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Is this normal?
- Thread starter t4ggs
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That is normal. Don't worry too much about it. You will know when your computer is struggling with RAM usage, it will be very, very, very, very slow. This same exact question gets posted every week here. 
That is normal. Don't worry too much about it. You will know when your computer is struggling with RAM usage, it will be very, very, very, very slow. This same exact question gets posted every week here.
Of course I notice it... but why the OS doesn't free the unused memory by itself?
That's perfectly fine, as all that blue slice of the pie can be freed up when required to store other things - No matter how much RAM you have you will always have a big blue slice You only need to be worried when your pie is entirely red and yellow, ok?
You only need to be worried when your pie is entirely red and yellow, ok?That's perfectly fine, as all that blue slice of the pie can be freed up when required to store other things - No matter how much RAM you have you will always have a big blue slice
Thanks, but my question is why the computer slows down? why the OS doesn't free automatically the blue slice?
It does free the unused memory by itself, but only when required. For example, if you open App1, use it for a bit, then close it and open App2, what's the point in canning all the data from App1 when there is more than enough RAM for App2 to run on? You might want to go back to go back to App1 without having to restart it, right? Imagine if you were browsing a web page in Safari, and you switched to Mail for a sec to check your emails, and Safari quit, canning your webpage you had open. That's what would happen if the OS canned all the blue slice
It does free the unused memory by itself, but only when required. For example, if you open App1, use it for a bit, then close it and open App2, what's the point in canning all the data from App1 when there is more than enough RAM for App2 to run on? You might want to go back to go back to App1 without having to restart it, right? Imagine if you were browsing a web page in Safari, and you switched to Mail for a sec to check your emails, and Safari quit, canning your webpage you had open. That's what would happen if the OS canned all the blue slice
Yes, I get it, but still, when I don't have ram left, it should free at least a part of the blue slice... cause once every few day it get's really slow and it's because of the RAM
Thanks for your explanation
Well from what your screenshot shows the operating system has cleared a part of the blue slice: That little slither of green, see it there? If you open up a large app the OS should clear as much of the blue as required for optimum performance, as optimum performance in the current app is more important than maintaining others in the background.
Are you sure your Mac gets slow every few days because of the RAM? How do you know? The reason I ask is because that shouldn't happen, as the OS should automatically clear enough to stop sluggishness. You can clear the blue slice manually, but you shouldn't have to unless there's something wrong with your Mac.
Yes, I'm pretty sure, it happens to me a lot, actually it happened more often when I only had 4 Gb, that's why I bought 8...
I noticed the small green slice, of only about 247 Mb.. isn't that small?
So, was your Mac really slow when you took that screenshot? If not, have a look at your activity monitor when your Mac is really slow - It will then be easy to diagnose: If the pie is virtually all red & yellow, it's the RAM. If not, it's something else.
Oh, and when your Mac gets really slow, how does the issue resolve? Do you reboot? Or does the problem resolve itself?
Yep, it was really slow, and it always has a big blue slice, I used to reboot, but now I'm using an app from the app store for freeing up memory...the fact that there are so many apps like that, makes me think that I'm no the only one with this problem... I think apple should fix it.
And I always check, maybe is something else, but cpu is normal and I have lot's of space on my HD...so, it seem's like only RAM.
What version of OSX are you running? And what apps do you use on a regular basis, as one of your apps could have a memory leak?
I'm on Mountain Lion, everything is up to date and all my apps are legal.
I always have open: Safari, Mail, Reeder(app store), Socialite(app store), Translator (app store), iCal, Evernote(app store), Plex Media Server, Dropbox, Rowmote Helper, BetterTouchTool... That's it.
I also use more heavy apps, like iMovie, iPhoto, MS Office and sometimes even Parallels with Windows 7, so I do use a lot's of RAM, but I don't understand why it won't free by itself?
I don't think it's a memory leak, because as you can see from the screenshot, the list is sorted by more RAM usage, so if I find an app sucking up lots of ram, I quit it...in this case I can't quit Kernel_Task hehehe
Although Safari has been known for memory leaks, it does in fact look like the kernel_task task is the culprit. You can't quit kernel_task because it is a system task, not an app one. Here's an in depth article about the kernel_task issue, as in what is it and what causes it. Good luck
Although Safari has been known for memory leaks, it does in fact look like the kernel_task task is the culprit. You can't quit kernel_task because it is a system task, not an app one. Here's an in depth article about the kernel_task issue, as in what is it and what causes it. Good luck
Thanks for the help
I agree with everyone else, I dont think your machine is slowing down because its running out of memory.
The inactive memory is effectively free memory that can be re-allocated to other processes or freed by the OS.
When you machine runs out of memory itll page out and write whats in RAM to disk, this will definitely slow down your machine but if you look at your page outs youll see that its a relatively small amount, only 244MB.
When your machine goes slow, Id suggest taking a screenshot of activity monitor and checking for any processes that are consuming high amounts of CPU and if youre having a high number of current page outs (the value in parenthesis).
Probably a good idea to repair disk permissions.
The inactive memory is effectively free memory that can be re-allocated to other processes or freed by the OS.
When you machine runs out of memory itll page out and write whats in RAM to disk, this will definitely slow down your machine but if you look at your page outs youll see that its a relatively small amount, only 244MB.
When your machine goes slow, Id suggest taking a screenshot of activity monitor and checking for any processes that are consuming high amounts of CPU and if youre having a high number of current page outs (the value in parenthesis).
Probably a good idea to repair disk permissions.
No problem
Here's a screenshot of my activity monitor (I've got 4GB of RAM) and as you can see the kernel_task is taking up a significant amount of my RAM too. I had a look at your screenshot again and I noticed that Safari, along with Safari Web Content (which is pretty much Safari as well) is taking up over a GB of your RAM, whereas Google Chrome on my system is only taking up 240MB, even with quite a few tabs open. So maybe give a different browser a try, as you could free up 7 or 800 MB - Almost as much as the kernel_task is taking from you Attachments
No problem
even so, there is inactive memory, so even if safari is taking 1/8 of my memory, there is still lots of memory that the OS won't free by itself
Yes, I see your point. The strange thing is is the fact that your page outs are low, in fact, only a fraction of the number of page outs I get on my system (and my system is reasonably fast IMO). It might be a fluke though, as you could have taken that screenshot shortly after you restarted or purged the RAM - So could you please take another two or three screenshots at various intervals so we can get a better idea of your page outs?