Does anybody know the difference between the two? It seems that my computer is a lot slower when it's filled with inactive memory. Is there a way to clean it up without restarting?
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Free Memory vs. Inactive Memory
- Thread starter zflauaus
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Eidorian
macrumors Penryn
Here's what you need
I had the same problem, this is what you need for that 🙂
http://www.activata.co.uk/products/ifreemem.html
I had the same problem, this is what you need for that 🙂
http://www.activata.co.uk/products/ifreemem.html
Don't panic
macrumors 603
mkrishnan
Moderator emeritus
Is it just me, or does this program sound like complete snake oil? What do you need to do this for? If you shut down all your apps, at worst, yes, you have inactive memory. But especially with no apps running, and therefore no world leaks from Safari or whatever, there should be no problem whatsoever reclaiming inactive memory. I don't see why you need to "defrag" your memory....
That program doesn't do a thing. I'm surprised people are taken in by it.
http://radsoft.net/resources/software/reviews/redux/
It isn't just the sound... 😀 And I don't think "world leaks" are possible on a 32-bit or better protected memory system. All memory is allocated into process specific address spaces and that memory - the entirety of it - is deallocated when the program exits. This includes all supporting shared libraries and frameworks as they too are mapped into the address spaces of their clients (applications that have them as dependencies). What happens on disk in the VM is of no relevance. Apple's VM manager will add swap files as need be (and remove them at times as well) but this is nothing one needs to worry about. If you want all those extra swap files gone - reboot. No snake oil app like the above is going to reclaim the disk space - and if it did you should run for it. Interfering with the system's VM like that is not a Good Thing(tm).
Common industry terms.
Wired == nonpaged This is used by drivers et al.
Active == paged in Belongs to processes and is currently swapped in from disk.
Inactive == paged out Only on disk and swapped in as needed (page faults).
Free == free Self=explanatory.
Page faults are not errors. Initiating a process does not entail actually doing any bookkeeping in memory. Page tables are set up but that's about it. When a process starts to run the CPU notices that things aren't at the addresses they're supposed to be at and issues an exception known as a page fault. The system catches the exception, gets the address where it occurred, checks its page tables, reads the pertinent page from disk into RAM, and then gets the CPU to run the same instruction again. This is normal behaviour and occurs several thousand times a second. All virtual memory is initially 'inactive' or paged out. It's only put into RAM as it's needed - when the CPU throws a page fault exception.
Yes and don't spend money or waste time trying to fix something that's not broken and in fact already running perfectly! 😀
Yes, open up Activity Monitor. Then start quitting various applications. Watch as the Inactive portion drops to an acceptable level, whatever you deem that to be.
notsofatjames
macrumors 6502a
be careful just quitting random applications. that could cause adverse effects. Try only quitting ones that are owned by you unless you know what your doing.
iBlue
macrumors Core
Random apps? Don't know about that. Not such a wise plan if you're unsure of the app's use.
Look at "My procceses" in Activity Monitor, most of those should be OK to quit, so long as you know its use. (photoshop - a big greedy beast, iPhoto, Firefox, etc)
the other question has been answered. just didn't want the above giving anyone bad ideas.
Poor word choice, sorry. "Random" in the sense of the programs you know you have running, yes, of course.