Normal behavior?

[WillJS]

I just bought a new 2011 MacBook Pro (specs in sig). I've been noticing this thing eats memory. Just a few minutes ago I was copying a 7GB file from my OS X desktop to my Windows 7 Ultimate desktop running in Parallels. About halfway through the computer froze up and had to be forced restarted. With four gigs of RAM this seems to be a problem, or am I just setting my goals too high? Attached is a screenshot of iStat Pro after my computer had been running for only 1 hour. The only things running were Chrome and Transmission. Is this normal? When the computer froze earlier, I believe it had 100MB of "free" memory and 190k page ins with 58k page outs.

I am thinking about buying 8GBs of ram, but I didn't think it should be this needed.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Also have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by Real Memory to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

 

[WillJS]

Seems kernal_task is the leader, with what I believe is Parallels coming in second. Just for an idea, here's iStat too.

 

[mulo]

I see two solutions.
1) buy 8GB ram
2) assign less ram to parallels (while the memory assigned to parallels is not showing as assigned to the parallels, the memory is locked up and cannot be used by other apps. If you assign 2GB its going to use 2 GB, weather windows needs it or not.

 

[TheFarmer]

How much memory do you have allocated to Parallels? I have 8GB of RAM and even when running Parallels (I have 3.5GB allocated to XP) and doing photo work in both OS's (just for fun), my free memory drops to like 20MB Mine has never frozen up on me though. I've moved several large files between both OS's with multiple programs running and low free memory available w/o any issues either.

For just a tad bit over $100, I highly recommend 8GB of RAM. It makes a big difference when running Parallels.

 

[ECUpirate44]

I too recommend running parallels with 8GB of ram. It's a cheap upgrade and it will solve your problem for sure.

 

[gnasher729]

I just bought a new 2011 MacBook Pro (specs in sig). I've been noticing this thing eats memory. Just a few minutes ago I was copying a 7GB file from my OS X desktop to my Windows 7 Ultimate desktop running in Parallels.

When you use Parallels, you have effectively two computers sharing your RAM. One running MacOS X, one running Windows 7. You need enough RAM for both.

If you look at the Activity Monitor display: There is 3.1 GB wired memory. Wired memory cannot be used by the OS for applications. Usually it is memory for integrated graphics cards (can be a few hundred MB), some memory needed urgently by the OS, and the big one is memory for Parallels. You basically have a Mac with 900 MB of RAM.

 

[WillJS]

I allocated 2 gigs to Parallels. I was planning on playing a few games windows side. I guess I will drop the dough on some crucial ram. I'm just glad I don't have a bum logic bored or some other tragic story.

thanks a lot

 

[DustinT]

If you intend on playing games you really should boot into Bootcamp for best performance. I set my vm to 1 gigs and reboot when I want to access the full resources of the system under Windows.

 

[DustinT]

Just to follow up, once you install Windows using Bootcamp you can boot and access for the full hardware of your Mac since OS X isn't running at all. When you decide to boot into Mac OS X you can access your Windows partition using Parallels as a VM. Its a terrifically flexible way to use the computer. Really amazing.

I posted this because I reread my last post and it didn't seem clear. Sorry for the double post.

 

[SuperCachetes]

I have 8GB of RAM and even when running Parallels (I have 3.5GB allocated to Win7)

For just a tad bit over $100, I highly recommend 8GB of RAM. It makes a big difference when running Parallels.

Except for the XP, this is my setup and I've got no issues running some pretty heavy graphics/CAD stuff in a virtual machine. Being able to max out your RAM at the current prices is fantastic.

Edit: Actually, technically, I guess for the OP it wouldn't even be "maxing out" the MBP's RAM - but still, 8GB is a bunch for a portable in this day and age.

Just to follow up, once you install Windows using Bootcamp you can boot and access for the full hardware of your Mac since OS X isn't running at all. When you decide to boot into Mac OS X you can access your Windows partition using Parallels as a VM. Its a terrifically flexible way to use the computer. Really amazing.

Also my setup. My MBP gets kooky sometimes starting up the VM (can't find C:\ - or sometimes jumbling desktop settings in Win7) but 99% of the time it works perfectly. I rarely boot straight into Boot Camp, but the option is always there. As Dustin said, you can't beat the flexibility.