Is my Macbook eating too much RAM?

[bowlman23]

I'm not super techy, but I've read some things on here about rMBPs eating RAM. I've been trying to keep the RAM in check, but the usage is pretty high right now. I don't notice any slow down with my computer, but a lot of RAM is being eaten up according to the Activity Monitor. I have the 8GB model because I really didn't think I would need 16GB on the day to day. Now, I'm regretting it a little.

What browser is best for low RAM usage?

Here's a screenshot.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[GGJstudios]

I'm not super techy, but I've read some things on here about rMBPs eating RAM. I've been trying to keep the RAM in check, but the usage is pretty high right now.

The only thing you need to watch for is page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used

 

[jav6454]

Yes it is, but at the same time I see you have several applications running. Do you need all of them running? Closing some of them will save RAM. Also, can you sort the usage levels (highest RAM consumers to lowest)?

Also, I use Safari if it makes any difference. Although I tend to use Chrome at times.

 

[ezramoore]

Your Microsoft apps are eating up about 1.5 GB of your RAM. Outlook is a major hog.

 

[identity]

I always use Chrome and sometimes the ram usage goes really high, especially when I'm streaming videos or movies online.

You should close your programs that you aren't using. Remember, just because you click the red circle on the window doesn't mean that the program is actually close. Always use command-q to fully close your programs to free up ram space.

You can also download the program app "free memory" from the app store. I use it to clear the ram's memory and free it. There's other alternatives on the app store as well so if you're paranoid about the amount of ram is free, try out an app.

 

[praktical]

MacBook eating ram

Your Microsoft apps are eating up about 1.5 GB of your RAM. Outlook is a major hog.

Well that's just a tech sin right there. It has always been my rule etched in stone that putting Microsoft Apps on your MacBook or any other Apple device is a defilement of said device.
Maybe it's just my complete dislike and disgust of Microsoft.

 

[GGJstudios]

Maybe it's just my complete dislike and disgust of Microsoft.

Pretty much. MS Office for Mac is extremely useful.

 

[jav6454]

Well that's just a tech sin right there. It has always been my rule etched in stone that putting Microsoft Apps on your MacBook or any other Apple device is a defilement of said device.
Maybe it's just my complete dislike and disgust of Microsoft.

I used to find this was my main thought, but Microsoft has done some great things lately. Metro UI for touch based devices (I think its a atrocious to use with traditional keyboard+mouse) and Surface.

 

[ezramoore]

Pretty much. MS Office for Mac is extremely useful.

I agree with this.

However, if you can get away with another email client (or even webmail) you could probably save some RAM. You're losing a whole gig just to your email.

 

[ahdickter]

You can also download the program app "free memory" from the app store. I use it to clear the ram's memory and free it.

^this. You currently have 2.70GB of inactive RAM. This is RAM that has been set aside for an application that doesn't need it at the moment but has quicker access to it later. OS X is supposed to convert this inactive RAM to available RAM for other applications, but this doesn't always occur efficiently. These small memory freeing programs simply force inactive to active RAM. There's no danger in doing this. You should be fine with 8GB with your current usage. Enjoy it!

 

[OnceYouGoMac]

Your Microsoft apps are eating up about 1.5 GB of your RAM. Outlook is a major hog.

Now why am I not surprised? No one does bloatware like Microsoft!

 

[1member1]

Firefox and microsoft apps will eat all your memory. I don't see a reason to run Outlook when you have Mail client but this is your decision.

Anyway some did not say it but there is also a problem with memory on the mac os. I'm with 8GB too and with only Safari + iTunes + Spotify and maybe Apstore I get 1GB RAM left.
I ran the command purge from Terminal and then 4.7GB free.

8GB is okay

 

[coldjeanzzz]

How often do you restart or turnoff your computer? Leaving it on or putting it to sleep and not properly quitting the programs will cause the RAM to accumulate like that over time. I shut down at the end of every day just so I can start fresh with my RAM the next day.

Right now my main apps running:

Safari (web content at 406 mb, safari itself at 220 mb)
Skype (144 mb)
Twitter (34)
Preview (87)
Anki (79 mb)
Mail (108 mb)
Finder (72)

then a bunch of random stuff

I am currently using 3.53 GB and have 4.47 GB free.

 

[duervo]

It's not a problem as much with SSDs. If you ever start to page at all, the performance impact won't be anywhere as bad as it would be if you were not using an SSD drive for storage.

With that said, with 2.7GB of inactive memory, that gives OS X a pretty big bucket to draw from if any new active programs request memory. So, I wouldn't worry about it so much. Just trust in OS X's memory management techniques, and try not to be so focused on numbers in Activity Monitor.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

 

[kage207]

Other people said they don't like MS Office, I do however like it. I do not like Outlook. I much rather use Apple Mail (88MB for me) as I always have it running. Why is Outlook using so much memory? That'd be my question.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

This isn't exactly true. What is much more important is the ratio between page ins and page outs. Page outs as a standalone statistic are not indicative of anything really.

----------

OS X is supposed to convert this inactive RAM to available RAM for other applications, but this doesn't always occur efficiently.

It's only freed up if the kernel decides it's needed. Also, Mountain Lion is much better at doing this than Lion or SL was.

Previously some people were finding that Inactive memory was not being freed up, at the expense of page outs (this is bad). Mountain Lion's revised memory management seems to solve most of these issues.

 

[bowlman23]

Firefox and microsoft apps will eat all your memory. I don't see a reason to run Outlook when you have Mail client but this is your decision.

Anyway some did not say it but there is also a problem with memory on the mac os. I'm with 8GB too and with only Safari + iTunes + Spotify and maybe Apstore I get 1GB RAM left.
I ran the command purge from Terminal and then 4.7GB free.

8GB is okay

I would rather use Mail as well, but for some reason, my Exchange account isn't downloading all of the mail. I'm missing a year's worth of mail from there.

So, Chrome or Safari?

I do restart every now and then, although I haven't restarted in three days.

 

[GGJstudios]

This isn't exactly true. What is much more important is the ratio between page ins and page outs. Page outs as a standalone statistic are not indicative of anything really.

That is false. There is no meaningful correlation between page outs and page ins. You will always have page ins, but you may not ever have page outs. Also, you can run for weeks or months, accumulating page ins, then go through a period of intense activity for only a few minutes which produces page outs. No ratio between the two is useful. The only thing that indicates a need for more RAM is the presence of significant page outs during normal workload, regardless of the page ins.

 

[kylera]

That is false. There is no meaningful correlation between page outs and page ins. You will always have page ins, but you may not ever have page outs. Also, you can run for weeks or months, accumulating page ins, then go through a period of intense activity for only a few minutes which produces page outs. No ratio between the two is useful. The only thing that indicates a need for more RAM is the presence of significant page outs during normal workload, regardless of the page ins.

That, I think, is the biggest issue. I've looked up info about page in and out on and off, and defining "significant" is the hardest part.

 

[GGJstudios]

That, I think, is the biggest issue. I've looked up info about page in and out on and off, and defining "significant" is the hardest part.

See my first post in this thread.

 

[1member1]

I would rather use Mail as well, but for some reason, my Exchange account isn't downloading all of the mail. I'm missing a year's worth of mail from there.

So, Chrome or Safari?

I do restart every now and then, although I haven't restarted in three days.

I use webkit nightly builds but they are all the same (besides the smooth scrolling on webkit) on memory leaks.
I use mail for exchange and I don't have the same problem as you do.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

That is false. There is no meaningful correlation between page outs and page ins.

I was simply suggesting that looking at page outs in a vacuum is not indicative of much. Other things to consider would be the uptime of the machine, the pattern over which the page outs ocurred and the activities being performed at the time will play a part.

And whilst I wasn't suggesting a causal relationship, the ratio will most certainly be useful.

What you're essentially saying is that if my Mac shows 1GB page ins and 512MB page outs that this is no different from if it showed 30GB page ins and 512MB page outs?

Whilst both suggest that swapping is occurring, if all other factors are constant, it is happening with a much higher relative frequency in the first example.

 

[GGJstudios]

I was simply suggesting that looking at page outs in a vacuum is not indicative of much. Other things to consider would be the uptime of the machine, the pattern over which the page outs were ocurred and the activities being performed at the time will play a part.

That is true. That's why my post recommended restarting, then tracking page outs under normal workloads.

What you're essentially saying is that if my Mac shows 1GB page ins and 512MB page outs that this is no different from if it showed 30GB page ins and 512MB page outs

Correct. Only the conditions under which the page outs occurred are relative. The user may have never had page outs for months (accumulating page ins), then installed an app or an update that caused page outs to start occurring. A significant number of page ins could have occurred while using a particular app, with no page outs. Then an app which is a memory hog could be launched, causing page outs in minutes. The only thing to track is page outs under normal workload.