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Mavericks using all my ram - 8GB

Quackers said:
I've now rebooted again and opened one or two apps and a couple of tabs in Safari.
Currently about 3GB of ram is in use and memory pressure is (obviously) low.
As a result opening and closing apps is snappy and lag-free. Much better now.
Maybe the download was causing my issues.
I'll keep an eye on ram use and lagginess over the next few hours/days.
Thanks for all the input people :)
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Hs ur Kernal_data level decreased aswell?
 
Quackers said:
kernel_task is currently using 509MB of ram - so no, not really. It seems that it's normal.
Click to expand...

I have never seen this before. Can anyone confirm that this is also taking place on their macs?

By the way, Thanks a lot Quackers.
 
Something iffy is going on with memory on my MacBook Air. I can not work with, open or move anything over 100mb without the computer flipping out.


Very disconcerting.
 
throAU said:
Learn how a modern OS does memory management.

This is not a problem.
Click to expand...

I understand that however, some people are having issues obtaining more ram than in ML. Mavericks was suppose to free up RAM not consume more of it. So clearly something is wrong, although it may not be a the Kernel_data, its definitely something.
 
venturajep said:
I understand that however, some people are having issues obtaining more ram than in ML. Mavericks was suppose to free up RAM not consume more of it. So clearly something is wrong, although it may not be a the Kernel_data, its definitely something.
Click to expand...

Stop looking at RAM consumption numbers on processes and look at swap used, and also the new "memory pressure" graph.

OS X, like any modern operating system designed since the 1990s, will use RAM for cache unless it is required elsewhere. "Free" RAM in any modern OS is just burning power for nothing.

Mavericks, in contrast to previous versions, will also compress memory as required to fit more into RAM.

How much ram kernel_task appears to be using is entirely irrelevant to determining whether or not your mac is under memory pressure.

read this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/12/#energy-saving


yes, it is long. but it goes into great detail about how and why Mavericks uses memory more efficiently and can run a lot more in memory than any previous version before it hits swap.

cliffnotes: on a 16GB machine, the author was able to run 24 GB worth of applications before the machine started to touch swap at all. some components in 10.9 may look like they are using more RAM, and may lead you to believe you are running out of memory if you measure it wrong.

however the changes enable the OS to fit a LOT more into the same RAM as any previous version before performance is impacted.


I've been running 10.9 since DP1. Give it a day or two to settle down, run spotlight, learn your usage patterns, etc. It is better than 10.7 onwards in all respects. And going back to 10.6 (which i have on my Mini) feels extremely cumbersome now.
 
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throAU said:
Stop looking at RAM consumption numbers on processes and look at swap used, and also the new "memory pressure" graph.

OS X, like any modern operating system designed since the 1990s, will use RAM for cache unless it is required elsewhere.

Mavericks, in contrast to previous versions, will also compress memory as required to fit more into RAM.

How much ram kernel_task appears to be using is entirely irrelevant to determining whether or not your mac is under memory pressure.

read this: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/12/#energy-saving

yes, it is long. but it goes into great detail about how and why Mavericks uses memory more efficiently and can run a lot more in memory than any previous version before it hits swap.

cliffnotes: on a 16GB machine, the author was able to run 24 GB worth of applications before the machine started to touch swap at all.
Click to expand...
I have 1.8 GB of Ram being consume by File Cache. What should I do?
 
venturajep said:
I have 1.8 GB of Ram being consume by File Cache. What should I do?
Click to expand...

Nothing.

it is using 1.8 GB of file cache to prevent your machine hitting your hard drive or SSD (which is 100x slower or more, and uses more power).

IF the ram is required for application data, it will be purged automatically.

In other words, add up the FREE ram you have with the file cache, and that is your real amount of FREE memory.


Also. Unlike previous versions - if you run out of file cache to reclaim as free memory, 10.9 will then start looking a the least used things in RAM and compress them, to keep them in RAM. This is how arstechnica managed to run 24 GB worth of applications on a 16 GB mac with only 24 megs of swap used.

Specific info here: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/17/
 
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It's all marvellous but, as with my rMBP earlier, it all means nothing if apps are slow to respond and the spinning multi-coloured wheel and the blue spinning wheel keep appearing.
That is what these new measures are meant to avoid, surely?

I have since rebooted again and things are much more "normal" now in that approximately 3.8GB of ram is currently in use (of 8GB) and more importantly to me, the system is snappy and lag-free.

I'm not interested in how the ram is used. I'm interested in the responsiveness (or lack of, as originally was the case) of my laptop.
 
I have also restarted comp a few times and although the system is definitely slower to boot and settle then Mountain Lion was now it seems to be using less ram.

Initial boot ups were using 7.5 gigs of my 8 gigs ram.

Now it's averaging around 3.5

Bizarre.
 
Sccrapdog said:
I have also restarted comp a few times and although the system is definitely slower to boot and settle then Mountain Lion was now it seems to be using less ram.

Initial boot ups were using 7.5 gigs of my 8 gigs ram.

Now it's averaging around 3.5

Bizarre.
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Same here. Mine is currently showing 3.21 GB of RAM, down from 5 to 7. Kernel_task is using 580 MB.
 
remember after a reinstall, spotlight has to re-index and certain other optimisation processes are run. After they have completed then you're going to see less pressure on your RAM
 
Can anyone explain why i'm getting Page Outs?

I thought we don't need to worry about RAM Usage in Mavericks, but now!!

I'm using safari with 25+tabs open, tweet deck, airmail, evernote.

QQ20131023-1@2x.png
 
bwat47 said:
Read the posts in this thread. There's no problems. This is how the memory management is *supposed* to work. It uses all available ram for cache at all times, and frees and/or compresses memory as necessary. With the new memory compression, it almost never has to page out to swap so performance stays snappy.

The mavericks task manager tells you exactly what the memory is being used for on the memory tab. As you can see in my screenshot, almost all of it is being used for the file and app caches.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it does page out on my computer...
weird...tho

----------
X-Ravin said:
Are you noticing a performance degradation?
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Not really to be honest.
 
mfram said:
Most of your used memory is in the file cache. There's nothing wrong there. Don't worry about it. There's nothing to "fix". Notice how the "memory pressure" graph is low.

Remember: Free memory is wasted memory.
Click to expand...

So true. If Mavericks is able to put file cache into memory and then dynamically compress it to make room for new apps/files this will make the system much more responsive. I wonder if this is a small part of what makes battery life better too. Less activity for the SSD or HDD.
 
simply put: unused ram is wasted ram. Ever since Vista came out OS's have been smarter about using available resources instead of just sitting there doing nothing
 
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