Running slow.. Memory issues?

[BenWall]

Hey guys and gals,

My MPB 15" i7 2.0, 4gbRAM seems to be running slow and laggy recently, tasks that I think this should munch through seem to perform much better on my 27" core duo iMac.

For example, if I have a couple of bowser windows open, iTunes, Adobe Photoshop/Illustator it can start doing some major lags.

I've been keeping an eye on my system usage and I'm not sure the RAM stats are correct, what do you think?

My page outs and concerning me slightly too, i only restarted yesterday and I've accumulated over 1GB already. Isn't this meant ot be around the 50mb mark?

Thanks for any advice given.

 

[GGJstudios]

My page outs and concerning me slightly too, i only restarted yesterday and I've accumulated over 1GB already. Isn't this meant ot be around the 50mb mark?.

To determine if you can benefit from more RAM, launch Activity Monitor and click the System Memory tab at the bottom to check your page outs. Page outs are cumulative since your last restart, so the best way to check is to restart your computer and track page outs under your normal workload (the apps, browser pages and documents you normally would have open). If your page outs are significant (say 1GB or more) under normal use, you may benefit from more RAM. If your page outs are zero or very low during normal use, you probably won't see any performance improvement from adding RAM.

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor

Performance Tips For Mac OS X

 

[BenWall]

Thanks.

My page outs are normally always over one GB. I have 4GB of RAM in here though and my imac with the same amount of RAM doesn't struggle. Could it be faulty RAM?

 

[GGJstudios]

Could it be faulty RAM?

Possible, but not likely. If your Mac recognizes the RAM, which it does, it will use it. Go through the performance tips I posted.

 

[BenWall]

I've been through all those before. All done and make no difference.

 

[GGJstudios]

I've been through all those before. All done and make no difference.

Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Also, click on the System Memory tab at the bottom. Then take a screen shot, scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot and post them.

 

[Bear]

Thanks.

My page outs are normally always over one GB. I have 4GB of RAM in here though and my imac with the same amount of RAM doesn't struggle. Could it be faulty RAM?

What speed disks do you have in each system? That would affect performance as well.

You're at the edge of actually needing more memory for your computer from the Activity Monitor, capture, I would say 6GB would cover your current usage, but you'd be better to go with 8GB since the price is so low and it would mean your memory modules would be matched. Also, it would allow for growth in memory usage.

And faulty ram would show in other ways. I t could be a faulty disk, but I would lean towards it being the iMac and MBP having disks with difference performance characteristics.

 

[alexiarudolf]

Re: Solution for Mac Running Slow Problem

You MBP is really good in configuration (15" i7 2.0, 4gb RAM). Over the time Mac performance degrades due to several reasons.

1. Clean out Startup Items, it speed up the startup.
2. Turn off Universal Access, Bluetooth, Speech Recognition, and Internet Sharing if you don't use them.
3. Clean Out other System Preferences too.
4. Check out what build your software is and as per the Mac OS X, install and use the applications.
5. Get rid of languages and translations you won't use. This free space and speed up
6. Cool off of MBP if running it for a long hours. Just turn off for few minutes.
7. Evaluate your Widgets and remove if not use
8. Keep an eye on Activity Monitor and close useless processes
9. Clean off your hard drive, remove duplicate files

These steps can fix mac running slow problem. But for time saving its better to use third party app. consider this site to get an app for your MBP:
http://www.macrunningslow.org

hope it work for you.

 

[GGJstudios]

These steps can fix mac running slow problem. But for time saving its better to use third party app. consider this site to get an app for your MBP:

You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

Five Mac maintenance myths​

 

[johnyburd]

maybe you have a lot of back ground apps running. they show up as little icons on the top right of you screen like dropbox, if you can manage without those apps running you should probably close them.

 

[GGJstudios]

maybe you have a lot of back ground apps running. they show up as little icons on the top right of you screen like dropbox, if you can manage without those apps running you should probably close them.

Not all background apps or processes show up on your Menu Bar. To see everything that's running, use Activity Monitor, as described in post #6 of this thread.

 

[heisenberg123]

Possible, but not likely. If your Mac recognizes the RAM, which it does, it will use it. Go through the performance tips I posted.

I was having issues that made me wonder if it was faulty RAM
when I click about this mac it was recognizing my 8GB, but when i ran memtest i got failure message, put my original RAM back in got Passed Test results, than i test with 1 samsung(original RAM) and 1 Corsair(upgraded RAM) 1 stick at a time 1 Corsair got Failure the other got passed.

does that mean the tests are false and about this mac is all that matters? i havnt heard back from corsair yet that what i sent them was fine or not

 

[GGJstudios]

when I click about this mac it was recognizing my 8GB

About This Mac showed 8GB, but what did Activity Monitor show? Did it show 8GB being used?

 

[heisenberg123]

About This Mac showed 8GB, but what did Activity Monitor show? Did it show 8GB being used?

to be honest i did not even think to look there, so essentially About this Mac could detect 8GB but if activity monitor never shows me using more than 4GB that that could be a sign 1 of the 4GB sticks have issues?

 

[GGJstudios]

to be honest i did not even think to look there, so essentially About this Mac could detect 8GB but if activity monitor never shows me using more than 4GB that that could be a sign 1 of the 4GB sticks have issues?

Yes, exactly.

 

[heisenberg123]

Yes, exactly.

thanks for the info Ill remember that the next time when im testing the replacement RAM

 

[GGJstudios]

thanks for the info Ill remember that the next time when im testing the replacement RAM

This was the case with all those earlier Mac models that could take 4GB of RAM, but could only use 3.3GB. System Profiler showed 4GB, but Activity Monitor showed only 3.3GB was actually usable.

 

[Maverick513]

After checking your screenshot, I noticed your Mac had run out of memory. Free 83.8MB. Wired 1.25GB. Active 1.79GB. Inactive 892.5 MB.
You can get some memory freer to release inactive memory to free memory. The better solution is just to quit some running applications, and do not run so many applications simultaneously next time. Or add another 4GB memory module. You may want to check the Mac OS X login items as well and remove unused applications.
Do not run the hard disk and memory too full, and you will get a happier and smoother Mac.

Here is the different usage in the Mac memory, if you do not know them yet.
Free: The unused memory.
Wired: The used memory for the system and application core components.
Active: The used memory for the running system and application processes.
Inactive: The used memory for cache purpose. It stores the information of quitted applications. If those applications rerun later, they will be launched notably faster.

 

[GGJstudios]

After checking your screenshot, I noticed your Mac had run out of memory. Free 83.8MB. Wired 1.25GB. Active 1.79GB. Inactive 892.5 MB.
You can get some memory freer to release inactive memory to free memory.

No, they had not run out of memory at the time of that screen shot. They still had about 1GB of 4GB available. No, you don't need to release inactive to free memory. Doing so can degrade performance. Read the first link I posted in this thread to understand inactive memory.

Inactive memory is available for use by another application, just like Free memory.

 

[Maverick513]

Thanks for the link. I may not say that clearly. The inactive memory stores the information of quitted application for cache purchase. It can be used for new demand. But it cannot be used directly as free memory. There is a release process. The Mac OS X does not release inactive memory until free memory runs out. The free memory will be used first. When free memory is insufficient for the new demand, such as a new application launches for the first time, or the running applications require more memory, the OS will release part of inactive memory to free memory, then assign the free memory for new demand.

For performance, if rerun the quitted applications which has been cached in the inactive memory. It will be very fast.
But for the new launched application or the frequent additional memory requirements from running applications, the caches in the inactive memory is a waste. And this continuous inactive/free memory convert, page in/ page out can hit the performance noticeably.
Cache is double edged.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the link. I may not say that clearly. The inactive memory stores the information of quitted application for cache purchase. It can be used for new demand.

Yes, it can, so it is just like free memory... only better.

The Mac OS X does not release inactive memory until free memory runs out. The free memory will be used first. When free memory is insufficient for the new demand, such as a new application launches for the first time, or the running applications require more memory, the OS will release part of inactive memory to free memory, then assign the free memory for new demand.

The point is, inactive memory is just as available to any app that needs it as free memory is. Inactive memory has the added advantage of being able to improve performance for the app that originally used it, should that app be launched again. There is no disadvantage to having inactive memory.

But for the new launched application or the frequent additional memory requirements from running applications, the caches in the inactive memory is a waste.

No, it's not a waste, since inactive memory is freely available to those apps, should they need it.

And this continuous inactive/free memory convert, page in/ page out can hit the performance noticeably.
Cache is double edged.

There will always be page ins, no matter what. Page outs only occur when neither free nor inactive memory are available. There is no performance downside to having inactive memory; only a potential benefit over free memory. Running a 3rd party app to convert inactive to free memory only removes that potential benefit. It does not improve performance.