Macbook (may 2010) Not using all memory

[chaky31]

Hi
I have a Macbook 13" from May 2010. Pretty darn new. It has 100gb free on HD and 4gb memory. I can be running four programs, two browsers, transfering 10gb, while downloading 10gb, and installing 20gb (actual scenario with rounded numbers) and the computer will run slow as can be (naturally). But when I open Activity Monitor. It shows 2 gb UNUSED in memory!!!!!!

I know for a fact that this macbook supports 4gb memory and unnoficially supports 8gb memory. So why isn't my computer utilizing half its memory capabilties???

Thanks

 

[logana]

You are confusing RAM with hard disk space.....

They are 2 completely different things - RAM is used to store programs which are running - the other is stored on the hard disk....

Try Wikipedia or google

 

[chaky31]

You are confusing RAM with hard disk space.....

They are 2 completely different things - RAM is used to store programs which are running - the other is stored on the hard disk....

Thanks for trying... But you are misunderstanding the question. I am well aware of what a hard drive is and does, and what Ram is and does. RAM aka Random Access Memory aka Memory is what I'm asking about. I included the bit about my hard drive to show that the reduced speed isn't my hard drive being run to capacity. My processor is also not using its full potential, so it is not my processor that is bottlenecking my speeds.

The summary of my question is how do I tell my macbook to use all of its memory (RAM) so that applications run faster, and I can do more things at once before it slows down?

 

[old-wiz]

Thanks for trying... But you are misunderstanding the question. I am well aware of what a hard drive is and does, and what Ram is and does. RAM aka Random Access Memory aka Memory is what I'm asking about. I included the bit about my hard drive to show that the reduced speed isn't my hard drive being run to capacity. My processor is also not using its full potential, so it is not my processor that is bottlenecking my speeds.

The summary of my question is how do I tell my macbook to use all of its memory (RAM) so that applications run faster, and I can do more things at once before it slows down?

Applications are in control of how much memory they want to use, not the OS. You can't tell the OS to use more memory for task X; task x has to request the memory itself. Besides, how do you know for sure it's not the HDD that is the bottleneck? Or that the internet download connection speed might be the bottleneck? Have you looked at activity monitor to see what is actually going on in the system? That can often be the best way to find out where the bottleneck is.

 

[chaky31]

Applications are in control of how much memory they want to use, not the OS. You can't tell the OS to use more memory for task X; task x has to request the memory itself. Besides, how do you know for sure it's not the HDD that is the bottleneck? Or that the internet download connection speed might be the bottleneck? Have you looked at activity monitor to see what is actually going on in the system? That can often be the best way to find out where the bottleneck is.

Is it possible to tell the application to use more memory?

An I checked activity monitor, all my hardware is not running at maximum. my fan speeds and temp aren't even that high. My computer is literally barely working. I want it to work harder so my program works faster. Any programming masters out there that have a solution?

 

[old-wiz]

Is it possible to tell the application to use more memory?

An I checked activity monitor, all my hardware is not running at maximum. my fan speeds and temp aren't even that high. My computer is literally barely working. I want it to work harder so my program works faster. Any programming masters out there that have a solution?

You can't do this kind of manipulation with most programs unless you have the source code.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

This isn't how it works. In the situation you gave in the first post, especially if you're using the stock 5400 rpm HDD, you almost certainly completely saturated the HDD connection, causing the slow down. At that point, no amount of extra RAM or CPU power being used would make any difference at all.

You can't manually manage how much RAM your apps use. As apps need memory, they get it. If you have free RAM, it's because nothing needs it. More RAM only equals a faster computer when more RAM is needed.

 

[biohead]

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If it is saturation of the HDD bandwidth then an SSD will basically take that limitation away. Even a good 7200 HDD will speed things up massively.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is it possible to tell the application to use more memory?

An I checked activity monitor, all my hardware is not running at maximum. my fan speeds and temp aren't even that high. My computer is literally barely working. I want it to work harder so my program works faster. Any programming masters out there that have a solution?

That's not how it works. Your computer is barely working because you haven't given it much work to do. Your system will use its capabilities to perform whatever tasks you give it. You can't force it to use more resources when they're not required. The goal is to accomplish the tasks that you use your computer for; it is not to make your computer run at maximum. Your Mac will manage itself quite well without your intervention. There's nothing you need to do but enjoy using your Mac.