4gb RAM Unibody Macbook - Always have free/inactive - why do I have page outs?

[akm3]

iStat is reporting I have a swap of 20mb/64mb and ever growing Page In's and a few page outs.

I always show at least SOME free memory, usually >1gig and inactive between 200 and 700 - why am I having a swap file at all?

I'm not sure if I've hosed something. Is this normal?

 

[macuserx86]

No need to worry, that's just the nature of OS X (and Unix in general). If I'm not mistaken, OS X has multiple swap files in use at once so it's just a normal thing for there to be swap.
I wouldn't worry about it unless you are experiencing really crappy performance.

 

[gr8tfly]

This should help explain what you're seeing: Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor