Secure Virtual Memory

[irain]

I know this probably isn't topic-worthy, but I searched Apple's website along with the forums and couldn't find an answer. In System Preferences, under Security, what will happen if I check off "Use secure virtual memory?"

 

[WildCowboy]

Basically, it helps protect your data that gets swapped out to virtual memory from RAM. Things like passwords and other sensitive data can end up in plain text in the swap files if you do not use this option.

 

[neonart]

Is there a performance advantage to un-checking it?

 

[CIrawI3riCIge]

Is there a performance advantage to un-checking it?

Bump, as I'd like to know the answer to this too.

 

[Fearless Leader]

yes there is a bit of overhead as OS X has to decrypt and encrypt on page in's outs. Although you computer can easily handle it.

 

[CIrawI3riCIge]

yes there is a bit of overhead as OS X has to decrypt and encrypt on page in's outs. Although you computer can easily handle it.

I wonder if something like Geekbench would be suitable for showing the difference. I'll post the results if I do a comparison.

What's strange is I'm getting page-outs just using iMovie with no other aps running. I have 4GB of RAM and plenty free RAM. Why is it hitting my Swap when I have nearly 3GB free? Here's a pic. [This is probably not worth starting a new thread]

Perhaps un-ticking "Use Secure Virtual Memory" would offer better performance in this case.

 

[richard.mac]

thats because the free memory hasnt been used yet. after using Apps and not rebooting for while free memory will become very low. this is because it has been cached to disk and is inactive memory. thats why they launch faster the second time.

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

 

[eellerto]

Could this have anything to do with the problem I am experiencing, which is that I lose space on my hard drive all the time, and I can't restore it until I restart my laptop. I usually lose about 1 gb in an hour so. I am desperately trying to figure out why.

 

[Eraserhead]

Could this have anything to do with the problem I am experiencing, which is that I lose space on my hard drive all the time, and I can't restore it until I restart my laptop. I usually lose about 1 gb in an hour so. I am desperately trying to figure out why.

No, it could be virtual memory that's eating up the space, but it shouldn't be anything to do with this system preference option.

Sorry for the very slow reply - hopefully it'll be helpful for other people via search (how I found this 😛).

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

I have 2GB of RAM and have no slowdowns with it enabled. It's worth it.

 

[michaelwithe21]

vmware fusion and secure virtual memory

I wonder, seeing as VmWare Fusion uses Virtual memory, do you guys think it could severly impact the speeds of vmware fusion running Windows (pre-allicated space or not?)?

Please explain in detail of the relevance between secure virtual memory and how it may impact the use of Virtual OS (using VMWare Fusion).