rMBP Ram and Fan Issue

[Bilalo]

Hello

I have the latest highest specced rMBP and I have issues with Ram and Fan. Below is a photo posted that shows you i have nearly 9 GB of inactive ram and 70 RAM LEFT!!!! My Fan goes crazy and is so loud. I feel like this will damage my laptop overtime because my fan heats to the maximum... When this happens I use clean memory but I shouldnt have to do that even as it screws with the system itself.... On average this happens a few minutes per hour... I dont mind the fan sometimes being loud even though when im with my friends or in the living room, my fan suddenly goes off crazy and I have better laptops than all of them and they laugh... Like this shouldnt happen to something i paid £2400 on... Also, I dont get what 5.4gb of active ram is being used for as of this time, i have safari open on 6 tabs of youtube that are all paused which doesnt usually take ram. I have on Idol open, mail, messages, my time machine is backing up via Wire for the first time and I have torrent open. So even using 8 GB on these stupid tasks are too much, my friends with 8 GB ram do all this and play and dont use 8 GB...

 

[simonsi]

Hello

I have the latest highest specced rMBP and I have issues with Ram and Fan. Below is a photo posted that shows you i have nearly 9 GB of inactive ram and 70 RAM LEFT!!!! My Fan goes crazy and is so loud. I feel like this will damage my laptop overtime because my fan heats to the maximum... When this happens I use clean memory but I shouldnt have to do that even as it screws with the system itself.... On average this happens a few minutes per hour... I dont mind the fan sometimes being loud even though when im with my friends or in the living room, my fan suddenly goes off crazy and I have better laptops than all of them and they laugh... Like this shouldnt happen to something i paid £2400 on... Also, I dont get what 5.4gb of active ram is being used for as of this time, i have safari open on 6 tabs of youtube that are all paused which doesnt usually take ram. I have on Idol open, mail, messages, my time machine is backing up via Wire for the first time and I have torrent open. So even using 8 GB on these stupid tasks are too much, my friends with 8 GB ram do all this and play and dont use 8 GB...

You have over 8GB of inactive (closed apps/tabs and generally stuff that the OS has finished with BUT it keeps it in RAM in case you were to reopen those apps etc, in this way, as it is not required, it improves responsiveness. Should the MBP need to use more RAM it will reclaim the inactive and use it for what it needs. This is good RAM management by the OS. If you only had 8GB it would make best use of that 8GB in the same way it is making best use of the 16GB you have.

Would having empty RAM be better for you???

The fan is driven by CPU load as that is what creates heat, unused RAM consumes as much power as full RAM so don't worry there.

Look at your CPU utilization when the fan comes on and see what is using the CPU....

 

[Macman45]

In many cases an SMC reset can help clear this type of issue up.

Follow the instructions for your model from Apples support page here:


http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

 

[maflynn]

Hello

I have the latest highest specced rMBP and I have issues with Ram and Fan. Below is a photo posted that shows you i have nearly 9 GB of inactive ram and 70 RAM LEFT!!!!

Free ram is wasted ram, OSX is very efficient at memory management. If you were running Windows, I'd be worried but not OSX. Inactive ram hold data from a programs you were just running, it keeps it in place in case you restart the app. This is much faster then rereading the data from the disk.

If the system needs the ram, then it will mark it as such and use it.

 

[leman]

Don't look at free RAM, look at memory pressure indicator in Activity Monitor. If its green, you are doing fine.

 

[Bilalo]

Don't look at free RAM, look at memory pressure indicator in Activity Monitor. If its green, you are doing fine.

Free ram is wasted ram, OSX is very efficient at memory management. If you were running Windows, I'd be worried but not OSX. Inactive ram hold data from a programs you were just running, it keeps it in place in case you restart the app. This is much faster then rereading the data from the disk.

If the system needs the ram, then it will mark it as such and use it.

You have over 8GB of inactive (closed apps/tabs and generally stuff that the OS has finished with BUT it keeps it in RAM in case you were to reopen those apps etc, in this way, as it is not required, it improves responsiveness. Should the MBP need to use more RAM it will reclaim the inactive and use it for what it needs. This is good RAM management by the OS. If you only had 8GB it would make best use of that 8GB in the same way it is making best use of the 16GB you have.

Would having empty RAM be better for you???

The fan is driven by CPU load as that is what creates heat, unused RAM consumes as much power as full RAM so don't worry there.

Look at your CPU utilization when the fan comes on and see what is using the CPU....

Thank You for pointing that the RAM is fine. But then again, their is something wrong with the fan. Even if I open acitivty monitor and here is why:
Currently I am on safari with 4-5 tabs open, everything is perfect, suddenly for no reason the fan starts speeding up and the cpu spikes to maximum performance. I have Istats menus and on average 3-10 minutes PER HOUR, the fan is at maximum speed which is 5200 or something like that. I dont like to use apps that lower my fan but I dont get why. In a previous thread I read something about the manafacturer of the CPU or something like that, that apple has 2 and that 1 of them has this problem, Same with the retina burn from samsung VS sharp or whomever the other supplier is. Same thing but with the CPU or GPU or Ram I dont know exactly... Im thinking of asking for a new one but I dont feel its worth it and to reput everything back is a hastle... If you say my fan is bcz of my CPU then it should sound loud once I add things, but if im watching a movie on itunes, and half way thru it suddenly bursts up then why?

 

[simonsi]

Because iTunes watching a movie puts load on the CPU and it warms up. This is normal, once it gets to a certain temp the fan comes on to stop it getting warmer, this is normal. Stop the fan and you will damage the CPU as it will get too hot.

Your machine is normal!

 

[TheIguana]

Currently I am on safari with 4-5 tabs open, everything is perfect, suddenly for no reason the fan starts speeding up and the cpu spikes to maximum performance.

Are any of those panes using Flash? Or are you opening a video?

 

[Bilalo]

Because iTunes watching a movie puts load on the CPU and it warms up. This is normal, once it gets to a certain temp the fan comes on to stop it getting warmer, this is normal. Stop the fan and you will damage the CPU as it will get too hot.

Your machine is normal!

Are any of those panes using Flash? Or are you opening a video?

Literally, me and my friends sit sometimes together in the library and do the exact same thing with nothing else open and my laptop for no reason and no change, sometime even being left idle just heats up. Look at the cpu here, ive been watching a movie for the past 2 hours, so why does it spike every 30 min or so? same happens to anything I do and im telling you, it does not happen to my friends with the same or inferior laptops...

 

[DeltaMac]

... so why does it spike every 30 min or so? same happens to anything I do and im telling you, it does not happen to my friends with the same or inferior laptops...

Your friends have the same Mac rMBP, running the same set of software?
(not just doing the same tasks, but also running the same set of apps?)

from your first post…

... I have torrent open.

Do you still get the same CPU spikes if you quit your torrent app?

 

[simonsi]

Every 30mins sounds like a time machine local backup?

Running the fan doesn't mean your machine has a problem or is worse than your friends machines...it just means ithe CPU is working...

 

[Bilalo]

Every 30mins sounds like a time machine local backup?

Running the fan doesn't mean your machine has a problem or is worse than your friends machines...it just means ithe CPU is working...

I don't have a time machine backup and if i did it won't be wireless

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Your friends have the same Mac rMBP, running the same set of software?
(not just doing the same tasks, but also running the same set of apps?)

from your first post…

Do you still get the same CPU spikes if you quit your torrent app?

Yes, torrent closed and everything else except safari which i'm in my univ library doin stuff on it and yes we run same software especially in the background the fan never reaches its peak for anyone but me, it actually burns when its at its peak

 

[simonsi]

I don't have a time machine backup and if i did it won't be wireless

I was thinking Time Machine local backup - which could happen whether your backup disk was wired or wireless.

Might still be worth checking it really is off.

Then just load CPU activity monitor and watch what happens, before the fans come on something will cause CPU util to rise and then the CPU temp to rise, it isn't that hard to work out what is going on with the machine right in front of you....

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...and yes we run same software especially in the background

Such as?

Just noticed your usage screenshot, so you are running VLC but most usage is going on window server - think that is related to dashboard widgets, you'll need to look what you have setup there, could be a runaway one that may or may not be the same as your friends are running...