virtual memory?

Hello everyone, Im new here and Im not 100% sure this is the right place to post this, so I apologize if it isn't.

Anyway I was looking through the activity monitor, and saw the java app I had running was using more virtual memory than any other app I had running.

what does virtual memory mean? Is that application using too much of it?

thanks in advance.

Your HD has space on it that not being used, and you have RAM too. Virtual memory is the space on your HD that is not being used, and is turning it in to imaginary RAM, so your computer is basically pretending that it has 59GB of RAM.

Printerman said:

Your HD has memory on it that not being used, and you have RAM too. Virtual memory is the space on your HD that is not being used, and is turning it in to imaginary RAM, so your computer is basically pretending that it has 59GB of RAM.

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Great definition of "virtual memory"..."Virtual memory is the space on your HD that is not being used, and is turning it in to imaginary RAM, so your computer is basically pretending that it has 59GB of RAM."

But the first sentence is confusing..."Your HD has memory on it that not being used..." Referring to storage space on a hard drive as "memory" is really confusing...since it can be easily confused with a computers ram...which is a totally different "animal".

Mostly a really great post!

- Nick

Yea, let me change the word memory to space.

Thanks for the compliment though!

Printerman said:

Yea, let me change the word memory to space.

Thanks for the compliment though!

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That's an awesome & concise post explaining Virtual Memory (IMHO)!

- Nick

I have to give credit to the guy down at MacMost (http://macmost.com/) I love this guy. He explained to me in one of his videos how VM works.

Here's a good link that describes it pretty well too
Macintosh Performance Guide: Optimizing your Mac ? Virtual Memory

Thx printerman and 6string for the links.

Printerman said:

I have to give credit to the guy down at MacMost (http://macmost.com/) I love this guy. He explained to me in one of his videos how VM works.

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I wanted to say thanks as well for the MacMost link. Always nice to find a new Macintosh news site that makes it easy to learn about news that's Mac related.

- Nick

No problem guys!