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SebastianBerlin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 2, 2010
2
0
Hi,

I have bought a Macbook Pro a while ago. I ordered one with 4 GB of Ram. Now I am asking, if there is really 4 GB working or is there something wrong.
If I use "About this Mac" -> "More info..." I get:

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,3
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2,66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1,07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP53.00AC.B03


But in the "Activity Monitor" and in "top" I get lines such as:
Free: 73,2 MB
Wired: 1,18 GB
Active: 1,45 GB
Inactive 652,8 MB
Used 3,89 GB

PhysMem: 1851M wired, 1492M active, 663M inactive, 4006M used, 92M free.
VM


Sorry, but I don't really understand the data displayed there. Do I really have 4 GB? Because the "Wired" and "Free" parts make me suspicious.

Any help is much appreciated. Sorry if thats a REALLY stupid question. Sorry if the question already occured in this forum (I haven't found anything like this...)

Thanks
Sebastian
 

TZRaceR6

Guest
Jun 8, 2010
192
0
United Kingdom
Yes, you have 4gigs, but its being allocated and used for different things.

Download iFreeMem. Use it to optimize your memory. It is a very simple program and easy to use. You'll see what I mean. It will pretty much mirror what activity monitor is showing you as well.
 

MetalPhreak

macrumors newbie
Feb 11, 2010
10
0
Free: 73,2 MB
Used 3,89 GB

3.89GB + 73.2MB = about 4GB

Some memory is allocated to the graphics card if you have the 9400m/320GT etc

Wired/Active/Inactive just show the distribution of how the "Used" memory is being, well, used. Data from apps that are closed are cached in case you open them again, but if another running app needs it, the cached data is dropped.
 

Stokes

macrumors regular
Nov 19, 2007
117
0
Or E Gun
And, don't be concerned if it's seems like it's using too much memory for a process.

It's not like your grandma saving apple cores just in case she needs them later because it's in the middle of the 1930s depression. Your computer likes to use it's resources!
 
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