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"...🐢)