I recently bought a MacBook (white, 2.4gHz) and upgraded its RAM to 4gb (KTA-MB667K2/4G). When I check the status of memory-usage at powerup, it's generally what you'd expect.....endless RAMs to be filled with dozens of programs. But after a few hours of standard browsing, using transmission, mail and perhaps a word processor, Activity monitor sketches a dreadful picture (see attachment). I'm using more then half my memory and somehow I need 40 gb of VM. When I manually add up the actual RAM used by each program, I never get to 2gb. And I'm listing all processes. What's going on? Which part of my mac is gobbling up all those sweet RAMs?
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My MacBook uses more then 2gb RAM and almost 40gb VM
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Read this knowledge base article for more information about how the ram is reported.
You do have some page outs but in relation to your page ins it is barely anything to worry about so you have sufficient ram.
In regards to the VM it is an issue with Leopard. If you add the Private Memory coloumn to that view the VM will decrease greatly.
You do have some page outs but in relation to your page ins it is barely anything to worry about so you have sufficient ram.
In regards to the VM it is an issue with Leopard. If you add the Private Memory coloumn to that view the VM will decrease greatly.
Thanks for the link and the advice. My VM reads a much more sensible size now, but I still don't understand why the wired and active memory are much bigger then the total of the all the "real memory" amounts found next to the processes. Shouldn't these be the same?