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View Full Version : Activity Monitor - Wired, Inactive, Active and Free RAM?



MythicFrost
May 31, 2009, 07:18 AM
Hey, under the activity monitor, there is "Wired, Inactive, Active, and Free" for your RAM, what's it mean (I understand "free" lol)?

EDIT: Also what is the "Real Memory" and "Virtual Memory" tabs mean?

EDIT Again: What's VM Size, Page ins, Page outs, and Swap used stand for????

Kind Regards


iamcheerful
May 31, 2009, 08:01 AM
Direct from the horses mouth ...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342
MythicFrost
May 31, 2009, 08:05 AM
Thanks, I find I run slower when I have only 20MB free memory, 1GB+

Should my VM size be 84.5GB? on the picture to the link you posted, it was only 4GB!

Kind Regards
iamcheerful
May 31, 2009, 08:17 AM
VM sizes typically increases over time.
A reboot should resolve the issue.
richard.mac
May 31, 2009, 08:24 AM
the VM size is the total hard drive space your apps and processes that are currently running can use as virtual memory. but the huge size is a bug to correct it add another column by right clicking on the column titles.

btw asking all these question when you have 10 GB (soon 18 GB) of RAM? how do you even know if you need this much?

i will give you a little info though. OS X loves RAM… it will use it all to your advantage whether its using it for memory hungry pro apps for RAW image and HD video editing or keeping closed apps and files in memory for faster access.
Macpropro80
May 31, 2009, 10:10 AM
Hey, under the activity monitor, there is "Wired, Inactive, Active, and Free" for your RAM, what's it mean (I understand "free" lol)?

EDIT: Also what is the "Real Memory" and "Virtual Memory" tabs mean?

EDIT Again: What's VM Size, Page ins, Page outs, and Swap used stand for????

Kind Regards

Excuse my language but, What In the Hell Are You Doing that Takes Up 10 Gigs Of Ram?
TheStrudel
May 31, 2009, 01:59 PM
Possibly such things as running Final Cut, Photoshop, and Motion, all at once. That can eat most of it right there, depending on how much you're doing with those apps. Many of us will run even more simultaneously. I await the day when I can load an entire SD project into RAM...
Cynicalone
May 31, 2009, 02:10 PM
Excuse my language but, What In the Hell Are You Doing that Takes Up 10 Gigs Of Ram?

10GB is really not all that much anymore, just depends on what you're working with.

I and a few others here have 32GB installed right now.
Tesselator
May 31, 2009, 02:58 PM
10GB is really not all that much anymore, just depends on what you're working with.

Indeed. Safari with nothing else loaded and a bunch heavy sites in tabs can eat 5 or 6 GB of RAM alone.
Macpropro80
May 31, 2009, 03:49 PM
Indeed. Safari with nothing else loaded and a bunch heavy sites in tabs can eat 5 or 6 GB of RAM alone.

What safari are you using? Mine never has broken 2 gigs. When I was testing my mac pro when I first got it, 50 youtube videos playing at once didnt break 2 gigs of ram usage.
MythicFrost
May 31, 2009, 06:18 PM
Hehe, perhaps 24GB would be better than 18?

Only had iTunes, Mail, Safari 4, Activity Monitor, and Parallels 4.0 (w/ XP Pro (1 core, 512MB ram, 128MB VRam), Vista Ultimate (2 cores, 2GB ram, 128MB VRam), 7 RC (1 core, 1GB RAM, 128MB VRam)) open...

Kind Regards
VirtualRain
Jun 1, 2009, 03:00 AM
Let's see some screen shots of systems with 10+ GB of memory in use?! :eek:
grue
Jun 1, 2009, 03:14 AM
Let's see some screen shots of systems with 10+ GB of memory in use?! :eek:

I have a screenshot somewhere when my machine was paging like crazy after running out at 18GB.
MythicFrost
Jun 1, 2009, 03:48 AM
Where can I put my two new 4GB modules to make it work the fastest? in the two empty slots I have?

Kind Regards
TheStrudel
Jun 1, 2009, 02:59 PM
Refer to the manual that came with your Mac Pro or on the Apple support website - it's got a diagram for the most efficient RAM installation. I think it's somewhere on the forums here if you mroogle it.
Macpropro80
Jun 1, 2009, 02:59 PM
my friend once opened 200 separate applications on his imac to test what it can do. It took 30 minutes to open, and not everything showed up on the dock. They weren't small programs either, he had final cut pro, final cut express, the entire adobe suite, google earth, ect. Now Thats when you need 32 gigs of ram, other wise you might as well put $100 bills in your ram slots because its not doing you any good.
VirtualRain
Jun 1, 2009, 04:08 PM
Now Thats when you need 32 gigs of ram, other wise you might as well put $100 bills in your ram slots because its not doing you any good.

Hmm... thanks... I can take those bills out of there then. :p :D

Honestly, 32GB of RAM could contain EVERYTHING I have on my MacBook Air... I mean, the entire OS, my apps, and my media. LOL.