Orange ram but no swap?

[captain cadet]

Heya, I recently picked up a new M5 MacBook Pro (24GB ram 1TB SSD) and so far I really like it.

The only thing concerns me is that my memory pressure seems to be orange fairly often but Swap usage is 0 or low (never seen it above 3GB)

I'm still within the return period of my Mac by a few days and not sure whether I should or not go for more RAM? Coming from an old Intel Mac with only 16GB I never saw memory pressure go orange often. Laptop otherwise feels fine and only noticed when I have activity monitor opened.

Most of my work is in Xcode on iOS but may have a simulator open, maybe swift previews, a few safari tabs and a few electron apps such as Visual Studio code and GitHub desktop

So my question is would it be worth me upgrading to 32gb of ram while in th return period or not bother?

 

[Mike Boreham]

If that is typical usage for you, personally I would return and upgrade RAM, perhaps more than 32GB

 

[maflynn]

o my question is would it be worth me upgrading to 32gb of ram while in th return period or not bother?

You spent a lot of money on this laptop and if its out of the box showing ram contraints, then yes - return it and get one with more ram. Its only going to get worse as you use it more, and load more apps.

 

[Apple_Robert]

If you did the same work with your prior Intel and never noticed any problems, the M5 will be the same, unless there is a defect with the machine. I don’t think there is given you said it is running fine with no disk swap. You wouldn’t know there was a very tiny line of orange unless you pull up Activity Monitor. Given what you said, I honesty don’t believe you have cause for concern. If that were my machine, I really wouldn’t be concerned. If there was a real issue, you would have seen sustained Swap and the pressure bar would have been noticeably thick orange. If you had noticed a physical degradation in the machine performance while in use, that would have been a tale tale sign to stop and reconsider the purchase, in my opinion.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Heya, I recently picked up a new M5 MacBook Pro (24GB ram 1TB SSD) and so far I really like it.

The only thing concerns me is that my memory pressure seems to be orange fairly often but Swap usage is 0 or low (never seen it above 3GB)


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I'm still within the return period of my Mac by a few days and not sure whether I should or not go for more RAM? Coming from an old Intel Mac with only 16GB I never saw memory pressure go orange often. Laptop otherwise feels fine and only noticed when I have activity monitor opened.

Most of my work is in Xcode on iOS but may have a simulator open, maybe swift previews, a few safari tabs and a few electron apps such as Visual Studio code and GitHub desktop

So my question is would it be worth me upgrading to 32gb of ram while in th return period or not bother?

Help me understand Memory Pressure may help you decide.

 

[Mike Boreham]

If you did the same work with your prior Intel and never noticed any problems, the M5 will be the same, unless there is a defect with the machine. I don’t think there is given you said it is running fine with no disk swap. You wouldn’t know there was a very tiny line of orange unless you pull up Activity Monitor. Given what you said, I honesty don’t believe you have cause for concern. If that were my machine, I really wouldn’t be concerned. If there was a real issue, you would have seen sustained Swap and the pressure bar would have been noticeably thick orange. If you had noticed a physical degradation in the machine performance while in use, that would have been a tale tale sign to stop and reconsider the purchase, in my opinion.

OP, after reading @Apple_Robert ’s reply above, I would ask whether you routinely upgrade your macs every year or so? If you do then maybe keeping it is sensible. If you want to keep it for longer I would return it.

 

[captain cadet]

OP, after reading @Apple_Robert ’s reply above, I would ask whether you routinely upgrade your macs every year or so? If you do then maybe keeping it is sensible. If you want to keep it for longer I would return it.

I keep them for about 4/5 years - basically when I can’t get latest Xcode builds or its struggling

I’ve decided to upgrade the sortage

Now I just need to work out how to return a online order to an Apple Store as I’ve got a few days left

 

[!!!]

Most of my work is in Xcode on iOS but may have a simulator open, maybe swift previews, a few safari tabs and a few electron apps such as Visual Studio code and GitHub desktop

So my question is would it be worth me upgrading to 32gb of ram while in th return period or not bother?

Yes, you should return & upgrade.

 

[captain cadet]

Yes, you should return & upgrade.

Ordered

Now just the fun of returns 😅

 

[AJACs3]

Operating from older information here, as I am long retired and out of the biz, but Unix/Linux systems work very well and efficiently using swap. So even when you have to use swap, it tends to be things that really don’t need to be in active memory. In this case, you aren’t even using any swap. I can’t imagine how this is or would be a problem for you.