Free memory programs needed?

Such applications are a waste.

Open Activity Monitor and go to the System Memory* tab and look for Page Outs and Swap used and report back.

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

With modern UNIX based systems free ram is wasted ram. If the system needs more ram, it will take it from the inactive ram.

mortenjensen said:

Hi all
I have a MBP with 8 gb ram. My system tend to run out of free memory, so I have installed FreeMemory to clean up once in a while. It normally frees 1 gb. ram or so.

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Running apps like that can hurt rather than help, as inactive memory is there to improve performance. Mac OS X will manage memory quite well, without interference from 3rd party apps.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

mortenjensen said:

Thx for the replies. I use Act Mon quite a bit to get a feel of how the system is running. But Act Mon does not provide a "free memory" process.

But maybe that is not needed after all, then?

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No, it's not needed. Mac OS X will allocate memory as required.

mortenjensen said:

Great, are you using any other programs to maintain the system?
Morten

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No, you don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.