Dashboard and RAM question?

[Eanair]

Does anyone know if Dashboard takes up RAM when it's not open?

I've read several places online that Dashboard is a RAM hog so try not to have too many widgets (or completely disable Dashboard to begin with) - but does that apply to when it's open and you're using the widgets, or also when it's closed and you're just doing your normal computing? Does Dashboard only "turn on" when you open it and start using memory then? Or is it always sucking on the RAM regardless of if you have it opened or not?

My Dashboard isn't open right now, and my Activity Monitor says this about it:

Dashboard client / 7 threads / 40.22 MB real memory / 1 GB virtual memory

And again a few lines down:

Dashboard client / 4 threads / 11.3 8 MB real memory / 917.36 MB virtual memory

Is that significant for not having Dashboard open?

I have a fair few of widgets, but I don't open Dashboard on a frequent basis.

 

[r.j.s]

Unless you disable it using a terminal command, dashboard is always running and using RAM ... but how much depends on how many widgets you use.

Follow these steps to disable it:

1. Open Terminal from the Utilites folder.

2. Type:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

and press Enter.

3. Restart the Mac and the Dashboard will be disabled.

 

[Eanair]

Ahhkay, so it's always sucking on my RAM.

Does how much RAM it uses depend on the number of widgets I've pulled to the screen to actively use? For example, I have 22 widgets total, but I've only dragged 3 of them to my Dashboard area.

Sorry for the complete technologically illiterate question.

EDIT: PS, if you turn off Dashboard like that, if one day you upgrade your RAM, could you turn it back on?

 

[r.j.s]

Ahhkay, so it's always sucking on my RAM.

Does how much RAM it uses depend on the number of widgets I've pulled to the screen to actively use? For example, I have 22 widgets total, but I've only dragged 3 of them to my Dashboard area.

Yes. It only counts the ones actively displayed in the dashboard area.

EDIT: PS, if you turn off Dashboard like that, if one day you upgrade your RAM, could you turn it back on?

Yes. In that terminal command, change YES to NO.

 

[miles01110]

Does how much RAM it uses depend on the number of widgets I've pulled to the screen to actively use? For example, I have 22 widgets total, but I've only dragged 3 of them to my Dashboard area.

Yes, this matters.

EDIT: PS, if you turn off Dashboard like that, if one day you upgrade your RAM, could you turn it back on?

Yes, open Terminal and type

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

killall Dock

(You also don't have to restart your Mac as r.j.s. says in step 3 of his post, you can just do "killall Dock" there as well)

 

[r.j.s]

(You also don't have to restart your Mac as r.j.s. says in step 3 of his post, you can just do "killall Dock" there as well)

These are instructions that I found somewhere else ... I figured that it wasn't absolutely necessary.