One thing I don't quite understand about OS X...

[jon08]

I'm running 10.6.4 on an early-2008 MBP (see my siggy for the specs). Why is it that sometimes when I wake my MBP up from sleep, everything, the entire system is incredibly snappy and responsive, yet on other occasions apps such as Safari, Outlook, etc. take lots of bounces to open and OS X, too, seems kind of slow?

It's really odd - just a couple of mins ago I opened my MBP after an approximately 6-hour sleep, and several apps (including Safari and Outlook) opened on 1 bounce (actually even before it even bounced once). But as I said, on other occasions Safari might take even up to 18 bounces to open right after MBP has woken up from sleep, and other apps likewise.

Is MBP somewhat like people? When you wake us up from deep sleep we are all groggy and need several minutes to get back to the real world, so does MBP function in the same way? Haha.

But seriously, does this snappiness have to do with the amount of sleep MBP does, i.e. the shorter the sleep span, the faster those apps will open because they are still saved in cache memory (or whatever that is)?

Thanks for any answers in advance.

 

[old-wiz]

I don't notice this on my 13" MBP. I was wondering if it might be related to re-establishing a wi-fi connection, assuming you connect to the net via wireless?

 

[jon08]

I don't notice this on my 13" MBP. I was wondering if it might be related to re-establishing a wi-fi connection, assuming you connect to the net via wireless?

I'm not on wireless right now.

 

[mulo]

because if you have had them open before and closed them again, their memory still lies in the ram, all it has to do is activate it, rather then load it form the hard drive.

this is also why SSDs make your computer so fast, loads stuff form the drive much faster.

 

[Sydde]

It's really odd - just a couple of mins ago I opened my MBP after an approximately 6-hour sleep, and several apps (including Safari and Outlook) opened on 1 bounce (actually even before it even bounced once). But as I said, on other occasions Safari might take even up to 18 bounces to open right after MBP has woken up from sleep, and other apps likewise.

You quit apps before sleep? Why?

 

[jon08]

You quit apps before sleep? Why?

I quit some of them - most notably Safari - because of its RAM use, since I like to have it fresh... Another app I usually quit is Outlook.

 

[GGJstudios]

Is MBP somewhat like people? When you wake us up from deep sleep we are all groggy and need several minutes to get back to the real world, so does MBP function in the same way?

Yes, exactly! Just pour a cup of coffee on your keyboard and it'll wake right up and be perky!

I quit some of them - most notably Safari - because of its RAM use, since I like to have it fresh... Another app I usually quit is Outlook.

You don't have to worry about RAM use. Mac OS X manages memory just fine. It's not Windows. You can have dozens of apps open when you put your Mac to sleep and when it wakes, you'll be right where you were.

 

[jon08]

Yes, exactly! Just pour a cup of coffee on your keyboard and it'll wake right up and be perky!

You don't have to worry about RAM use. Mac OS X manages memory just fine. It's not Windows. You can have dozens of apps open when you put your Mac to sleep and when it wakes, you'll be right where you were.

Um, I'm not exactly pleased when Safari is using 500+ MB of my RAM. That's why I'll quit (and relaunch) it.

 

[GGJstudios]

Um, I'm not exactly pleased when Safari is using 500+ MB of my RAM. That's why I'll quit (and relaunch) it.

That's perfectly normal RAM use. Unless you're experiencing significant Page Outs, you don't need to constantly monitor RAM usage. Just let your Mac do what it does. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X will release RAM when it's no longer needed. You don't have to quit and relaunch apps or reboot constantly to free up RAM.

 

[dukebound85]

That's perfectly normal RAM use. Unless you're experiencing significant Page Outs, you don't need to constantly monitor RAM usage. Just let your Mac do what it does. Unlike Windows, Mac OS X will release RAM when it's no longer needed. You don't have to quit and relaunch apps or reboot constantly to free up RAM.

Not in my experience. Quitting an app to free up ram definitely makes my system more responsive

I am also baffled by how inactive ram is not treated the same as free ram in practice by osx. I say this from experience as when I have a ton of inactive ram and very little free ram, my system crawls to a snails pace when it shouldn't

 

[GGJstudios]

Not in my experience.

I don't know what people have running on their systems, because I've never had to look at my RAM usage (other than for curiosity or screen caps for posting) and my system screams along fine, even with 50+ tabs open in Safari, flash on sites, Excel, Powerpoint, Mail, iCal, Skype, TeamViewer, Preview, TextEdit, iTunes, several widgets, etc. all open simultaneously.

 

[iThinkergoiMac]

I am also baffled by how inactive ram is not treated the same as free ram in practice by osx. I say this from experience as when I have a ton of inactive ram and very little free ram, my system crawls to a snails pace when it shouldn't

I haven't experienced this. A few days ago I had a couple GBs worth of inactive RAM, now I have about 600 MB worth of inactive RAM. I haven't restarted the computer in that time.

I've found that OS X likes to leave the inactive RAM there for a bit but has no problem over-writing it when it needs to.