A bit OT but I have 314 page outs after having the iMac on all day and using it for around 4 hours. Is this bad? Should I get another 1Gb stick? I usually have 0 page outs and a few thousand page ins after a normal days usage.
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Page ins/outs (Split)
- Thread starter EM87
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It's really the page ins we're looking at. Don't worry about the page outs for now. How many page ins do you get after an hour or a day (or some set period of time)? 
It's really the page ins we're looking at. Don't worry about the page outs for now. How many page ins do you get after an hour or a day (or some set period of time)?
After an hour of use I have 11000 page ins and 0 page outs. Is that good or should I get more RAM? Also can someone explain the whole page in/outs for me?
I thought the pageouts was what you need to look at to determine ram usage. Page ins are info going into the memory where-as page outs are info that is being moved out of the ram to the vram on the hdd to make room for new info coming into the ram.
I'm no expert but that was my understanding of it.
I do know that I just took out my stock 512 and put in (2) 512s yesterday and the difference is night and day. And my page-outs have nearly disappeared.
I used to run about a 2 to 1 ratio, 2 page ins to 1 page out. For instance if I had 40,000 page ins with the 512mb ram I might have 20,000 page outs.
After installing the 1gb ram yesterday evening, I checked this morning and I had 40,000 page ins and only about 800 page outs.
I'm no expert but that was my understanding of it.
I do know that I just took out my stock 512 and put in (2) 512s yesterday and the difference is night and day. And my page-outs have nearly disappeared.
I used to run about a 2 to 1 ratio, 2 page ins to 1 page out. For instance if I had 40,000 page ins with the 512mb ram I might have 20,000 page outs.
After installing the 1gb ram yesterday evening, I checked this morning and I had 40,000 page ins and only about 800 page outs.
In basic terms, page INS are data being moved/stored IN ram, to be accessed frequently/rapidly. This is 100% normal and not a concern to anyone!
Page OUTS however, are data that is being written to the virtual memory file on your HD, because there is not enough ram available to store it all.
This IS a big concern, because accessing data on your HD is infinitely slower than getting it from the ram, which slows down the whole system while it waits for the swapping to occur. Also, over time this will cause more/excessive wear & tear on the HD, leading to earlier than normal failure.......
so pageouts are a double wammy IMHO. The goal is having Ø!
Yes, page outs are related to the amount of RAM you have and how much you do at once. The real question, though, is whether or not you find your system sluggish and inconvenient to use. Otherwise, counting page outs is like counting the number of times you blink in a minute.