Low system memory :(

[happles]

hey.

I bought my Macbook Pro 17'', Intel 3.06 GHz, 4 GB RAM a few days ago.

However, I seem to keep experiencing this System memory issue...

Right after I start the Mac OS, I got around 3 GB of System Memory free (which is still a bit weird, is the Mac OS by itself requiring a whole GB of RAM?), but the more I use my system, the less RAM becomes available. This is normal, but I would expect the memory to return once the applications are closed. Shouldn't that happen?

However, after working with different applications, especially vmware-fusion, and Logic Pro, although I close the applications, only very little System Memory returns. I have attached a screen shot of the system, including the Activity Monitor window. As you can see, with only Safari and Finder opened, I only got less than 700 MB of memory free, out of the 4 GB I have

Is there any way to fix this? I believe this might be what is called a "memory leak". Is there any way to sort it out, without having to reboot my system each time I need memory?

Thanks, I really hope someone can help me out.

Cheers.


Here's the screenshot: http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4207/picture1ysl.png

 

[Eric5h5]

Right after I start the Mac OS, I got around 3 GB of System Memory free (which is still a bit weird, is the Mac OS by itself requiring a whole GB of RAM?)

You have more than that after you boot; see below.

As you can see, with only Safari and Finder opened, I only got less than 700 MB of memory free, out of the 4 GB I have

You have 1.8GB memory free. You add free+inactive to get free RAM. However, the wired+active seems awfully high, yes. Mine has been running for days without being rebooted, and has 512MB of wired+active, and I currently have half a dozen apps running (nothing big at the moment).

--Eric

 

[happles]

Hmm, well if I start Logic Pro, for example, it will start filling up the green area of the circle, until it's completely full, without making any apparent modifications to the blue area (the inactive memory). And when I try to play a project, it tells me it ran out of resources..


What should I do about the wired & active memory?

I really need my full computing power for music production...

It's also a little weird that I am experiencing this after only a few days after I bought it.

 

[bex753]

my macbook after a week or so is using a ridiculous amount of memory with hardly anything running its on 1.65 GB active 700 mb wired as I speak . I assume some program I use leaks memory but I can't pin it down

 

[parapup]

You have got some kernel extensions leaking memory. What other Apps you have installed? I would uninstall the ones that use kexts - one at a time (kextstat command) and see which one is the leaker.

 

[bex753]

things I use that did not come with the os are

Transmission
Firefox
MP3 Trimmer
Audiobook builder
Opera (every now and then)
Real Player downloader
Python is installed
darwine
Parallels desktop (this is a memory hog but a mature program that has all its updates)
Growl

other stuff installed does not get used much

 

[jdechko]

How long has the system been up and running? Have you run logic since starting? Because you have a few hundred Megs of page-outs, which would be slowing your system down.