iBook not releasing RAM?

[coolbreeze]

I maxed out the memory in my new iBook 900, and run an average load of apps (3-5 at any given time). I will close the apps I don't use a lot, rather than leave them open. I do this to save RAM.

My problem is this. After a fresh restart, my RAM idles around 150 something, leaving the remaining 490 free. Obviously as I open apps, etc, the latter number decreases. Well, after a cuple of days of internet, email, keynote, iphoto, etc, my RAM, even with all applications closed, is running around 500 used and only 140 free!

So the longer my machine runs without a daily restart, my RAM continues to fill up more and more, leaving an average of 90-100 MB free if all apps are closed.

I don't get it. Why isn't OSX releasing the RAM the closed applications were using?

Also, when my RAM gets full (and stays that way) I seem to have a "pageout frenzy." I have read a lot about pageouts, but no article seems to offer any other resolution besides "add more RAM." Well, my RAM is maxed out...now what?

 

[King Cobra]

The RAM still stored on those chips between restarts is to help aplications start up faster when opened a second time.

If you restart your computer and open a big application (Photoshop, iMovie, etc.), then restart the application, it will open up quicker the second time around.

And if you RAM is maxed out, then leave it. My iBook is maxed out at 320MB and experiences some bogs after applications are open. (I have no idea what the hell a pageout is.) All I know is new activity/applications being opened causes the current "stand-by" data on the RAM chips to be removed so there is room for the new activity.

 

[zarathustra]

I believe an app called MacJanitor should fix your problems. It is basically a GUI frontend to daily, weekly and monthly maintanance scripts for the BSD underpinnings of OSX. Give it a shot.

Link.