There's more to it than free RAM. No, you don't need to shut down your Mac to free up RAM. It will simply move data from RAM to your hard drive, a process known as "paging", to make room for new data. You don't need to worry about RAM, as Mac OS X knows how to manage it without your intervention.i have 4 gb ram on mbp. it says i only have 2gb of free ram left. what happens when it runs out of ram? does the computer "frees" up ram after you shut it down and open it again or is it forever like that? sorry if this are stupid questions. im a computer noob
No, it's not permanent. You don't have to worry about RAM. Mac OS X will manage it quite well. It uses RAM when it needs to and frees it up when it needs to. There's nothing you need to do. It's perfectly normal for intensive processes to use larger amounts of RAM. When the process is finished, the RAM used is freed up for other processes. Relax and enjoy your Mac.