System memory usage question

I'm confused by the system memory usage as seen with the activity monitor. This is my first mac so i'm used to using windows. I see there is 5 categories: Wired, Active, inactive, used and free. Is inactive and free the same thing? I'm just trying to gauge how much ram I use and if it's worth it to upgrade to 1Gb from 512. Thanks.
13.3" White Macbook (2.0 GHz, 512RAM) Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Wired memory
This information can't be cached to disk, so it must stay in RAM. The amount depends on what applications you are using.
Active memory
This information is currently in RAM and actively being used.
Inactive memory
This information is no longer being used and has been cached to disk, but it will remain in RAM until another application needs the space. Leaving this information in RAM is to your advantage if you (or a client of your computer) come back to it later.
Free memory
This memory is not being used.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918
and i'd say that more memory is always useful in OS X

Similar Messages

System Memory Usage: What Eats My Free Memory?

For some time, I have noticed that my computer gets slower the longer I leave it on and do not restart.
Recently, I began displaying system memory usage from the activitiy monitor to see what's going on.
I noticed that no matter what I do, the Inactve Memory grows and the free memory disappears.
I thought it was due to memory hogs like Photoshop, FCP, etc. But even when I quit those programs, the Inactive Memory remains large and only the Active Memory shrinks.
The Inactive Memory grows even (especially?) when I perform finder operations, like previewing file contents in the finder.
Eventually, I get to the point where the free memory disappears and the machine begins to slow down (or at least seems to).
What's going on and what, if anything can I do to keep this from happening?
I'm running an iMac3.4GHz Intel Core i7 with 8 Gigs of RAM and OS 10.6.8.

Thanks. I'm not sure what you mean by "screen saver without energy saver" overnight. My settings are screen saver after about 30 minutes, computer sleep after 1 hour. Do you mean run the computer sleep slider up to "Never?"
Otherwise:
--I don't use any of the programs you mentioned.
--I don't think I've ever seen Spotlight indexing
--Time Machine runs every hour of course, but nothing seems to change when it does.
--My 2 TB hard drive is only about 45% full.
--I usually quit programs, and especially Photoshop, when not in use.
--I do reboot occasionally, usually when I see Free Memory disappear. This is usually every few days.
--I use Time Machine to backup using default settings. My 2 TB drive is about 55% full.
I'll slide the energy saver slider over to "never" per the above and see how things go after a few days.
Thanks for your help

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

System memory usage seems high

hello. i have a 3 month old macbook pro 13 and when i just looked on activity monitor with no programs running but airport on it said i was using 2.28 gigs of system memory and 1.72 gigs was free. does that seem normal? the only program on here that didn't come stock is iwork. and as i said, nothing was running at the time. thanks.

When you look in the Activity Monitor, what is listed for inactive memory? As the linked article indicates, inactive memory is memory that was in use by another application that was closed and can either be reused by the application if you reopen it or can be used by any other application. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1342?viewlocale=en_us
So if your inactive memory is high, then you shouldn't spend too much time worrying about the amount that is "free" because the inactive memory is essentially free.

Excessive System Memory Usage in Yosemite

I am running a Late 2011 MBP 15 (2.2Ghz i7 - 16GB RAM - 256GB SSD) and I am running a clean install of Yosemite and my system is idling at 10GB of RAM used and launching even a meager amount of applications causes it to spill over into swap. I have tried formatting and reinstalling and testing with no apps installed or launched and the memory consumption persists. I had no such issues running the yosemite beta or in mavericks but this has nearly rendered my macbook useless - is anyone else experiencing this? If I can't find some resolution I'm going to reinstall Mavericks so I can use my laptop again.

+1
I think that will be necessary await 10.11 version next year... Yosemite is born bad!

IFremem (system memory app question?) and 2nd "Cocktail question?

Hi! I Have been using a "Free up memory app called iFreemem...I don't know if it really is of any use... I also us "Cocktail" as a complete basic system maintenance app. I choose it over Onyx as Cocktail can be set to run automatically. Any thoughts on iFreeman greatly appreciated. Thanks, Bill

BWAmerilife, it sounds like you might want to get someone else at your site to look at the problem. If you're in the IT department and you don't understand Macs, hopefully there is someone else who does.
It is not normal for InDesign files to be larger tham 100mb, and even that is large. Graphics should not be embedded in the file, normally, because it causes file sizes to balloon.
InDesign gives you the option to embed images, or to link them. If they linked, then sure, there's some metadata, maybe 50kb, but probably a lot less. Open the file in InDesign and look at the Links panel. It will tell you if images are embedded or linked.
There is nothing special about "background pictures" or any other kind of picture. Just images.
It's possible that your network is part of the problem. To find out, just copy the file locally in the Finder and then open it in InDesign and see how the timing of the copy and InDesign's openning work.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'screen scrape.' InDesign stores a low-resolution preview/proxy of your image so it doesn't need to open the full high-resolution image. Your terminology is confusing, though.

Repairing permssions & memory usage

Just wondering...
For some reason (curiosity, probably; I'm no power user), a while back I got MenuMeters. I've noticed something for some time that is probably nothing to be concerned about but has made me curious again.
After my iMac has running for a while, my used memory, which starts out less than 200MB, spikes up to more than 500MB. This after typically running only a browser (firefox) and mail (tbird), perhaps iTunes, which, other than an occasional use of Word, is about the only thing I use on a regular basis.
Now, getting to my question. When I repair permissions via Disk Utility, the used memory steadily decreases and my free memory increases--almost back to how they were when I first booted (just now, it went back to 173MB free, 596MB used, for example).
Again, I'm not saying this is a problem, I'm just curious why it does this.
Thanks...

John
This may help you understand how OS X handles memory:
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor.
As for it decreasing when you run Repair Permissions, that will be due to the pattern of disk accesses affecting the algorithms used for keeping stuff around.

TOP - Pageouts and memory usage.

Looks like I have plenty of memory for what I am doing. But What do the cumulative numbers around pagein's mean?
Processes: 80 total, 7 running, 3 stuck, 70 sleeping... 523 threads 15:20:14
Load Avg: 1.99, 1.53, 1.37 CPU usage: 10.33% user, 9.00% sys, 80.67% idle
SharedLibs: num = 5, resident = 13M code, 0 data, 1468K linkedit.
MemRegions: num = 32848, resident = 2116M + 18M private, 877M shared.
PhysMem: 1853M wired, 2116M active, 3466M inactive, 7439M used, 753M free.
VM: 19G + 284M 332461(0) pageins, 47(0) pageouts
PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE
12256 top 11.1% 0:14.05 1 18 40 684K 820K 1392K 18M
12238 bash 0.0% 0:00.01 1 14 19 276K 184K 916K 18M
12237 login 0.0% 0:00.02 1 17 136 908K 8724K 3164K 32M
12236 Terminal 1.7% 0:01.45 3 99 433 5264K+ 49M+ 21M+ 419M+
12225 SyncServer 0.0% 0:00.15 2 50 290 3512K 41M 12M 88M
11248 WinAppHelp 0.0% 0:00.40 1 51 289 3208K 40M 11M 339M
11027 Skype 0.0% 0:19.47 31 313 865 46M 76M 88M 557M
10315 PrinterPro 0.0% 0:00.83 2 85 476 12M 51M 29M 423M
10313 launchd 0.0% 0:01.25 3 24 25 120K 296K 464K 18M
8626 QuickTime 0.0% 17:21.09 5 187 655 13M 67M 43M 486M
8556 DashboardC 0.0% 0:06.31 4 124 538 16M 58M 38M 436M
8555 DashboardC 0.0% 0:10.95 4 149 545 23M 58M 49M 444M
8534 Livestatio 16.8% 59:00.13 12 198 771 30M- 94M 62M 584M
8220 Mail 0.0% 0:43.91 27 323 968 24M 94M 80M 554M
2806 Python 0.8% 5:20.05 2 33 281 13M- 248K 14M- 36M-
2761 Transmissi 0.9% 2:49.17 21 270 773 20M 90M 56M 506M

About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
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.

MacBook Pro (Mid-2009, 13", 2.26) Memory Upgrade Question

I currently own a MacBook Pro (2.26; 13") (Mid-2009) with 2GB of memory. I purchased a single 4GB memory card that I plan to add in one of the slots. If I understand correctly that would leave me with a total of 5GB of memory (4GB 1GB). Is this workable?
I have heard rumours that both slots must have the same amount of memory. Regardless - will this be detrimental or an improvement?

Running Lion I would say go for more RAM. 2 GBs is Lion's minimum. If you run more than a couple of applications concurrently then you will quickly find yourself low on memory which would slow down the machine a lot more than the lack of matched pair RAM modules. I would say 4 GBs is a good compromise for casual uses. But if you're trying to run all the Adobe CS5 apps or all of the Office apps concurrently, then you'll be happier with 6 GBs of RAM. But it's hard to know what to suggest since only you know your operating situation, so here's some info that may help you make the decision.
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
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.

Memory problems: computer freezes on heavy memory usage

Ever since I changed the internal hard drive of my MacBook Pro (I installed a Seagate Barracuda 1Tb disk), I have the following problem:
Whenever an application needs a lot of memory (for example Parallels installing a new Windows system, or Acrobat Pro optimizing a big PDF file), the computer progressively freezes. What I mean by freezing is that I can still move the mouse cursor, but clicking has no effect, and there is no interaction whatsoever with the GUI. Even the clock on the menu bar stops.
I never had the problem before. I guess that under normal conditions the Finder will always keep a few Mb of RAM for its own use. After all I have 4Gb of RAM installed.
Is there some way I can prevent the computer from freezing? Has this something to do with VM? Ever since I changed the hard disk, this problem happens once or twice every day, and the only solution is to force a restart, losing all my work…
Thanks in advance for any advice…

First, do not assign more than half your available RAM to a VM. It's best to let the VM software's configuration to select the amount used by its defaults.
Second, watch how many concurrent applications you attempt to use. Monitor your memory usage in Activity Monitor. If the Available RAM (Inactive RAM plus Free RAM) is low and Free RAM is near zero, then you have too many concurrent applications running. This forces the system to start using the disk-based virtual memory file. With too many apps swapping into the vm file disk thrashing will occur that ultimately can lead to the computer appearing to freeze up or to actually freeze up.
Of course your alternative is to install more RAM if in fact you are over-taxing what you have now. You may find the following helpful reading:
About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
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.

Memory usage needs defining

Can someone please explain the terms that are listed under the Activity Monitor. I have
Free - 169MB - I understand this one
Wired - 1.13GB - ??
Active- 557MB - ??
Inactive-157MB - ??
Used - 1.83GB - I understand this one.
I am running VM Fusion when I took this snapshot and I just ordered more memory to upgrade to 4GB to help my windows sessions.
Thanks and by the way loving this new MBP - going on 2 weeks now and can't put it down.

<font "size=+1">About OS X Memory Management and Usage
Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
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.

System Settings - Memory usage - Application

In Memory Usage - Application, under System Settings, my slider is set to 100% and gives 2560 MB.
I was wondering where this figure of 2560MB comes from, is that the max that FCE can use/access? I have 10Gb Ram on the system in total, why is FCE only using 2560?
Is this normal, or indicating a problem on the system somewhere?
Thanks
Neil

Thanks
That has set my mind at rest. I have not broken it or done something wrong then.
I am just working my way through a basic FCE 4 tutorial book.
More dumb questions to follow
NP

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.

High RAM memory usage compared to other systems

I'm suffering with memory usage problems, only in open 2 tabs of facebook(it's only for example, any 'heavy' page freeze also) in firefox*(for example also, but this occur in chromium also) freeze computer.
I've 1GB of memory, it isn't big but also isn't very little.
I'm using XFCE with compiz (yes, compiz, since use a very lightweight openbox-based session doesn't help, then compiz...) when system start (after login) system is consuming 130MB approximately of RAM.
after 1 hour if close all open apps and see memory usage again consume is something about 350MB, "only solution" is reboot.
all applications(htop,free -m,xfce's system monitor...) that I've tried to monitor memory usage show above scenario, except the 'ps_mem' script in AUR.
in the 'ps_mem' script the result is following (with opera browser open, less memory offensive browser but I really prefer firefox):
Private + Shared = RAM used Program
88.0 KiB + 10.0 KiB = 98.0 KiB agetty
380.0 KiB + 34.5 KiB = 414.5 KiB sshd
408.0 KiB + 93.0 KiB = 501.0 KiB gpg-agent (2)
372.0 KiB + 142.0 KiB = 514.0 KiB avahi-daemon (2)
456.0 KiB + 60.0 KiB = 516.0 KiB systemd-logind
280.0 KiB + 261.0 KiB = 541.0 KiB sh
476.0 KiB + 103.5 KiB = 579.5 KiB xfconfd
476.0 KiB + 153.5 KiB = 629.5 KiB gvfsd
604.0 KiB + 34.5 KiB = 638.5 KiB systemd-udevd
588.0 KiB + 102.5 KiB = 690.5 KiB dbus-launch (3)
576.0 KiB + 119.5 KiB = 695.5 KiB sudo
668.0 KiB + 77.5 KiB = 745.5 KiB cups-browsed
620.0 KiB + 179.5 KiB = 799.5 KiB at-spi2-registryd
804.0 KiB + 67.0 KiB = 871.0 KiB htop
756.0 KiB + 131.0 KiB = 887.0 KiB gconfd-2
800.0 KiB + 126.0 KiB = 926.0 KiB upowerd
752.0 KiB + 183.5 KiB = 935.5 KiB xscreensaver
920.0 KiB + 85.0 KiB = 1.0 MiB cupsd
876.0 KiB + 241.0 KiB = 1.1 MiB gvfsd-fuse
692.0 KiB + 429.0 KiB = 1.1 MiB systemd-journald
880.0 KiB + 273.5 KiB = 1.1 MiB at-spi-bus-launcher
1.2 MiB + 125.0 KiB = 1.3 MiB udisksd
1.4 MiB + 486.5 KiB = 1.9 MiB dbus-daemon (5)
1.4 MiB + 533.5 KiB = 1.9 MiB panel-6-systray
1.5 MiB + 430.0 KiB = 2.0 MiB lightdm (2)
1.6 MiB + 572.0 KiB = 2.1 MiB xfce4-session
1.5 MiB + 683.0 KiB = 2.2 MiB panel-5-datetim
1.5 MiB + 706.5 KiB = 2.2 MiB panel-2-actions
1.6 MiB + 723.0 KiB = 2.3 MiB panel-4-systeml
2.0 MiB + 543.5 KiB = 2.5 MiB xfsettingsd
2.0 MiB + 579.5 KiB = 2.6 MiB systemd (3)
2.3 MiB + 815.0 KiB = 3.1 MiB emerald
2.8 MiB + 578.5 KiB = 3.3 MiB gnome-keyring-daemon (3)
3.2 MiB + 946.5 KiB = 4.1 MiB zsh (2)
16.1 MiB + -12144.0 KiB = 4.2 MiB polkitd
4.1 MiB + 465.0 KiB = 4.6 MiB notify-osd
4.5 MiB + 1.6 MiB = 6.2 MiB xfce4-panel
5.1 MiB + 1.2 MiB = 6.3 MiB panel-7-mixer
7.7 MiB + 1.4 MiB = 9.0 MiB xterm (2)
12.0 MiB + 636.0 KiB = 12.6 MiB opera:libflashp
24.3 MiB + -10774.5 KiB = 13.8 MiB Xorg
18.6 MiB + 1.1 MiB = 19.7 MiB gnome-do (2)
23.2 MiB + 2.4 MiB = 25.6 MiB compiz
168.4 MiB + 3.2 MiB = 171.7 MiB opera
320.1 MiB
=================================
as you can see in 'ps_mem' memory usage isn't nothing absurdly it's ok.
another example, this problem stop me make certain things, for example is impossible browsing in web while programming in eclipse, this is very uncomfortable.
other thing, this not occur in Windows XP, I can open more than 10 tabs in firefox, and eclipse open, etc...
any needing information, tell-me!
firefox*: with memory cache turned off in about:config
Last edited by hotvic (2013-08-12 17:42:21)

hotvic, could you please change the title to something more descriptive? 'memory problems' sounds like you have problems e.g. remembering / recalling things, which is not an Arch issue ;P
kenny3794 wrote:
I've had some limiting performance with browsers lately (Firefox and Chromium). I found it had a considerable cache size utilizing lots of fragmented space on my home directory. I cleared the cache and have since set a limit to the cache size of 30 MB for Firefox. Between multiple users across multiple browser sessions, I had at least 2 GB of cache data on my 10 GB home partition! So far (1 day), this has been helpful. Perhaps this could help you also?
Ken
OP is talking about RAM, not HDD space.

How to analyse the main memory usage in SAP ERP systems?

Dear expert,
I'm doing a research work about analysing the main memory usage in SAP ERP systems.
I would like to find out what is load in buffers and when. That means, which process have the control of these memories and which are always performing something, tables loaded, and so on. Becuase I tried to isolate the space needed by a simple webservice call (create one material) in my test system, but even after a $SYN there are something stored in the buffers. I use a BAPI to avoid the execution of the SAPGUI and its repercussion in the system (I know the BAPI called uses resources too, but when I run this BAPI to get the statistics, it's like ST02, I get different values). Could someone help me or recommend something specific to read? Thanks a lot in advance.

Dear expert,
Thanks a lot for your answer. The point is now that I want to isolate the memory used by a webservice that I call, I mean, I would like to know how many memory is this webservice using in each buffer. And could you tell me where could I read something about the order that things happen in SAP System when a webservice is called (always memory related), that's which steps are done to store data in buffers and so on. Thanks in advance.

System memory usage question

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