Insanely High Private Memory Usage

[DB8]

When I check memory usage in the Activity Monitor, I usually see Google Chrome Helper, and sometimes other applications like kernel_task, using an insanely high amount of memory. The last amount I read was a unitless 18446744073699495936 as the private memory usage for Google Chrome Helper. Even if the units are bits, that's still slightly higher than the 4GB of memory I have installed on my system. This amount then disappears after just a few seconds of keeping the Activity Monitor open. I had to open Grab and take a screenshot immediately after opening the Activity Monitor.

This activity seems very suspicious to me. Could it be a symptom of something similar to DRAM rowhammer? (yes, I'm paranoid). Has anyone else had experience with this issue, or does anyone know what's causing such a high memory usage reading?

View attachment Insane Memory.pdf

 

[Dysfunction]

Even expressed in bits, that is 2,048 pebibytes (that's 2.30584e9 GB) there's no way that number is accurate. You simply don't have the RAM, or the hard drive space to swap that out. You'd need rooms full of storage, literally. Even at current max storage densities.

 

[DB8]

Thank you, Dysfunction.

Please excuse my sarcasm. I understood that the memory usage reading was impossibly high and much much higher that the amount of memory I have installed on my laptop.

 

[Dysfunction]

What I mean by that is, I think it's an error in representation of the memory used.. rather than a real indication of a high amount of memory used. You said it's a short amount of time that it's presented in such a large fashion, I suspect it's a bug.

 

[vansmith]

What I mean by that is, I think it's an error in representation of the memory used.. rather than a real indication of a high amount of memory used.

Agreed. If that number actually was used to signal memory usage on the part of Chrome (or any application), this would be more an issue with OS X and less with the application itself.

That said, it is possible for the application to be using a lot of memory, something Chrome is known for. Perhaps just watch Chrome to see if it is using a lot of memory.