Activity Monitor Question

[jkaz]

I'm looking at the pie chart for system memory in the activity monitor.

I see wired, active, inactive and free. Wired is red, active is yellow, inactive is blue and free is green.

Anyone have a good explanation of how these work together?

Is inactive almost as good as free? What is wired? If I have any green, does that mean i don't have to close apps for better performance?

Thanks!

 

[Vinnie_vw]

From Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918