Does Mountain Lion use less RAM?

well, I can tell you that it definitely caches less than Lion.

I've got a rMBP witch 16GB RAM,
under Lion it would use 8GB's.

Under ML, it uses only 4.5GB.

But don't worry, there's 1.55GB wired RAM (that's RAM that the OS can trow away, but haven't yet, 'cause OS X likes to cache it ),
and 850MB Inactive.

So I'm only using 2.16GB of RAM (active RAM)

(ps: Safari takes 750 MB RAM)


ANd if you're still worried,
Mountain Lion minimum system requirement for the RAM is only 2GB :O



So, just download and enjoy

At times I have noticed it sits idle using a little more RAM than Lion did.

I have 8GB on my MBP and I use to sit around 22% idle after I closed all Apps. Now it seems to stay at 33-35% usage. kernel_task seems to be eating up most of my RAM all the time.

On my 16GB Mac Pro & Lion, I used to see some "Swap used:" after a couple days.

Haven't seen that yet with Mountain Lion.
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MacNoobGuy said:

Does Mountain Lion use less RAM?

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How much RAM is used is directly related to what you have running at any point in time. It will vary widely as your workload varies, no matter which version of Mac OS X you're running.

MacNoobGuy said:

anyone know? i'm struggling with 5GB on Lion.

thanks

Click to expand...

I seem to have a lot more free ram with the same amount of apps open. I think that with your 5GB you should be fine.

I dunno, I have 16gb of ram and in total it was using up 12+gb last night and all I was doing was surfing the web

granted, i have some background apps running like hiss and bowtie, but come on, 8 was in active use

Lvivske said:

I dunno, I have 16gb of ram and in total it was using up 12+gb last night and all I was doing was surfing the web

granted, i have some background apps running like hiss and bowtie, but come on, 8 was in active use

Click to expand...

Mac OS X will use whatever RAM is available. That doesn't mean you would have page outs with less RAM. Free memory is wasted memory.

Just one day after a restart. A few apps open, and it has eaten almost 6 GB RAM. For me, it is same as Lion. And yes, 1.2 GB is inactive

Although I have observed wired memory after boot is significantly lower (600-700 MB) compared to Lion (900 - 1 GB).

CodeBreaker said:

Just one day after a restart. A few apps open, and it has eaten almost 6 GB RAM. For me, it is same as Lion. And yes, 1.2 GB is inactive

Although I have observed wired memory after boot is significantly lower (600-700 MB) compared to Lion (900 - 1 GB).

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter how much RAM is used. Mac OS X will use all available memory. Free and inactive memory are both available to any app that needs additional memory. The only thing to watch for is page outs.

I have lion and 8gb of ram. Hardly ever go below 4gb. And even with 10 tabs open in safari half is the most I ever used. I only went below 4gb one time. Not sure why. 3.6 or 7 something I think. Not much but I did.

GGJstudios said:

Mac OS X will use whatever RAM is available. That doesn't mean you would have page outs with less RAM. Free memory is wasted memory.

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This argument has never made sense to me. If the program has reserved some "extra" memory and is actively using it, then it's bloated. If it has reserved some "extra" memory just in case it needs it, then it may be preventing another program from using it. Memory should be reserved when it is needed. It's not like it takes much longer to do that than if it had pre-reserved it.

DaffyDuck said:

This argument has never made sense to me. If the program has reserved some "extra" memory and is actively using it, then it's bloated. If it has reserved some "extra" memory just in case, then it may be preventing another program from using it. Memory should be reserved when it is needed. It's not like it takes much longer to do that then if it had pre-reserved it.

Click to expand...

Apps don't "reserve" memory. Apps simply send requests to Mac OS X, which manages all memory usage.

VMware Fusion on Mountain Lion



My VMware Fusion was taking up so much RAM on Mountain Lion, I stopped using it (vmware-vmx). I have the latest version too - Version 4.1.3 (730298). Hopefully there will be an update soon from the team.

Presently, while running Spotify, iTunes, Mail, Messages and Activity Monitor, I have 3.25 GB free of 8. Mountain Lion has done wonders for performance on my end.

Check your activity monitor and see what you have free. Go from there!