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macbook123

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 11, 2006
1,869
85
This computer keeps swapping like crazy, 5 GB of page-outs in a single session.
All I have open is Safari, Mail, Skype, Aperture, and iTunes.

Currently always using up 100% of the 8 GB, split between Aperture (1.5 GB), Safari Web Content (~1.1 GB), kernel_task (~800 MB), Safari (~650 MB), Mail (~500 MB), WindowServer (~400 MB), Skype (~350 MB), iTunes (~120 MB), and some extra Wired and Inactive memory.

What am I doing wrong? Is 8 GB really insufficient for this machine?
 
This computer keeps swapping like crazy, 5 GB of page-outs in a single session.
All I have open is Safari, Mail, Skype, Aperture, and iTunes.

Currently always using up 100% of the 8 GB, split between Aperture (1.5 GB), Safari Web Content (~1.1 GB), kernel_task (~800 MB), Safari (~650 MB), Mail (~500 MB), WindowServer (~400 MB), Skype (~350 MB), iTunes (~120 MB), and some extra Wired and Inactive memory.

What am I doing wrong? Is 8 GB really insufficient for this machine?
  1. Launch Activity Monitor
  2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
  3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
  4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
  5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
  6. Post your screenshots.
 
  1. Launch Activity Monitor
  2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
  3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
  4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
  5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
  6. Post your screenshots.

That's pretty much what I did, except I posted a write-up instead of graphical representation of the results.
 
How much "free" memory do you have, and how much "inactive"?

Inactive memory is practically the same as free memory.

It's just memory that has been previously used, and can now be reused, but still retains data that allows faster load times should that data be needed again.
 
How much "free" memory do you have, and how much "inactive"?

Inactive memory is practically the same as free memory.

It's just memory that has been previously used, and can now be reused, but still retains data that allows faster load times should that data be needed again.

Hmm, doesn't it depend on the application whether the memory is used again or not?
 
Well yeah but if another application comes along and it needs the extra RAM, Inactive memory is treated the same as Free memory.

Makes sense, thanks.

I should try to find out why it's swapping so much.

Am returning this one because of dead pixels, and the only thing they have in stores now is the 2.6 GHz, 512 GB SSD version, also with 8 GB RAM. While I do need the larger SSD, I have yet to convince myself that the 8 GB RAM wouldn't be the bottleneck on this replacement machine.
 
Let us know how it works out for you. That's the same setup (2.6/512/8) that I was planning to go with, just waiting a bit to see how reviews are down the road a month or so.
 
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