M1 MBA Memory Question

[iRayGonzalez]

Just picked up a brand new base M1 MBA on November 1 - my first new Mac since 2008. I went back and forth about getting 16GB memory but ultimately decided on 8GB. I saw various reports about RAM leakage so I decided to take a look into my M1 Air.

I haven't upgraded to Monterey yet; I'm still running Big Sur 11.6 but using around 5.5GB memory and pressure stays in the green. I know Chrome is a hog but 5.5GB memory seems excessive. Should I have payed the extra money and gotten 16GB memory in the first place? Anything I can do to reduce memory usage?

 

[Quackers]

It seems that on that workload you're only actually using 3 GB or so as 2GB is cached. You can virtually ignore cached memory as it is rapidly freed up if required by a running programme.
Memory leaks are not that common but they do happen though that's not a reason to get more memory! That's a reason to workaround the leak or wait for a fix
Memory pressure is the only thing you need concern yourself with really.

 

[adamlbiscuit]

Your memory pressure looks great to me As long as that's in green you're okay. I have 8 GB on my Mac mini M1 which frequently goes into amber, and even then, performance is steady. If I were to buy again I'd have gone with 16 GB but only for peace of mind more than necessity.

 

[chabig]

I know Chrome is a hog but 5.5GB memory seems excessive.

That's a subjective feeling. Forget about memory. Let the operating system do its job.

 

[BreakYurAnkles]

I recently purchased a 8gb model as well and am concerned with such high usage.

I noticed widgets are using some ram as well. I wanted to kill/remove/trash them but I cannot figure out how (apple widgets "news" etc..) to free up space.

I don't use those widgets so I would be happy without them and the free space.

TIA

 

[alphasports]

I concurrently run Excel, Onedrive, Edge, Safari, and maybe Outlook (plus whatever other TSRs are active) and always have 3gb+ free on my 8gb M1A. The upcharge for a lousy 8gb is typically Apple...absurd cash grab.

 

[chanerz]

8gb is fine.

 

[StoneJack]

Unless u do photoshop, illistrator, logic pro at same time, u are fine. Even then they all will work albeit less responsive

 

[throAU]

Right now memory leaks on Monterey are a bit of a mess. I have 16 Gb and end up in the amber occasionally due to Windowserver leaks.

But that's due to a bug. Outside of that Monterey is fine. Maybe hold off for 12.1 if you're on 8 gigs.

Modern apps will try to cache things in memory if there is plenty available. So looking at Chrome and thinking its a hog because it has 5 GB in use isn't really the full story. that 5.5 gigs would be mostly unused, something may as well use it if its free. If it is required elsewhere it (idle memory) will be swapped out.

 

[gollum]

Just as an FYI, I was getting the running out of memory warning box on my new M1 MBA running basic stuff. Saw the subreddit about customizing cursor colors being part of the problem.
Set mine back to default, haven't had issues for over 2 weeks.

 

[throAU]

Just as an FYI, I was getting the running out of memory warning box on my new M1 MBA running basic stuff. Saw the subreddit about customizing cursor colors being part of the problem.
Set mine back to default, haven't had issues for over 2 weeks.

I'm still getting issues with Windowserver on my M1-Pro, not sure what is causing it.

I've turned off auto screen brightness which can apparently be an issue with leaking memory with the HDR support but it still happens occasionally.

I'm rebooting once every couple of days when windowserver starts getting out of control. Normally its about 500MB of Ram but I've had it blow out to 18GB before. Not sure what is causing it.

I've never used customised cursors.

Hopefully 12.1 fixes it.

 

[iHorseHead]

I use Xcode, emulators, Visual Studio code, Safari, Chrome all at the same time and I'm fine with my 8GB MBA M1.
I don't even look at my memory usage.

 

[gollum]

I'm still getting issues with Windowserver on my M1-Pro, not sure what is causing it.

I've turned off auto screen brightness which can apparently be an issue with leaking memory with the HDR support but it still happens occasionally.

I'm rebooting once every couple of days when windowserver starts getting out of control. Normally its about 500MB of Ram but I've had it blow out to 18GB before. Not sure what is causing it.

I've never used customised cursors.

Hopefully 12.1 fixes it.

I think customized cursors was a new feature in Monterey. I did a white cursor with red outline. I have that still on my 2018 Intel MBA w/ Monterey without issues.
A lot of people with gaudy specs on their Pros are having memory leak issues also. I hope it gets fixed and it's not an M1 issue.

 

[throAU]

I can say however that (for me at least) the leaks are uncommon, but when they happen they blow out fast.

I can go days without any real leakage, and the all of a sudden I'm in amber memory pressure and window server is at 10 gigs plus.

Its like... when it starts to leak, it leaks hard. Not sure why. Which is another way of saying - with 8 GB you'll be fine, until you hit a memory leak. But then even having 16 or 32 GB of ram will only buy you a little bit more time before needing to reboot or restart window server, because when it leaks... it LEAKS.


I'll also say that for me - no custom cursors, auto brightness turned off, and no third party system management tools like istatmenus or anything installed. This machine is pretty vanilla, the only things installed not from the App Store are bbedit and a little bit of homebrew stuff (Wireshark, Wine) which are very infrequently used.