My File cache is 1.5GB at login

[Redstoneq42]

My File cache is at 1.5GB as soon as a login. If I run the memory clean app, it reduces it to about 250mb if I have no other apps open. Is this normal? Is there something I can do to reduce it without using memory clean? Thanks.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

My File cache is at 1.5GB as soon as a login. If I run the memory clean app, it reduces it to about 250mb if I have no other apps open. Is this normal? Is there something I can do to reduce it without using memory clean? Thanks.

Why are you trying to lower it? File Caching allows for apps previously opened to open instantly. If your RAM fills up to being almost full, it will clear all of your file cache, then it will compression around 50-60% of your total RAM before it then page's-out. Just leave it. Free RAM =wasted RAM, and if an app needed more RAM the OS would clear file cache for you.

 

[Redstoneq42]

Why are you trying to lower it? File Caching allows for apps previously opened to open instantly. If your RAM fills up to being almost full, it will clear all of your file cache, then it will compression around 50-60% of your total RAM before it then page's-out. Just leave it. Free RAM =wasted RAM, and if an app needed more RAM the OS would clear file cache for you.

But the more RAM is in use, the more my computer tends to heat up and use the fans. Is that normal?

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

But the more RAM is in use, the more my computer tends to heat up and use the fans. Is that normal?

By using more RAM (i.e running lots of apps), your computer will get hotter. This is not due to the increased amount of RAM in use, but the more CPU usage due to all of the apps open. File cache on the other hand will not make it hotter.

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For you to understand the way OSX manages RAM, it might be best for you to experience it first hand (I also say another thread you made were you were wondering why you were using so much RAM). First, I will tell you my experience:

When having iMovie open with a large video, and Chrome with a 5-10 tabs, I am using 6Gb of my 8Gb of RAM. The system can then use another 2Gb before it hits the total, where is will start to clear App Cache, then another 2-3Gb (App Cache) before it starts compressing RAM, then another 4-6Gb before touching Swap (ie- ran out of RAM). So in this circumstance, using 6Gb of RAM is using 31.5% before I run out of RAM.

If your RAM pressure is red and you are a Swap/Page-out larger than a few Kb then your Macbook has ran out of RAM. If it is green, and you still have a lot of cache left, you are using a tiny amount.

With RAM compression, I had all of my applications open, iMovie doing some exporting, and 100 tabs split between Chrome and Safari (around 50/50 each) and I was using 15.14Gb of RAM with my 8Gb of RAM iMac . And it still never touched swap. And my RAM compression was green. This is due to the heavy caching OSX does (to make apps launch instantly, rather than fetching data from backing storage which is a much slower process) as well as RAM compression. RAM compression uses the WKdm compression algorithm allowing data held in RAM to be compressed and decompressed almost instantly meaning you can have a lot more running before you run out of RAM. As said above, I use using 15.15Gb of RAM (and my iMac has 8Gb). What this means, is that the data within RAM consisted of 15.14Gb (with some being compressed to make it fit on the 2X4Gb modules, but then instantly decompressed when needed).

Another thing to note, is that when I was using this much, my iMac was still very responsive (90% as responsive when compared to not pushing it). RAM pressure was also green, meaning I could push around 17Gb of RAM on my 8Gb system.

I hope this has helped you understand how RAM works in Mavericks. When you see "Memory Used: 7.xx", don't just think you are using all of it. Look at App Cache then add that number on to your total RAM (i.e 7.xx out of 10/11Gb of RAM used, rather than 7.xx out of 8Gb used), then look at Compressed RAM and if 0 add 6Gb again on to your total. In the end, you are using 7Gb out of 17Gb. Also look at RAM pressure: green indicated you have loads of free RAM, amber indicated you are pushing the system RAM but there is still RAM free, and red indicated you have ran out of RAM and data has to be swapped to disk.

Now to do this yourself, open Activty Monitor and look at the memory tab. Now go to your Application folder in finder, then press CMD-A (to select all) and double click one of the apps. This will open every app you have on your computer. Once all are open, then look at Activity Monitor. If the memory pressure bar is still green, you are still not pushing it. If so, try opening a lot of tabs in a web browser (Chrome, Safari...) and watch your usage build up.

You will notice through doing this, your computer will first go from 4Gb of RAM (while running nothing) to 7.99Gb, then it will clear file cache, then it will compress your RAM to a point where you have pushed it too far and it has to swap. While doing the above, look at the Virtual Memory to see how much data is in RAM (with Mavericks, you can fit 6Gb of data on 4Gb of RAM and, through my tests, 18.5Gb with 8Gb of RAM.

PS- only open all of your apps if you are comfortable with closing them all down again, it can take a long time to close everything again!

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

My File cache is at 1.5GB as soon as a login. If I run the memory clean app, it reduces it to about 250mb if I have no other apps open. Is this normal? Is there something I can do to reduce it without using memory clean? Thanks.

And just to let you know, I have 3.8Gb of file cache right now.

 

[GPap]

My File cache is at 1.5GB as soon as a login. If I run the memory clean app, it reduces it to about 250mb if I have no other apps open. Is this normal? Is there something I can do to reduce it without using memory clean? Thanks.

You can try Onyx, maybe it's good for your case. Use Automation tab or whatever you want.