1.5GB of RAM just disappears?

MacNoobGuy said:

hey guys, i just started using dropbox to sync my files. i tried uploading a 1GB file and it worked. however, while i was uploading it somehow 1.5 GB of RAM or so became used. i checked in activity monitor and it doesn't say what's using so much RAM in the list. nothing has changed in terms of memory usage in activity monitor, but 1.5GB of ram of is still being used.

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You don't need to worry about what RAM is being used. Mac OS X manages memory automatically, with no interference from the user or 3rd party apps. The only thing you need to watch is page outs.

To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

MacNoobGuy said:

hey guys, i just started using dropbox to sync my files. i tried uploading a 1GB file and it worked. however, while i was uploading it somehow 1.5 GB of RAM or so became used. i checked in activity monitor and it doesn't say what's using so much RAM in the list. nothing has changed in terms of memory usage in activity monitor, but 1.5GB of ram of is still being used.

when i reboot it goes back to normal, but this is annoying.

thanks

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Are you sure you're looking at "All Processes" in Activity Monitor?

you could try running top in a terminal and sort by memory usage.