Using too much ram

[Russ1989]

So I just got this MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). And I feel like I'm using way too much ram for what I'm doing. It says I've used 7.9 out of 16 gb for just being on the internet (and having 3 tabs open) plus Activity Monitor. Is there a way I can cut the ram down or am I missing something? Btw I'm just on regular sites, no videos or games or anything.

 

[simonsi]

Because RAM used is bad? I'd suggest you search the forum, there are MANY threads explaining why and how OSX manages memory and the fact that empty RAM serves no useful purpose in the OSX memory management algorithms.

Stop worrying about it, as long as your RAM pressure is green or yellow in the Activity Monitor Memory tab then don't worry and just use the machine.

 

[jerryk]

Better to use a lot of RAM than have a lot of RAM sitting idle. Have the RAM used means that the data and code of the applications are in memory and can be accessed very quickly without doing disk I/O. This is much better than having to fault them in from disk.

 

[robeddie]

What's wrong with you guys?!?! You're dancing around the real question, which is: Is using 8 gigs of ram normal when you only have 3 tabs of safari open. The correct answer is, no, it's not normal. I have 5 different macs and with my browser open, and even a couple other programs running, it's rare that my ram usage gets past around 4 or 5 gigs.

To the OP ... I almost never suggest this, but your best bet might be to back up and re-install the os. I think there's some kind of memory leak happening that's not normal, assuming you're using Yosemite or El Capitan.

 

[jerryk]

What's wrong with you guys?!?! You're dancing around the real question, which is: Is using 8 gigs of ram normal when you only have 3 tabs of safari open. The correct answer is, no, it's not normal. I have 5 different macs and with my browser open, and even a couple other programs running, it's rare that my ram usage gets past around 4 or 5 gigs.

To the OP ... I almost never suggest this, but your best bet might be to back up and re-install the os. I think there's some kind of memory leak happening that's not normal, assuming you're using Yosemite or El Capitan.

Memory usage depends what the those tabs are doing. The could be doing anything from editing something locally, paying video, or other applications that use large amounts of data and code in the browser. I have written web pages that can use gigabytes to edit images or videos. And all of those video ads on some sites tend to use a lot of memory.

 

[robeddie]

Memory usage depends what the those tabs are doing. The could be doing anything from editing something locally, paying video, or other applications that use large amounts of data and code in the browser. I have written web pages that can use gigabytes to edit images or videos.

A web page to edit videos? Huh? Well, rather than speculate, how about the OP just tell us what these ram gobbling tabs really are?

 

[wegster]

It's normal. What you're seeing is the OS using 'free' memory to cache files in memory to improve performance, along with in some cases pre-emptive memory allocation and lazy background memory cleanup. All of this = better for performance, while if an app actually needs some of that now-used-for-performance memory, the cached items are flushed to disk and the app gets the memory it needs.

In short...don't worry..seriously. OSes have come a ways since DOS and all modern OSes do similarly.

 

[JTToft]

Is using 8 gigs of ram normal when you only have 3 tabs of safari open. The correct answer is, no, it's not normal. I have 5 different macs and with my browser open, and even a couple other programs running, it's rare that my ram usage gets past around 4 or 5 gigs.

- Yes, it's normal. And you also can't compare used memory across machines with different total amounts of memory installed. On an 8 GB machine, the same tasks would be unlikely to take up 8 GB, but will on a 16 GB because it has the room for it.

In the terminology of "used and free" memory (which we can debate the usefulness of), I have right now 97 MB free on a 16 GB machine with mainly just Safari, iTunes, Mail and things like that open.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

OS X uses as much ram as it can to keep apps etc loaded into the fastest memory in the machine this is to keep the machine running as fast as possible.

Activity monitor has a ram pressure graph if it is green or yellow then it is running well with your workload if it goes into the red too much then you do not have enough in the machine for what you want to do. It's very simple it's easy to monitor and it avoids all the nonsense around ram discussion.

 

[robeddie]

- Yes, it's normal. And you also can't compare used memory across machines with different total amounts of memory installed. On an 8 GB machine, the same tasks would be unlikely to take up 8 GB, but will on a 16 GB because it has the room for it.

In the terminology of "used and free" memory (which we can debate the usefulness of), I have right now 97 MB free on a 16 GB machine with mainly just Safari, iTunes, Mail and things like that open.

You can claim that all you want, but 4 of my 5 macs have 16 gigs of ram. So I did a little experiment: On ALL of them I opened 10 different web pages at once. NEVER did any of them report more than 4 gigs of 'Memory Used' in activity monitor.

 

[JTToft]

You can claim that all you want, but 4 of my 5 macs have 16 gigs of ram. So I did a little experiment: On ALL of them I opened 10 different web pages at once. NEVER did any of them report more than 4 gigs of 'Memory Used' in activity monitor.

- Fine. But there are a million other factors at play. Other open or recently open applications, menu bar items, uptime of the machine, types of web pages open, amount of time those pages have been open, etc...

 

[robeddie]

- Fine. But there are a million other factors at play. Other open or recently open applications, menu bar items, uptime of the machine, types of web pages open, amount of time those pages have been open, etc...

Yea so you're adding all sorts of hypothetical complexities and exceptions in order to justify the idea that using 8 gigs of ram with only 3 tabs in safari open is 'normal'. The OP didnt mention anything other than he turns on his mac, opens 3 tabs, and memory usage is 8 gigs.

Like I said, I have 4 macs with 16 gigs and being kind of geekish, do look at activity monitor probably a lot more than most people .. and in all my many years of owning macs I have NEVER seen close the kind of meory usage the OP is seeing by just having 3 tabs open.

So, you all are adamant that its totally normal. Me, I'm not so sure about that, and think he should look into it more.

 

[Schranke]

Well i am sitting with a 8GB 2011 13" MBP and i am using 7,25 GB and i am only running safari...
i am currently having 6 taps open.
Facebook are using around 700MB and macrumors are using around 300MB.

Just opened Photos, iTunes, maps, skype & app store and no change in used memory.

So yes, OP can experience a high ram usage on safari, but that does not mean that that ram is used and will not be allocated to other apps if needed.

@JTToft is correct in his claim

 

[JTToft]

Yea so you're adding all sorts of hypothetical complexities and exceptions in order to justify the idea that using 8 gigs of ram with only 3 tabs in safari open is 'normal'. The OP didnt mention anything other than he turns on his mac, opens 3 tabs, and memory usage is 8 gigs.

- Yes, all sorts of hypothetical complexities which are far more likely to apply in normal usage than it is that one turns on the machine with absolutely no applications or log-in items launching, opens Safari with three tabs of "normal" content, and then immediately discovers in Activity Monitor that 8 GB is used in total on the machine (which by the way includes more than just Safari no matter how few applications you launch).

(The OP also didn't mention having just turned on the machine, so that's as much if not more of an assumption.)

 

[robeddie]

Ok guys, we'll just have to disagree. What I'm taking issue with is the fact that you all are immediately dismissing it. I think the OP should keep an eye on it. Maybe it's nothing, but maybe there is an issue causing a memory leak or something.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Ok guys, we'll just have to disagree. What I'm taking issue with is the fact that you all are immediately dismissing it. I think the OP should keep an eye on it. Maybe it's nothing, but maybe there is an issue causing a memory leak or something.

The OP made no mention that they were having any issues with the computer, no slow downs, no beach balls nothing to suggest there is any problem, all they have stated is that the computer is using all its ram, as this is how macs are designed to work then dismissing it is the only sensible reply.

Now if they had come on and said that their computer was running badly and was using all its ram we would have considered it a problem and tried to help accordingly.

 

[JTToft]

all they have stated is that the computer is using all its ram

- Not even that. Half its RAM.

There's no issue here.

 

[Russ1989]

Hey so yea I'm only on regular sites. Like news sites. No video editing or anything. Right now I have 5 tabs open, one on youtube, the rest are just plain sites. the computer is using 6 gb of ram and seems to be heating up unnaturally.
[doublepost=1471896542][/doublepost]This is what I'm working with right now

 

[JTToft]

Hey so yea I'm only on regular sites. Like news sites. No video editing or anything. Right now I have 5 tabs open, one on youtube, the rest are just plain sites. the computer is using 6 gb of ram and seems to be heating up unnaturally.
[doublepost=1471896542][/doublepost]This is what I'm working with right now

- Still completely and 100 % totally normal.

I see you had Lightroom open recently. That will heat up the machine as well as consume RAM.

 

[robvas]

6 gig used, 4.7 gig cached (that will free up when a program asks for RAM)

If you had lightroom open that might explain the 1 gig you have paged

You're fine.

Read this for more info:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201464

 

[Russ1989]

The thing is the last time I used Light room was days ago.

 

[JTToft]

The thing is the last time I used Light room was days ago.

- According to Activity Monitor it was no more than 8 hours ago. It may have been running without you using it.

 

[jerryk]

The thing is the last time I used Light room was days ago.

Did you quit the program after you closed the window? If not, it is still be in memory with some memory cached for a fast restart.

The bottom line is your machine seems to be working fine. Modern operating systems want to keep old pages in memory when there is no demand for that memory. That makes it quicker to resume applications, or for running applications to find the data they need. And resuming a previously run application is usually a high probability option.

 

[simonsi]

The thing is the last time I used Light room was days ago.

The thing is your ram pressure is low and green, you don't have any RAM problem whatsoever.

Unless it needs the RAM the LR app will stay in memory indefinitely as you are highly likely to use it again at some point. OSX knows you haven't used it for a while though, so if it needs that RAM it will instantly take it and load a new app or whatever into it, that doesn't delay anything at all, the new app will load in normally from disk.

If it were to delete the LR app from memory when you quit it then you would be delayed waiting for it to load, every time you used it. I know which method I'd prefer.

My 16GB sits with 12.25GB used right now, of which 4GB is Safari. RAM pressure is identical to yours, low and green

 

[Freyqq]

So I just got this MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015). And I feel like I'm using way too much ram for what I'm doing. It says I've used 7.9 out of 16 gb for just being on the internet (and having 3 tabs open) plus Activity Monitor. Is there a way I can cut the ram down or am I missing something? Btw I'm just on regular sites, no videos or games or anything.

empty ram is wasted ram. OSX pro-actively fills it up with cached data in case you need something later. If memory pressure is green, you're fine.