Inactive Memory?

[GeorgeFox]

I have an early 2006 Mac Pro with 5GB of RAM and I am running 10.6.2 .

In activity monitor it says I am down to 100 MB of RAM free. Under inactive it says 3.58 GB used. I go to the drop down menu and show only inactive processes; but if i add up the real memory for all the processes it is significantly less than 3.58 GB.

Does anyone have any idea what this means exactly?

Thanks

 

[mac2x]

Inactive RAM typically will be released by the system as needed. I don't know the why's and wherefore's though.

 

[flopticalcube]

Inactive is RAM that was used previously by a process but no longer in use. If the page is requested for use again, its already there and becomes active. If a page is not there, it is taken from the disk and an inactive page (oldest?) is replaced by the new active page.