Extreme RAM useage?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited March 2014

Hey all.

 

Just installed 8gb Crucial RAM in my mid 2012 MacbookPro bringing it to a total of 10GB.

Problem is, the thing is using 7.50GB of this RAM on idle!!

 

I have Safari, process viewer and Viber running in the background and nothing else discernible so what would be sucking this much memory? BTW the book was running slowly on stock 4GB RAM so thats why I upgraded.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    What does the process viewer say is using the most RAM? Make sure to enable "All processes" at the top to show system processes and list by real memory usage. If you are on Mavericks, that might explain why. Apparently it tries to use all of the memory with a file cache. If your page outs are 0 and your compressed memory is low or 0 then you aren't running out of RAM.
  • Reply 2 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post



    What does the process viewer say is using the most RAM? Make sure to enable "All processes" at the top to show system processes and list by real memory usage. If you are on Mavericks, that might explain why. Apparently it tries to use all of the memory with a file cache. If your page outs are 0 and your compressed memory is low or 0 then you aren't running out of RAM.

    I'm have the same situation as MiMac

     

    Are Activity Monitor and Process Viewer the same. If not, how is Process Viewer accessed? SpotLight doesn't show it.  If they are the same,  there's no 'All processes' at the top of my Mavericks version.  I don't see "page outs"  or "compressed memory" either.

  • Reply 3 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    sequitur wrote: »
    Are Activity Monitor and Process Viewer the same. If not, how is Process Viewer accessed? SpotLight doesn't show it.  If they are the same,  there's no 'All processes' at the top of my Mavericks version.  I don't see "page outs"  or "compressed memory" either.

    It's the same as Activity Monitor, it should look like this:

    https://support.apple.com/kb/HT5890

    Use the view menu to show all processes and click the memory tab. Page outs would be Swap Used and if you aren't running out of RAM, it'll be low. Apple says on that page that it's normal to see some activity but it should still be low.

    Mavericks has a new technique of compressing memory to give you more effective memory than you have physically. Here the test allowed over 24GB stored in 16GB of RAM:

    http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/

    You can also purge memory manually to free it up using the purge command in the terminal but you'd have to use sudo in Mavericks (sudo purge).
  • Reply 4 of 18
    mimacmimac Posts: 872member

    All processes are shown. yes i'm using Mavericks.

    Screenshots of processes follow...

     

     

    Yet Activity Monitor tells a different story?

     

     

    strange?

  • Reply 5 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    mimac wrote: »
    Yet Activity Monitor tells a different story?

    strange?

    That's all fine, the file cache is using up 4GB, this is just temporary usage. The necessary usage is your active app memory and wired memory. Your swap and compressed memory are both 0.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    mimacmimac Posts: 872member

    Thanks Marvin. Was a little worried that so much RAM was being used for no apparent reason. The machine seems to be running a lot faster now with the extra RAM. Beforehand things like Aperture were crawling!

  • Reply 7 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member

    Marvin,  Activity Monitor shows 7.96 of 8 GB in use.  Other than apps, I don't know what many of these heavy memory users are. Could you advise me what can be quit safely?  Why are there many Safari Web Content users?

    Thanks.

    image 

     

    Ooops,  The Activity Monitor (screen snap) shows up in the AI preview but not when it's submitted. What should I do to attach it?

  • Reply 8 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    sequitur wrote: »
    Marvin,  Activity Monitor shows 7.96 of 8 GB in use.  Other than apps, I don't know what many of these heavy memory users are. Could you advise me what can be quit safely?  Why are there many Safari Web Content users?

    The new Safari changed to have a process for every tab. This is quite good as it means that if one tab crashes or hangs up, it won't take down the whole browser.

    Generally the tasks that are ok to quit are ones that aren't being run by the root user. Things like kernel_task, windowserver, mds (Spotlight), core services are all system processes. That's why it's sometimes best for the list to be set to My Processes as that narrows it down to user-level processes but it's helpful to see all of them.

    If your swap is at 0 and your compressed is low or at 0 then you don't have to worry about quitting apps as you aren't running out of memory. The system is just putting it all to good use by caching more items in order for them to run faster.
    sequitur wrote: »
    Ooops,  The Activity Monitor (screen snap) shows up in the AI preview but not when it's submitted. What should I do to attach it?

    You should avoid pasting or dragging it into the text and instead save it as a file and then upload using the image icon at the top of the editor (to the right of the movie icon). To snap a window, use shift-command-4, then spacebar, then click the window. It will save an image to the desktop. When you upload, choose that file. You can also just use shift-command-4 to drag over the area you want.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member

     

    How do I make this larger? I clicked on 'large' to submit this, but this is the size it uploaded.

    ?Should I quit any of these to regain memory?

     

  • Reply 10 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Looking at that overall, I see four RealPlayer processes. It’s 2014, not 1994. ;)

     

    Other than that, since you’re actively using Office, there’s not much to suggest closing.

  • Reply 11 of 18
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    sequitur wrote: »
    How do I make this larger? I clicked on 'large' to submit this, but this is the size it uploaded.
    [SIZE=12px][SIZE=16px]?Should I quit any of these to regain memory?[/SIZE][/SIZE]

    The image you attached will show as a preview. Right-clicking and opening the link in a new window shows it full-size.

    The apps you have open don't look like they'd add up to 4.9GB because the system processes are included in the wired amount. Maybe they've just stopped keeping inactive memory separate in the count. If you run sudo purge in the terminal, that should clear out the inactive app memory. The system would do this when it needed it by itself though.
  • Reply 12 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    Looking at that overall, I see four RealPlayer processes. It’s 2014, not 1994;)

     

    Other than that, since you’re actively using Office, there’s not much to suggest closing.


    I'm too dense to understand that.  Shouldn't I be using RealPlayer?  If not, what should I use?

  • Reply 13 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

    I'm too dense to understand that.  Shouldn't I be using RealPlayer?  If not, what should I use?

     

    I remember RealPlayer back in the days of the virgin World Wide Web… I guess that it probably plays modern formats these days, but personally? Anything that isn’t MP4 which I want to see, I toss into HandBrake to convert so that I can play it in QuickTime/iTunes.

  • Reply 14 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member

    I've been using RealPlayer Downloader (since the Dark Ages) as it downloads different formats automatically.  Will QuickTime do that?  Can you suggest a better downloader than RealPlayer?

  • Reply 15 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by sequitur View Post

    I've been using RealPlayer Downloader (since the Dark Ages) as it downloads different formats automatically.  Will QuickTime do that?  Can you suggest a better downloader than RealPlayer?

     

    Downloader… let’s see. What formats are you downloading? Anything that Click2Flash turns into a QuickTime window can be downloaded with a simple right-click. 

  • Reply 16 of 18
    sequitursequitur Posts: 1,910member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     
    Originally Posted by sequitur View Post
    I've been using RealPlayer Downloader (since the Dark Ages) as it downloads different formats automatically.  Will QuickTime do that?  Can you suggest a better downloader than RealPlayer?

     

    Downloader… let’s see. What formats are you downloading? Anything that Click2Flash turns into a QuickTime window can be downloaded with a simple right-click. 


    Error message when I attempted to open ClickToFlash.pkg:

    ---------------------

    “ClickToFlash.pkg” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.

     

    Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the Mac App Store and identified developers.

    ---------------------

    Clicking ClickToFlash - “Open Anyway” -  under Security & Privacy still results in the above error message.  

     

    Suggestions?

  • Reply 17 of 18
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    I’d say just let Safari download it itself from here: https://extensions.apple.com Should be the 4th on the list, top right.

  • Reply 18 of 18
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

     

    Looking at that overall, I see four RealPlayer processes. It’s 2014, not 1994. ;)


     

    Oh, Snap!

Sign In or Register to comment.