freeing up memory - how do I do that!!?

[kwahl]

I finally figured out how to get into the activity monitor and it's looking a little full: 12.30 MB free (system memory) 13.36 GB (disk usage - with both firefox and network totally full - 0 bytes).

Just trying to figure out why it's all running slower and now would like some help on what do next to empty these out!

Thanks so much!

 

[Eidorian]

How much RAM do you have?

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

Inactive RAM is still available RAM.

 

[netnothing]

Can you post a screen shot or list exactly what the bottom section of the System Memory section says in Activity Monitor.

Also, what version of OS X are you running?

-Kevin

 

[kwahl]

OS X version 10.3.9

The system memory section says: wired 90.26 MB Active: 188.61MB Inactive: 240.37 MB Used: 520.75 Free: 250.21 MB VM size: 3.65 GB
Color wheel total = 768.00 MB

 

[CanadaRAM]

Don't worry, be happy. Let OSX handle the memory for you.

The thing to look for is the ratio of page ins to page outs.

You are wanting Page Outs to be around 5% of the Page Ins
If the Page Outs are getting higher than 10% (10:1 ratio ins to outs ) then you should start thinking of buying more RAM, or failing that, cutting down on the number of programs you run, and getting rid of unnecessary processes.

 

[darwinian]

It sounds silly, but restarting a machine that's been running for days on end will at least give you a fresh start on your memory usage.

As others have said, check those page ins/outs and don't worry about Inactive memory - for all intent and purposes that's free. If you haven't already, grab iStat Menus and monitor your RAM usage. Fun galore.