Why is MS Word so RAM hungry?

[Blu101]

I've started to notice that the longer I keep Word open/in use, it just drains the RAM. Doesn't release it after you close it either - not right away anyways, sometimes I reboot just to free up the ram. Was curious why it uses or ties up so much ram?

With nothing else open, it eventually falls to around ~2GB and below, total free available - normally floats around 3GB, and when multitasking with safari (several tabs open), stickies, external backup connected and dictionary my ram falls well below 1GB available, to around 300-500MBs, but without opening Word (everything else on), I *believe* it floats around 2GBs+ still available, I forget the exact figure, but I know it's well above 1GB still free. I have a total of 4GB (the 8GB in my sig is on the way). The mbp doesn't slow down or anything, keeps working flawlessly, but I know at that point it starts to use the HD for lack of ram, and I'm curious as to why Word needs to tie up so much of it in general.

 

[mikes63737]

Which version of Word do you have installed?

I'm using 2008 and it starts up using around 85 MB of real RAM and goes up to about 150 MB max. Of course, memory usage will definitely depend on what you have in your document (I just have text).

 

[CylonGlitch]

I just ran a test with Word 2011. Without it loaded, I had 2.6GB Used RAM. I loaded a 10+ page doc and had 2.8GB used. So about 200MB. Doesn't seem that bad.

 

[CylonGlitch]

With nothing else open, it eventually falls to around ~2GB and below, total free available

According to your sig, you have 8GB of RAM. Yet with nothing open you have only 2GB free? Something isn't right. My system has 8GB and I'm running 5.23GB free and I have a bunch of things running.

 

[Blu101]

Which version of Word do you have installed?

I'm using 2008 and it starts up using around 85 MB of real RAM and goes up to about 150 MB max. Of course, memory usage will definitely depend on what you have in your document (I just have text).

I have the 2011 one.

My doc has text, bullets and some graphics, but just a couple of lines, nothing else. Small doc, only two pages and ~165kb size.


Is there a way to measure/track ram usage per app? Or do I have to keep going by the total system figures?

I just ran a test with Word 2011. Without it loaded, I had 2.6GB Used RAM. I loaded a 10+ page doc and had 2.8GB used. So about 200MB. Doesn't seem that bad.

That's what I see too when I get started, but over time, say, a few hours of leaving the doc open while I work on it off and on, the ram starts to bleed. This seems to be the only app that has caused ram to bleed over time. I've multitasked heavier loads before, but no Word, and I've never dropped below ~1.5GB free available. I'm wondering if it's doing self-backups somehow? Don't think there's any auto backup/recovery feature though..?

According to your sig, you have 8GB of RAM. Yet with nothing open you have only 2GB free? Something isn't right. My system has 8GB and I'm running 5.23GB free and I have a bunch of things running.

I made a note about that in my original post - I still have the original 4GB installed right now. The 8gigs on my sig have been ordered through OWC and are on their way, but I don't have it yet. I just figured I'd update my sig last night, after I got the shipping confirmation e-mail from OWC - kind of reminded me to do that. Sorry about the confusion.

With nothing open, just having the mbp on + the widgets in dashboard, the free available ram is usually around ~3GB, once it settles down. Kind of depends if it's from a fresh reboot, then it's usually in the 3-3.5GB range, or if it's after some web browsing, iTunes and iPhoto, it's somewhere in the 2.5GB-3GB range (some of the ram stays unavailable, even if it's not beeing used). This is what I recall from memory, I haven't really sat down and recorded any details, but I'm always peeking at dashboard for mbp temps, cpu, ram (been trying to see when to pull the trigger on the need for a 8GB upgrade), weather and stocks.

But I've never had ram bleed over time, until Word.