Virtual memory - does it slow my system down?

So I have a Mac Pro, quad core xeon with 12 GB of RAM.
I have noticed that when I watch videos, usually from YouTube but elsewhere also, the video is very choppy and the overally computer performance becomes laggy. I thought it was Flash, so I deleted flash and switched my youtube preferences to HTML 5. No change.
So I bust out activity monitor, and it doesn't seem to be a CPU issue, but I note that the VM size is 200-400 GB. That seems excessive. I've about 80 GB available free space on my startup drive; I can move some stuff to another drive to create more free space if that's the issue. But is that much VM normal in 10.7? It seems like a lot.

Virtual in that scenerio is not real page out VM, it is "address space" and 140GB is very normal. When you boot using 64-bit kernel mode, guess what? those figures are higher.
Go To Folder /Var and take a look in VM and count how much actual page files there are.
If it was "real" your drive would crash but OS X would warn your first.
Disk drive space: boot drives: keep 35% or more free. That means yes it is good to not have anything but the OS and apps and mini home library.
For a 900GB drive that does mean 300GB free - you don't want slow long disk I/O seeks to find and write files and cause the disk to "thrash" about. And why SSD which have gotten cheaper can be ideal boot drive - $120 / 120GB or 240GB / $200. Along with 1TB / $120 to hold data files.
12GB should be fine for even medium work load with graphics. For what you were doing you might want to try with a guest or trial user (standard user) account.

Similar Messages

I can't go beyond release 3.6 because it slows my system down to a crawl. When I back the upgrade out and go back to 3.6 my system is fine. Any suggestions?

I can't go beyond release 3.6 because it slows my system down to a crawl. When I back the upgrade out and go back to 3.6 my system is fine. Any suggestions?

Does that PC meet Firefox 4.0+ system requirements for hardware? <br />
Firefox 4.0+ versions are considerably different from earlier versions. <br />
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/6.0/system-requirements/
* Pentium 4 or newer processor that supports SSE2
* 512MB of RAM
* 200MB of hard drive space

Will installing Microsoft office on my mac air 2gb 64mb slow my system down, I don't have music or big files currently on my device?

If I install Microsoft office on my mac air 2gb 64mb, will it slow my system down? I also have a macbook pro that i dont take out the house with Microsoft office already installed. Am I best to install Pages on the mac air or will it cause compatibility issues when working on files between the two devices?
Any help appreciated

The big question I have is this: is it your intention to work on the same documents on both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro? If so, I strongly suggest that you pick one program and use it on both. Pages and Word are both good word processors but they really are not compatible - rather Pages can read Word files and be forced to create Word files. But the reading and writing isn't perfect and sometimes the amount of work required to re-edit a translated file is substantial.
Installing Office on the MacBook Air isn't going to slow it down unless your hard drive is already very full and Word should run okay on it (though you might not be able to run Word at the same time as you run other programs).

PC External Hard Drive is Slowing my System Down

Just switched to Mac this weekend and I put all my PC files and music on my External backup drive and plugged that into my new iMac via USB 2.0). No problem seeing the files and dragging them into the iMac but the external drive is slowing my whole system down! Every time I do an action it starts humming away. Check mail? I searches the external. Turn on MS Word, checks external. Never got that pinwheel thing until this morning. I ejected the hard drive and all is right with the world. But I need that drive for occasional back up and what not. Any help would be appreciated.

I discovered it was a problem when I noticed that doing a simple spotlight search was causing my external drive to start humming. So I just checked into the preferences. However, it still starts running when I open iMovie and some other programs, but I'm sure there's a setting to shut that off too. However, if I want to make a backup of a file, I now have to literally drag it to the desktop and THEN move it into the external. I'm sure there's a better fix.

Why does Telstra slow uploads speed down

I have had ongoing issues with my internet connection over the last 18 mouths.Having a upload speed of 450/650 Kbps very slow no good for gaming an down load of 8/11Mbps down load if more than I needTo the point I have spent good dollars try to insuring that the infrastructures and the Asset Integrity with in house are in best condition this includes the replacement and work listed belowReplacement of the Wi-Fi system to a Cat.6 cabling at a cost of $2,300Replacement of the modem with a high speed 1G port modem at cost of $ 475Replacement of the fly-lead for the Telstra house connection to the new wall socket a cost of $360Total cost of $3135 this spend was braced on Telstra recommendation as the problem was with my part of the connection after a large number of call to my internet provider I at last had a appointment with a Telstra Tec to carry line testing and fault finding .At this point if no fault was found I was the be billed at $60 per 15min or part off and travel cost as I live in Bullsbrook WA this may I high . Lucky for me a fault was found in the exchange and reconfigured and the speed and the Exchange improved to 22Mbps down and 15 Mbps up an outstanding numbers >test at the house 15Mbps and so 5 / 7 Mbps loss for the Exchange to house don’t to good but still very happy with it BUT the upload was 650 kbps /750Kbps and please remember this testing was carry out by Telstra with good equipment so at this point I ask why the upload was so slow? After spending over $2000 and lot of time on the phone only to be told that Telstra slow the upload speed down so the max you can get is 1 Mbps and the only way you can increase this is by paying for a business line but you still may not get any more than 1MbpsThis is only a very small part of the story SO I LIKE TO ASK WHY IS TELSTRA SLOWING ME DOWNIf you like to know more please let me know

Hi bigdave618,
The simple answer is, that's the way the system and hardware is designed, all ISP's are the same. Uploads are limited to around 1Mbps. If you wish to get higher upload speeds you can see if Cable Broadband or NBN are available in your area as these systems allow for higher upload speeds.
Upload speeds are generally slower than download speeds because of the fact that most internet connected equipment is asymmetric. Asymmetric means that any one packet of data can either go in, or out, but not both ways at the same time. Since most internet users are receiving more data than sending, the internet connected equipment has shifted the higher majority of the signals to go toward downloading.
If you wish to find out more about ADSL I have added a link to a Wikipedia article below along with the link to the NBN and Telstra websites so you can check to see if Cable Broadband or NBN is available in your area.
ADSL Wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asymmetric_digital_subscriber_line
Check for available Telstra Cable Broadband: https://www.telstra.com.au/broadband/home-broadband
Check to see if NBN is available in your area: http://www.nbnco.com.au/connect-home-or-business/check-your-address.html
- Ben

JVM Memory saturates and slows the server down

Hi all,
New serveur on W7. CF9 installed.
Every day, need to kill JVM process saturing up to 1,5Go to liberate memory.
How come that it does not come down. How to tune it in order to fit my trafic needs ?
Thanks for your help,

Hi,
Some more detail would probably help. Windows 7, CF9 and Java are 32 or 64 bit?
For bit check CF Java via Server Settings > Settings Summary > Java VM Name EG Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM
Sometimes Java matters are logged to ColdFusion9\runtime\logs\coldfusion-out.log . Any Java warnings or error messages in that log file?
JVM logging can be useful to know what is going on Java memory wise. I think there are many resources to search on how to do that tho if you want some direction reply the thread and I am sure to be able to point you to some links.
Indeed 1.5Gb is not a lot of RAM but it may not be apportioned well to suit your needs. Other than JVM logs it would also be interesting to know what Java version (A) you are using plus your JVM arguments (B)?
A) Server Settings > Settings Summary > Java Version EG 1.6.0_29
B) ColdFusion9\runtime\bin\jvm.config >
# Arguments to VM portion
java.args=-server -Xmx512m -Dsun.io.useCanonCaches=false -XX:MaxPermSize=192m -XX:+UseParallelGC
That should start to help you along, Carl.

Parallels moving very slow... slows whole system down

When I use parallels, the whole system slows down to a hault. Even the programs outside of parallels moves at a snails pace. I have 2GB's of RAM. Use 1GB for parallels and 1GB for Mac OS X on a Apple Macbook Pro 2.16 Core Duo 2. Any suggestions on how to speed things up?

You may want to post your question on the Parallels discussions:
http://forums.parallels.com

DVDRW is Mega-Slow and slows the system down

Hi,
I have:
4 x SATA2 disks on the ICH7 (three in RAID 0, one as single disk)
1 x IDE DVDRW on the Secondary IDE port, set as slave
When I burned a DVD yesterday the sound started to slow, I thought it was the application. But when I try to install a game DVD, the same thing happens .. the sound becomes 'jittery' and most noticeably the DVD takes AGES (FOREVER) to read.
I checked the BIOS, JMicron is set to IDE. the rest is set to defaults.
I checked Device Manager, the only active channel (Secondary IDE) which was set to 'PIO ONLY'. I changed this to 'DMA if available' but it's still in PIO mode. I beleive it should be in DMA??
Should I be using a different cable? I'm using the MSI supplied cable at present.
Any assistance would be much appreciated!
- FrobinRobin

You already have the latest stable release from MSI, but unfortunately lots of MSI customers have a problem with this BIOS version. There is a Beta release (1.6a) that BOSSKILLER posted earlier
http://www.ukshazam.com/download/bosskiller/7235v16A.rar
and it’s upgrading the Jmicron BIOS version too. You can choose between DOS or Windows flashing procedure. If you decide in Windows mode, download the latest BIOS version from MSI Live Update (Application that came with your Installation CD for keeping your MB up to date) and the file from the link above. After everything downloaded, go to Program files-Setup files replace only the bios file (extension .150) with the one from the link above(extension .16A), and run the MSIsetup file. Make sure that the Clear CMOS option is selected. For safety reason, make a recovery floppy and check for some setting in BIOS before flashing, so that you can configure the new version of the BIOS properly.
About the Widows drivers, Go to Control Panel – System- Hardware - Device Manager- “SCSI and RAID controllers” – right click on Jmicron- Uninstall.
Then: Control Panel- Add or Remove Programs – JRAID-uninstall.
Restart your computer, and when you’ll be prompt that “Found New Hardware”, click cancel on the “Found New Hardware wizard” and install the drivers that I’ve posted earlier (double click on the setup file).
Try with the drivers first, and if the installation is successful under DVD/CD Rom Devices you will notice that the drive is recognized as SCSI cD/Rom Device.
Good Luck

New (Sharkoon Drakonia) mouse slows my system down :/

I recently bought a new gaming mouse (Sharkoon Drakonia).
When I plugged it in, a window popped up, asking me to press shift on my new keyboard. I simply closed the window. I soon noticed, that a process called UserEventAgent eats my cpu, when the mouse is plugged in. I could solve that problem, this way: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4405353
Now the UserEventAgent no longer takes up much and everything looks fine,
but when i start an application, like Steam, or any other larger application,
than suddenly that specific app goes up to around 100% cpu, and is "not responding", or very very slow.
Even if I unplug my mouse it stays that way. (And even if i force quit the app, the system still stays at around 50% CPU usage for an other 40 mins.)
I dont know how this happens, as if i restart my computer with my mouse unplugged, everything just works fine.
I cant do much research in the Activity monitor while these apps are using up so much cpu, cause when I try to open A.M. my computer just freezes.
I have a Macbook alu late 2008, running OSX 10.8.3.
(some system specs: 4GB 1067 Mhz DDR3 RAM, 500 GB HDD, 2 Ghz Intel Core 2 duo processor.)
(oh and btw, there is no problem with the functioning of the mouse, every button is working properly)
If I have not given enough information, than please tell me what I should look for, tyvm!

I tried overdrive, but sadly it didnt change a thing. I just checked the guarantee papers, and it seems I cant, just bring it back either. :/ Well, tyvm for the tips anyways

Teatimer periodically starts paging like crazy(1500+pfs). It slows the system down very noticiably. How do i stop if?

It occurs several times a day and eventually stops. It often runs several minutes. I use the system task monitor to watch it. cpu usage is very small, in 3-5% range. I think the paging activity is overloading the paging subsytem for the rest of my tasks. If I stop teatimer, paging activity falls off markedly and everything else returns to normal response.

I have the same problem and I cannot find any way to turn off the internal bluetooth without killing all bluetooth including the dongle. If someone has a way to turn off the internal bluetooth I want to see it.
Thanks

Can a MacBook Pro battery spontaneously slow the system down?

I sent my 2010 MacBook Pro to a non-Apple technician to replace the screen. He wrote me back stating that it was done but had a problem with the battery. He said that the computer takes 10 minutes to boot up and is slow afterwards. He said when he unplugs the battery it speeds up to normal. Before I sent it to him it had no such problems. Can a perfectly-working battery spontaneously go bad like this?

Apple has financing arrangements you can use provided you have an adequate credit rating. You can apply when you make your purchasing arrangements online at the Apple Store. Or you can seek your own loan from a bank or charge the purchase on a credit card.
Also, see Apple Credit Page.

Final Cut Studio has slowed my system down creating beach balls

Hello,
Ever since I upgraded to Final Cut Pro studio from Final Cut Pro Production suite I have noticed an inordinate amount of rotating beach balls and the computer locking up. The previous Final Cut Pro bundle created few beach ball and locking up situations. What could be causing this? I do have the universal Final Cut Studio package. Is this the problem? Do I need to update anything to correct this? Currently, I have two G5 computers, a dual 2.5 and a quad core 2.5. These should be screaming machines that roar. I don't find it that way, yet.
Thanks,
Jordan Simkins

if you trash plists in the studio programs you will cause templates to become unassociated along with other things
would you mind elaborating on this? for which Pro app is this an issue?
for your reference Final Cut Pro is not one of those apps for which this is a problem.
a plist file is a "properties list" file which serves a an applications primary preference file. when you first install an application is has no plist file, it doesn't exist ... this is written when the application is launched and/or quit. if you delete an applications preference file then it will simply launch as though it were the first run and hence write a new one.
consider ... if you create a new user account and log into it, then there can be no preference file (plist) for the appliaction for that user
try it ... create a new user and log into it. don't launch any apps, just take a look in the users Preferences folder and see if you can see any plist files for Final Cut Pro or any of the Pro apps ... ok now launch one of those Pro apps and see if the templates are unassociated (and other things). now quit and take another look in the users Preference folder and see if the plist files now exist.
when we talk about trashing prefs we are talking specifically of trashing these user preferences. this is tried and tested and is 100% reliable advice. as suggested, these helper apps such as FCP Rescue and FCP Attic take all the pain out of this process by doing it for you (also ensuring that you don't trash the wrong files).
remember, this is a Final Cut Pro board, not a All Pro Apps board ... the advice being handed out is specifiv to FCP. you're wisdom and insight is much appreciated but please don't hand it out without fully explaining yourself ... it will only serve to confuse those with less experience and expertise. no advice is better than bad advice.

Hard disk starts to run then slows entire system down

My MacBook ran fine until I installed Aperture. Since then, it runs OK for a while, then suddenly will stop operating anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes. The little colored pinwheel will appear and start to run. Sometimes it needs a complete hard reset to begin operating again. During these times, the hard disk runs continuously, and battery consumption increases.
I have totally removed Aperture (using AppZapper) and re-installed several times, all to no avail. At this point the MacBook is unusable as the lockups occur frequently. It seems to be cumulative, it runs OK for longer periods after a reboot and the longer it runs the worse it gets.
While in the locked up state, I can't run any utilities to see what's going on that is causing this problem. I have noticed that the SyncServer (whatever that is) uses a lot of CPU time when the MacBook is operational (ie not locked up).
Any help would be appreciated.
John

Hi
I don't have a definite solution, just a couple of suggestions:
1. Try clearing out all cache files using a utility like Onyx or Leopard Cache cleaner (Google will find them). While you're at it, repair disk permissions, too.
2. If that doesn't help, then try re-installing Leopard using the Archive and Install option. Make sure all your files are backed up first, just in case of snafus...
Bob

Filevault and Secure Virtual Memory

If I have filevault enabled and secure virtual memory am I reducing my system performance because it would be encrypting already encrypted data?
What sorts of security breaches can occur by not enabling secure virtual memory?
P.S would this protect against the hack where a thief can extract my RAM and read my system password stored inside?
Thanks
-IP20

Hi, Bob,
Yes, you are right but "not exactly."
If the computer is a laptop and is stolen with an intact battery and has not been shut down, then data in RAM may be accessible. It may be difficult, however, to take a desktop Mac without removing power which would cause the RAM's content to be lost (except for PRAM.)
As for cryogenically freezing the computer that would most likely require removing the computer to another location. Removing frozen chips would be difficult if one wished to avoid having them increase to a temperature where the data would be lost.
In any event I don't think the above are even relevant concerns for the consumer user. What would the typical home user have on a computer that would merit such extreme measures. Handling something cold enough to freeze RAM sufficiently to recover its content requires special equipment. I don't think my neighbor really cares that much - and the hacker would need direct access to the hardware. I don't think I would let someone have access to my computer that showed up at my door with a large thermos of liquid nitrogen! Furthermore who would leave their computer turned on and accessible, then walk away from it if they were so security conscious that they needed to use FileVault and Secure VM?

Secure Virtual Memory

I understand what secure virtual memory does- it encrypts the swap file in OS X. Beyond that, what do I gain from enabling this security feature? If I don't encrypt my home folder with FileVault, do I really have a lot to gain by using secure virtual memory?

Someone else may express a different opinion, but to me, if you don't have your files protected, there's little point in protecting virtual memory. The entire point of secure VM in my understanding is to prevent someone from gleaning information from the VM files that is otherwise unobtainable. If you haven't secured the files themselves, it's all wide open and no one will need to go to the trouble of examining VM. Only if you were to have files that you regularly erase via the Secure Erase that you want to be sure cannot thereafter be accessed at all, even in part, would secure VM seem to have any purpose.
EDIT: Kappy's point about passwords, etc. is well taken, though reasonable physical precautions should be enough for most uses. If you have very sensitive logins, then secure VM may be worthwhile, though at that point FileVault, firmware passwords, and other precautions would also be advised (it's been shown that under some circumstances such information can even be recovered from RAM). It's all about what you need to secure, and under what circumstances someone might get access to your system.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

Virtual memory - does it slow my system down?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for