High RAM Usage on M4 Pro 24 GB – Should I Switch to 32 GB M4 Instead?

[procyontr]

Hi everyone,

This week I bought the 24 GB M4 Pro model. I’ve installed my programs, set everything up, and started using it. I’m a software developer, and I also tend to keep a lot of tabs open in my browser.

Right now, I usually have around 10 active and 60–70 inactive tabs, and my RAM usage sits around 85%. A couple of times I’ve seen it hit 90%, but it’s mostly steady at 85%. CPU usage, on the other hand, rarely goes above 20–30%.

This has made me think: Should I switch to the regular M4 and go for 32 GB of RAM instead?

I’d still choose the 512 GB SSD in both cases. Storage is not an issue for me. I also don’t really need the extra features of the Pro model like Thunderbolt 5.

 

[smirking]

This is the most asked question in the forums. RAM utilization is poorly understood. MacOS always gobbles up as much RAM as it can because unused RAM is wasted RAM so even if you're not pushing your system, your RAM will look like it's close to full usage.

Even when it's being used at 100% and you're getting memory swap, it's not noticeable for most real world usage cases because it happens so fast. It's one thing if you're doing things like audio production or rendering animation. If you're just browsing with a lot of tabs, using Lightroom, or doing Developer things like compiling software you're unlikely to be affected even under heavy memory pressure.

If your computer is performing to your satisfaction, ignore the memory charts. Lots of people freak out over it for no good reason. I've been on a 16GB and now 24GB Silicon Mac for 5 years now doing everything I need to do (and I do a lot) and I've been absolutely fine.

My memory pressure is yellow much of the time. I run multiple VMs, professional photo RAW editors, programming environments, and 3 or 4 browsers with lots of tabs each. Everything runs fine and I never even realize that my RAM is in the yellow until a post like this makes me check. If my M4 Pro is slower because of all this, the penalty is so minimal that it's only costing me a few seconds a day.

 

[MacCheetah3]

View attachment 2543360

The Memory Pressure graph lets you know if your computer is using memory efficiently.

• Green memory pressure: Your computer is using all of its RAM efficiently.
• Yellow memory pressure: Your computer might eventually need more RAM.
• Red memory pressure: Your computer needs more RAM.

Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor

Use Activity Monitor on your Mac to see if memory is being used efficiently and if you need more memory (RAM).

support.apple.com

In other words, if the memory pressure is often yellow, your Mac would run more optimally with more RAM.
Is it necessary? No. That’s what red memory pressure (and possibly lots of pinwheel/beachball cursors) indicates.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Right now, I usually have around 10 active and 60–70 inactive tabs,

“You do you” but I strongly recommend working on converting bad to good practices/habits/routines.

Why You Should Never Have More Than Nine Browser Tabs Open

I often hear people complain that their browser is slow and unstable. It's easy to blame browser developers for using sloppy coding practices and not

lifehacker.com

Not only is it better mental health, it will probably save you financially (i.e., feeling you need a Mac with more RAM).

P.S. I once was that person who kept dozens of tabs open for later, emails in inboxes, tons of files in the Downloads folder. A couple of destructive (i.e., reset everything) (Firefox) browser updates and things becoming unwieldy messy and nearly a cluster**** convinced me to finally change my ways (e.g., back to bookmarking, save important messages as PDFs)

 

[throAU]

Wtf is going on with the Zen control panel?

Sounds like a crappy web application memory leak to me

Sure your machine looks like it is running low on memory and under memory stress but I'm not sure if throwing more at it will fix the root cause: what looks to be a crappy web app that you are keeping many tabs of open for days, leaking like a sieve.

You may want to consider closing tabs, I see tabs open in activity monitor consuming GBs of RAM that have been open for days, and doubt you're actively using them.

Again, throwing Ram at the problem may help but it won't fix the root cause... which is leaving leaky web apps open for days when you aren't using them.

basically this:

“You do you” but I strongly recommend working on converting bad to good practices/habits/routines.

 

[Fishrrman]

"Right now, I usually have around 10 active and 60–70 inactive tabs"

Get rid of all those tabs.
No more than 5-10 or so at any time (both active AND inactive).
My prediction is that after doing so, your RAM situation will improve drastically.

(The ol' Fishrrman is morally opposed to "tabbed browsing"...🐢)

 

[gilby101]

Wtf is going on with the Zen control panel?

My understanding is that "isolated web content" processes in Firefox (and related browsers - e.g. Zen) frequently consume lots of RAM. I don't know if this is a bug or a design issue.

Right now, I usually have around 10 active and 60–70 inactive tabs,

Turn on other columns in Activity Monitor's memory view. In particular Private Memory - that is RAM used by the process and NOT shared with others. If your ZenCP Isolated Web Content processes are each using lots of Private Memory that is problem.

I run AM's memory tab showing all of Memory, Real Memory, (Real) Private Memory, (Real) Shared Memory and Compressed Memory. High real memory and private memory are good indicators of processes that are memory hungry.

NB. I have put (Real) in front of Private Memory because the column chooser calls it Real Private Memory whilst the column header line is just Private Memory.

At a guess, I would say that your use of Zen is causing problems. Maybe Safari would be happier. Depends really on the nature of the web pages or web apps.

If Zen is essential to the way your work and you notice slow downs, then you would benefit from more RAM. If the issue (if it is an issue) is causing slow downs, then maybe you need more than just a bump up to 32GB - in other words RAM requirements could be a reason to stay with M4 Pro, but with more RAM..

 

[X86refugee]

Not sure why so many people seem to be proud of how many browser windows they have open at a time. Its as if it has social cachet akin to dropping your Beemer is in the shop again into a conversation.

I do networking and have Office, Visio, numerous PDF's, tools/utilities and maybe 8-10 brower tabs. 16GB older Wintop seems to function fine.
Having 50/60/70 tabs open with information relying on the browser to not fault and lose it all just seems insane or some weird ADHD/focus issue.
Not sure if/how Apple does browser inactivation, but while you may be utilizing all available memory more efficiently, how many threads and processes are sitting there wasting compute resources in tabs 20 to 70 that you haven't looked at in hours/days?

 

[Blade024]

“You do you” but I strongly recommend working on converting bad to good practices/habits/routines.

Why You Should Never Have More Than Nine Browser Tabs Open

I often hear people complain that their browser is slow and unstable. It's easy to blame browser developers for using sloppy coding practices and not

lifehacker.com

Not only is it better mental health, it will probably save you financially (i.e., feeling you need a Mac with more RAM).

P.S. I once was that person who kept dozens of tabs open for later, emails in inboxes, tons of files in the Downloads folder. A couple of destructive (i.e., reset everything) (Firefox) browser updates and things becoming unwieldy messy and nearly a cluster**** convinced me to finally change my ways (e.g., back to bookmarking, save important messages as PDFs)

I started using the "auto close tabs" feature earlier this year, and I have to admit that I didn't think I'd like it, but I do.

 

[John Frahm]

My M4 with 16gb ram has stayed at 50% memory pressure even though the ram looks almost full. as said before Apple handles ram differently certiainly with silicone chips. I also don't run 7 programs at once.

 

[gilby101]

Not really on topic, but what do you use to produce those graphs?

 

[throAU]

Not sure why so many people seem to be proud of how many browser windows they have open at a time. Its as if it has social cachet akin to dropping your Beemer is in the shop again into a conversation.

Nor do i, i can't stand the clutter personally.

Bookmarks, history. It's what they're for. Having tens or hundreds of tabs open is just a waste of resources and useless clutter.

Once i get beyond 15-20 tabs in total (i use separate profiles for personal and work windows) i start closing stuff, just to better keep track of what's going on.

 

[John Frahm]

I was just saying that 16 gb ram is plenty for me, I see people all the time that say there ram is full, unless you are doing some serious work 24 is enough, I am a retired engineer that use cad on my Mac mini and a day trader running two 40" displays with accounting software and never stressed my measly 16 gb. but two your question here is screenshot from app store, along with two full (almost) screenshots of app

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Open up every app on your system, you will find it's still quite snappy, and you'll find that macOS still has free RAM available.

As others have said, macOS just uses up your RAM for things like caching when it's otherwise not in use by an app to maximize system speed. As you use more RAM for apps, it releases it from these "speed-up processes."

 

[throAU]

Open up every app on your system, you will find it's still quite snappy, and you'll find that macOS still has free RAM available.

As others have said, macOS just uses up your RAM for things like caching when it's otherwise not in use by an app to maximize system speed. As you use more RAM for apps, it releases it from these "speed-up processes."

That's not what is the problem on the OP machine.