Recent High RAM usage issue

[Hobofuzz]

For a few days now, every time I start my Mac up, the amount of free ram drops to almost 0 within a minute, even with NOTHING else running other than the Finder. I've checked activity monitor, and the only process I see that is running any different is that "update_prebindin" is running. Is this a normal process that runs at start up each time? I know what prebinding is but as far as I know it isn't supposed to update every time I start the machine.

Anyone know if this is the problem, and if not, what the problem could be?
All of this started after I left my Mac on sleep a few nights ago and when I came back to it, it was practically on fire it was so hot (the entire case).

 

[mad jew]

What sort of Mac do you have? How much RAM do you have? In Activity Monitor, what are the main culprits in terms of RAM usage? Make sure you check All Processes and not just My Processes.

 

[Hobofuzz]

What sort of Mac do you have? How much RAM do you have? In Activity Monitor, what are the main culprits in terms of RAM usage? Make sure you check All Processes and not just My Processes.

I have a Core Duo Macbook Pro, 1 gig of RAM.

In activity monitor, Kernel task is using the most RAM, then after that is update_prebindin

Is Kernel task supposed to use over 800 megs of Virtual memory from the start?

After about 30 minutes, RAM usage goes back to normal, with about 600 megs free.

 

[mad jew]

I reckon that's probably normal. Don't worry about Virtual RAM at the moment, what are the actual memory figures like?

 

[Hobofuzz]

dunno at the moment, but everything was under 200 megs of real memory. It didn't seem like it all added up to almost a gig to me.

 

[mad jew]

Okay, well remember that free RAM + inactive RAM is what really constitutes the RAM you have available at any time. If you're low on free RAM but still have plenty of inactive RAM, then you're fine.

 

[Hobofuzz]

yeah, but I still have a problem with there being over 500 megs of inactive ram the moment I log in. It hasn't done this before, only recently since the laptop went crazy and heated up the entire case.

 

[EM87]

I had this same problem not long after I installed the developer tools but it went away after a couple of restarts. Before it went away I was using 900Mb or RAM with nothing open but finder but now I use around 400Mb with nothing but finder open.

 

[gnasher729]

yeah, but I still have a problem with there being over 500 megs of inactive ram the moment I log in. It hasn't done this before, only recently since the laptop went crazy and heated up the entire case.

"Inactive" RAM is available to all your applications as soon as they need them. There is no reason to worry about this whatsoever.

 

[Hobofuzz]

"Inactive" RAM is available to all your applications as soon as they need them. There is no reason to worry about this whatsoever.

But should that much inactive ram really be used up when the only thing running is the Finder and the different BSD processes? I've never had this much inactive RAM before the moment I log in, which is why this concerns me (especially when it causes iTunes to skip now)

 

[mad jew]

Your only concern should be if you have large amounts of Inactive RAM immediately after a reboot (not necessarily a login), and even then you shouldn't be too worried.

 

[diskopo]

Your only concern should be if you have large amounts of Inactive RAM immediately after a reboot (not necessarily a login), and even then you shouldn't be too worried.

Heya. I've got large amounts of inactive RAM (700MB out of 2GB total) after a reboot. This is on a week old MacBook Pro that I did the system migration for from a PowerBook.

I've got the "update_prebindin" process running - same as the original poster.

What do I need to look out for with that large amount of inactive ram? Do you know what's doing it?

Thanks!

 

[mad jew]

Nah mate, that's fine. Inactive RAM is RAM that has just been used by a process and is in limbo. It can be used again by that process or it can be used by another process if there is no more Free RAM available. Tiger updates the prebindings automatically. It's a good thing, so don't worry about it.

I'd be more worried if you had 1.5GB of the 2GB Inactive immediately after reboot. This would imply a process at start up is slowing you down. Of course, if it doesn't slow you down after bootup then there's really nothing to worry about anyway.

OSX memory management is quite complicated and difficult to follow, but it works extremely well. Rather than keeping an eye on RAM levels, it's probably better just to gauge how you feel your machine is performing. If you're getting a tonne of beachballs, then maybe start looking at Activity Monitor for the culprit.