RAM issues

[luminosity]

I'm the owner of a newish 12 inch iBook, and I'm using Tiger 10.4.4, with 512 RAM. I'm wanting to know why the amount of free RAM drops so preciptiously with the use of a few programs and then can't be used again until the system is restarted. I start out with over 300 MBs and after using safari, iChat and iTunes, I can end up with just 150 or so with everything being closed.

It's not the widgets, because even with those open, I still have over 300 to start, and I only have a few open at all (all small).

Any ideas on what this is?

 

[yankeefan24]

Look in activity monitor and see if you have any large procceses that don't seem to do anything. I wouldn't recommend force quitting these unless you are sure that don't do anything important. But once, i deleted window server and it brought me to the login screen so i don't think that you will permanently ruin your computer by doing that. OS X uses alot of RAM. I think you should check in Activity Monitor for any helpers (except iTunes(I don't know if safari helper exists but…)).

Good Luck!

EDIT: Does anyone know what kernal task does. it sounds important but uses alot of RAM.

 

[eva01]

EDIT: Does anyone know what kernal task does. it sounds important but uses alot of RAM.

Kernel Task is the Kernel of the OS

and to the OP try and read the guides on the site regarding RAM, that amount of RAM is fine.

 

[Little Endian]

Don't worry about your Free Memory. What is more important is the amount of memory that is Wired and Active memory. You say you have as little as 150MB available as free. That is fine because you probably have another 150MB+ that is inactive which OSX will use for Applications as needed. OSX will automatically reallocate that portion as needed.

Another thing more important than free memory is VM used and the amounts of pages you get. Check Activity Monitor for Memory info or you can use "top" in terminal.

BTW questions like yours has been asked on the forums many times before but it's a reasonable question info is also available at Apple support.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918

 

[luminosity]

That is fine because you probably have another 150MB+ that is inactive which OSX will use for Applications as needed.

Ah ha! I do have that much in inactive memory.

Thank you much .

 

[Damien]

Can someone clear something up for me?

I fi am using around 300mb ram and i have 512mb is there any need to upgrade to 512mb?

Do programs scale up how much ram they take based on how much is in the system?

 

[SmurfBoxMasta]

Can someone clear something up for me?

I fi am using around 300mb ram and i have 512mb is there any need to upgrade to 512mb?

Do programs scale up how much ram they take based on how much is in the system?

The programs themselves cannot scale up ram usage on their own, but OS X can, and will, allocate more ram to various tasks when more is installed & available.

So whether or not you need more is dependant upon how many apps you run at one time, how many windows you open in each of them, how many start-up items you have, how many background processes your system runs ect ect ect ect.......