips cineform, jpg, redfiles etc...
Regardless of the session that i create and edit with... Im noticing that after about 15mins of editing my ram slowly starts to get used up. The memory usage slowly climbs up to 7.56gb somthing 7.89 then starts to chug my system and slow evrything now.
Why does it do this?
my specs:
window7 64bit
8gig of ram
raid 0
GTX 470

Not that I'm aware of. I'm not using any Matrox products.
By the way, I noticed that sometimes the process exits properly, but usually it gets stuck. It always exits properly if I click the Exit button on the launch screen instead of opening or creating a project.

Can't get Collada (.dae) Quick Look to work...

Can't get Collada (.dae) Quick Look to work...
It should work in SL, right?
And Quick Look knows says it is "Digital Asset Exchange"...

It depends on the DAE file. Just because the DAE file adheres to all the standards, it doesn't mean the Apple knows how to draw it. Conversely, Apple can render some DAE files that do not completely adhere to the standard.
We actually used Quick Look/Preview to test our iPhone app NaviCAD (http://www.navicad.com) as a comparison when rendering KMZ files from the Google 3D Warehouse (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse), so I can confidently say that Apple knows how to render most of these files (you have to rename the KMZ file to a ZIP file and extract the DAE file and its textures).
And, as expected, Apple can render the canonical duck file, and some of other files from the COLLADA model bank (http://www.collada.org/owl/).
HTH, Chuck

RAM get used up quickly

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