RAM is handled very differently in Mac OS X than in previous versions of Mac OS. It is a *completely* different memory management system, in fact. Real memory, shared memory, and virtual memory are allocated, swapped around, and dumped dynamically by the system without any help from the user. That's why you don't have a memory section in the "show info" Finder window any more. You can watch these stats by using the terminal command "top" (which also shows CPU usage).
<strong>However, as SFX pointed out, this information is misleading and borders on useless.</strong><hr></blockquote>Whoa! Those statistics are *far* from useless if you understand how they work. Shoot, you could say the information provided in "About This Mac" in Classic Mac OS was even more useless for someone that doesn't understand <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000835"; target="_blank">memory fragmentation</a>.
That's why I gave the link to Siracusa's Ars article: to learn what these numbers mean.
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You don't.
The long answer:
RAM is handled very differently in Mac OS X than in previous versions of Mac OS. It is a *completely* different memory management system, in fact. Real memory, shared memory, and virtual memory are allocated, swapped around, and dumped dynamically by the system without any help from the user. That's why you don't have a memory section in the "show info" Finder window any more. You can watch these stats by using the terminal command "top" (which also shows CPU usage).
If you really want to learn more about the process, I suggest you read the <a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/macosx-10.1/macosx-10.1-6.html"; target="_blank">Memory Usage</a> section of John Siracusa's <a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/01q4/macosx-10.1/macosx-10.1.html"; target="_blank">Mac OS X 10.1 Review</a>.
[ 05-31-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
It's a beautiful freeware Cocoa app that displays more system stats than you'd ever want transparently on your desktop.
<a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=14386&db=mac"; target="_blank">http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=14386&db=mac</a>;
Plus it's written by a really cool guy at Ars, who will add features and fix bugs overnight if you ask him on the boards!
-robo
However, as SFX pointed out, this information is misleading and borders on useless.
<strong>However, as SFX pointed out, this information is misleading and borders on useless.</strong><hr></blockquote>Whoa! Those statistics are *far* from useless if you understand how they work. Shoot, you could say the information provided in "About This Mac" in Classic Mac OS was even more useless for someone that doesn't understand <a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=7&t=000835"; target="_blank">memory fragmentation</a>.
That's why I gave the link to Siracusa's Ars article: to learn what these numbers mean.
"...because knowing is half the battle!"