This is the problem I just bought a brand new 2009 iMac with 4 Gigs of RAM. I installed the iStat Pro app that shows whats running and how much things are going on. I noticed that the RAM indicator went from 4 GIGS of RAM to 940MB of RAM. I'm freaking out b/c this a brand new computer. Is there a solution to bring the RAM back to normal?
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How to bring RAM back to normal
- Thread starter MikeMacPL
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I can only imagine that you are looking at the amount of available RAM. Quit out of some programs and your RAM amount should increase. Freaking out is not necessary, there's nothing wrong here rather you are just mis-understanding what iStat is telling you.
You probably have some specific programs that are eating up the RAM and it did not release it after you quit it. Simply do a restart and you should be able to get your free RAM back. Also, Snow Leopard might be able to improve this as well.
RAM usage by the computer is sort of mysterious since programs borrow memory and the OS sometimes moves around which app is using what. What's important to know, right now, for you, is that your computer recognizes that it has 4 GB of RAM. You can do this many ways in many programs (Activity Monitor, System Profiler, About this Mac dialog, iStat, etc.), as long as you can verify your computer has 4 GB then there is nothing to be concerned about.
You have to add all those numbers together to get your total RAM. If you do that with these numbers you come pretty darn close to 4 GB. Not sure if your system has integrated graphics, which uses up system RAM to function, which may account for the rest to total 4 GB.