What's eating my 4GB memory?

[SnowLeopard2008]

I don't know why but my 4GBs of RAM memory is nearly full. Only Safari, iTunes and Activity Monitor is open. Safari only has one tab (this one) and iTunes is converting a video into an iPod format. This Mac is under a month old and has DDR3 ram which should be very fast. Any ideas on what's using up all my ram?

 

[benthewraith]

I don't know why but my 4GBs of RAM memory is nearly full. Only Safari, iTunes and Activity Monitor is open. Safari only has one tab (this one) and iTunes is converting a video into an iPod format. This Mac is under a month old and has DDR3 ram which should be very fast. Any ideas on what's using up all my ram?

That's not as bad as you think it is. Add Inactive RAM and Free RAM together to find out how much RAM you really have.

 

[macjram]

Choose the tab that says "Real Memory" and it will show you what is hogging up so much ram.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

That's not as bad as you think it is. Add Inactive RAM and Free RAM together to find out how much RAM you really have.

Thanks but I already thought about that. It's just that right now, the OS performs like it has very little or no RAM available. Switching the iTunes app would be slow and laggy. And I don't even have many apps open, just iTunes and Safari (Activity Monitor doesn't really count).

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Choose the tab that says "Real Memory" and it will show you what is hogging up so much ram.

Seems like kernel_task is taking up 230MB or so. Any ideas why and what is kernel_task btw?

 

[benthewraith]

Thanks but I already thought about that. It's just that right now, the OS performs like it has very little or no RAM available. Switching the iTunes app would be slow and laggy. And I don't even have many apps open, just iTunes and Safari (Activity Monitor doesn't really count).

From looking at your Activity Monitor, it looks more like it has something to do with iTunes taking up 102% of your CPU.

About kernel_task:

http://bleepsoft.com/tyler/index.php?itemid=43

I don't recommend force quitting/stopping process.

 

[sammich]

If our computer feels sluggish the two things you should be looking at are the CPU usage and any disk activity. I don't think RAM is a problem here. If it was you will notice much more page outs.

CPU usage because some runaway process is eating up all your CPU power.

Disk usage because sometimes an app might be doing something intensive or you might be paging out excessively (which isn't the case in your situation).

What exactly is iTunes doing in that screenshot? (EDIT: converting vid, gotcha. skim reading strikes again!) Any process that takes up a whole single core and doesn't use much disk seek time doesn't slow down the system at all (thats the beauty of mutli-core computing). You can convert video in Handbrake and play WoW at the same time (really).

The OP needs to post screenies of disk activity.

And how long since you last restarted? Not long I'm guessing.

 

[benthewraith]

If our computer feels sluggish the two things you should be looking at are the CPU usage and any disk activity. I don't think RAM is a problem here. If it was you will notice much more page outs.

CPU usage because some runaway process is eating up all your CPU power.

Disk usage because sometimes an app might be doing something intensive or you might be paging out excessively (which isn't the case in your situation).

What exactly is iTunes doing in that screenshot?

He said it was encoding a video for playback on iPod.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

If our computer feels sluggish the two things you should be looking at are the CPU usage and any disk activity. I don't think RAM is a problem here. If it was you will notice much more page outs.

CPU usage because some runaway process is eating up all your CPU power.

Disk usage because sometimes an app might be doing something intensive or you might be paging out excessively (which isn't the case in your situation).

What exactly is iTunes doing in that screenshot? (EDIT: converting vid, gotcha. skim reading strikes again!) Any process that takes up a whole single core and doesn't use much disk seek time doesn't slow down the system at all (thats the beauty of mutli-core computing). You can convert video in Handbrake and play WoW at the same time (really).

The OP needs to post screenies of disk activity.

And how long since you last restarted? Not long I'm guessing.

Sure here are the screenshots. Does no rebooting really make a difference? I always thought that Mac OS does a pretty good job of staying on/sleep for long periods of time. I only have the uptime from iStat Pro because iTunes had already finished encoding my movie so I'm not sure if the problem still stands.

He said it was encoding a video for playback on iPod.

Correct, I just finished copying Fast & Furious 4 and was encoding it to be iPod-compatible.

 

[mrchinchilla]

Seems like kernel_task is taking up 230MB or so. Any ideas why and what is kernel_task btw?

Not the easiest thing to explain but basically memory management. If you know something about *NIX it's like init.

 

[sammich]

Sure here are the screenshots. Does no rebooting really make a difference? I always thought that Mac OS does a pretty good job of staying on/sleep for long periods of time. I only have the uptime from iStat Pro because iTunes had already finished encoding my movie so I'm not sure if the problem still stands.

Not really. Yeah, OS X does a fantastic job of keeping performance over a long period of uptime, especially for a machine constantly in use.

How's your computer behaving now?

 

[soLoredd]

I've never used iTunes for encoding a movie. Does the Mac feel sluggish even after the conversion? If it doesn't, I would say try a different app like HandBrake or some sort. I can encode a movie with HandBrake and still use my MBP, although I can definitely tell the CPU is being utilized fully (it's not a RAM issue).

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Not the easiest thing to explain but basically memory management. If you know something about *NIX it's like init.

Yea, I know UNIX very thoroughly. Thanks.

Not really. Yeah, OS X does a fantastic job of keeping performance over a long period of uptime, especially for a machine constantly in use.

How's your computer behaving now?

It's running pretty speedy due to the fact that I've rebooted it. I always keep it on or sleep during the night.

I've never used iTunes for encoding a movie. Does the Mac feel sluggish even after the conversion? If it doesn't, I would say try a different app like HandBrake or some sort. I can encode a movie with HandBrake and still use my MBP, although I can definitely tell the CPU is being utilized fully (it's not a RAM issue).

I should do that next time.