System Memory Usage Question (RAM)
Hi, I installed 2GB DDR memory on my 1.25GHz PB. I ran verify disk, permissions, and rebooted. Apps opened faster and I started seeing less beachball. iPhoto loaded quicker so everything seems good.
I ran DVD2one to rip a DVD and noticed my free RAM was <20MB. My inactive was almost 2GB and page ins/outs was 25160/606. I rebooted and the inactive cleared. I ran DVD2one again and checked activity monitor. I noticed the free RAM was going down Inactive going up and eventually page outs increasing to >1000. Does this seem correct? I never checked activity monitor before I upgraded my RAM but with 2GB should page outs/inactive be that high?
I ran DVD2one to rip a DVD and noticed my free RAM was <20MB. My inactive was almost 2GB and page ins/outs was 25160/606. I rebooted and the inactive cleared. I ran DVD2one again and checked activity monitor. I noticed the free RAM was going down Inactive going up and eventually page outs increasing to >1000. Does this seem correct? I never checked activity monitor before I upgraded my RAM but with 2GB should page outs/inactive be that high?
Comments
1000 pageouts is nothing - 100 times that and you might be looking at getting more RAM.
If that program is anything like handbrake (which I would assume it is) it will not use all that much ram, but take up almost all of your cpu. That is normal for it to not use too much ram.
It went through RAM like shit through a goose!!! Nearly 2GB inactive says it USED the RAM exactly as it should have and then also released it exactly as it should have.
plasma, completely ignore pagein numbers. Only worry about pageouts when you get growing thousands of them in normal use and you feel like the machine is beach-balling a lot when you change applications. You will get a little beachball activity after finishing your ripping session, but after you re-activate other open programs once you should be back to normal ops.
It went through RAM like shit through a goose!!! Nearly 2GB inactive says it USED the RAM exactly as it should have and then also released it exactly as it should have.
plasma, completely ignore pagein numbers. Only worry about pageouts when you get growing thousands of them in normal use and you feel like the machine is beach-balling a lot when you change applications. You will get a little beachball activity after finishing your ripping session, but after you re-activate other open programs once you should be back to normal ops.
Although Activity Monitor says "inactive" RAM is used, it's available, it just contains cached data. A newly launched app will use the "free" RAM first, then overtake some of the "inactive" RAM if necessary. The "wired" RAM is the data that can't be swapped to disk, and "active" is obviously the swappable data that's in the RAM at the moment. "Wired" and "Active" are the numbers you really need to worry about.
Although Activity Monitor says "inactive" RAM is used, it's available, it just contains cached data. A newly launched app will use the "free" RAM first, then overtake some of the "inactive" RAM if necessary. The "wired" RAM is the data that can't be swapped to disk, and "active" is obviously the swappable data that's in the RAM at the moment. "Wired" and "Active" are the numbers you really need to worry about.
Where would one find this "Activity Monitor" of which you speak? I can't seem to find it on my computer and I'm running 10.4.10.
That is exactly how a Unix memory system works. You want RAM as full as possible. Free memory is wasted memory and wasted money. Mach kernel works to keep RAM as full as possible.
1000 pageouts is nothing - 100 times that and you might be looking at getting more RAM.
Makes sense on the free memory. How does inactive memory work? If I'm only running one app (DVD2one) and it loads up my inactive to 1 GB how will this change when I run other apps. What I'm asking is if at this point inactive memory is limited to DVD2One or can other apps access it to?
Where would one find this "Activity Monitor" of which you speak? I can't seem to find it on my computer and I'm running 10.4.10.
/Applications/Utilities
It's one of the most useful programs included in OS X. I recommend everyone puts it in the Dock and sets the icon to display CPU history. It's very handy for noticing if an app has hung up or when Spotlight is indexing.
/Applications/Utilities
It's one of the most useful programs included in OS X. I recommend everyone puts it in the Dock and sets the icon to display CPU history. It's very handy for noticing if an app has hung up or when Spotlight is indexing.
Thanks! In the dock she goes.
Although Activity Monitor says "inactive" RAM is used, it's available, it just contains cached data. A newly launched app will use the "free" RAM first, then overtake some of the "inactive" RAM if necessary.
Inactive is just that , inactive. It WAS used at one point but isn't now. That memory has been properly deallocated by the requesting program. It just hasn't been wiped clean, just in case the same exact "stuff" is requested again. Normally only applicable for shared application libraries or file mapped objects. This is very different from caching, which by definition is still "in use".
The "wired" RAM is the data that can't be swapped to disk, and "active" is obviously the swappable data that's in the RAM at the moment. "Wired" and "Active" are the numbers you really need to worry about.
yes
/Applications/Utilities
It's one of the most useful programs included in OS X. I recommend everyone puts it in the Dock and sets the icon to display CPU history. It's very handy for noticing if an app has hung up or when Spotlight is indexing.
I use my Activity Monitor icon to display the RAM pie, and I activate the CPU scale in the lower-left corner.
Inactive is just that , inactive. It WAS used at one point but isn't now. That memory has been properly deallocated by the requesting program. It just hasn't been wiped clean, just in case the same exact "stuff" is requested again. Normally only applicable for shared application libraries or file mapped objects. This is very different from caching, which by definition is still "in use".
Minced words. If you close an application, and it frees up the RAM, the RAM becomes "inactive". If you launch the app again, before that RAM is reused, it just reallocates that RAM back to the app, with all the contained data. That's why some apps launch faster after they are "still hot", or have been in use recently.
That's what I meant by "cached" data. If it was a misuse of the word, oops. But you get what I mean.
Minced words. If you close an application, and it frees up the RAM, the RAM becomes "inactive". If you launch the app again, before that RAM is reused, it just reallocates that RAM back to the app, with all the contained data. That's why some apps launch faster after they are "still hot", or have been in use recently.
That's what I meant by "cached" data. If it was a misuse of the word, oops. But you get what I mean.
Not minced words, but a subtle and important difference. And I get what I thought you probably meant, butt there are plenty of folks reading things like this who don't have CS degrees, and cavalier use of "close enough" terminology that isn't really close enough is just plain confusing..
Inactive RAM does speed things up but apps don't relaunch THAT cleanly, only parts of them can be reused that way -- the shared libraries, file-mapped pages and the working-set pages to be precise. None of the non-file based data is safely usable on relaunch.