How to Free up RAM Usage in MBP

[mox123]

I have the base 2.4GHz i5 15" model. I notice that even with 4GB worth of RAM, my machine does page in/page out in the million range. What can I do to control how much RAM each of my applications would eat up?

What does "window server" process do, since i always see it eating up ~70MB of RAM? What about "mds", "mdswork", and "kernel_task"? "coreservicesd"? Can I quit these processes?? :confused

Why does Safari hog up so much RAM always?

 

[spinnerlys]

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Making The Most of Activity Monitor

"window server": It draws the neat GUI you see.
"mds": Spotlight indexing process
"kernel_task": basic (virtual/)memory manager for Mac OS X on top of Mach

Mac OS X: What Are All Those Processes?

It's best not to fiddle with these processes.

 

[Queso]

Safari has known memory leaks meaning the longer you leave it open the more RAM it uses. Shut the program occasionally to free that up.

The core OS shouldn't be eating into your RAM so heavily. Can we have a few more details on the software you're running? It might give some clues.

 

[djasterix]

Are you experiencing a great slow down of your system? Because I have the same specs as you and my system is running great...

 

[mox123]

these are the screenshots of my activity monitor. They can't be fitted onto one screen though. So what would be my issue of constantly running out of RAM?

 

[Frosties]

these are the screenshots of my activity monitor. They can't be fitted onto one screen though. So what would be my issue of constantly running out of RAM?

Matlab, safari, mathematica, adobe illustrator open + flash a runaway service in safari that could be closed and you are working in illustrator for example=> 8GB

Just exit some programs instead of closing them, the system alone grabs some RAM so your 4GB is not enough for you. Just go 8GB if you want to work like you do.

 

[Neo-Tech]

Try repairing your Disk Permissions from Disk Utility, I get this problem every few weeks, it's a bug in Snow Leopard, as I know I'm not the only one.

 

[Corndog5595]

The little pie chart can be deceiving, incase you were looking at that and were concerned. Inactive and Free both make up the ‘not currently being used’ ram. Basically inactive is ram that is not currently needed, so things are being stored in its memory for a short period of time. After quitting a virtual machine you may see a jump in the ‘Inactive’ section; it will be reallocated to the free section shortly afterwards if it’s needed. I think this makes recently closed applications relaunch faster.

just for ***** and giggles, heres a screenshot of my activity monitor.

 

[Queso]

Close Safari properly with a Quit (cmd + Q) rather than just closing the window. That'll get you 1GB or so back straight off.

 

[Corndog5595]

running Leaks on safari now.

 

[kiwicrunch]

You may want to try "reset safari" (menu item under "safari")

 

[mox123]

hmmm....so 8GB can be useful even for a user like myself....i always thought that 4GB would be more than ample, given that I don't even run virtualization that often... 😱