Whats using all my RAM? :O

Basically Out of my 16GB of Ram it says 9gb is inactive, but on "all processes" the highest 2 are 1.3gb and then only 200mb, whats the deal with this?

will i have to shut it down and reboot to reset the ram ?

I have a mid 2012 MBP if that helps.

"Inactive" ram and "free" ram for purposes of this discussion are basically the same.

ClarkeFace said:

will i have to shut it down and reboot to reset the ram ?

Click to expand...

You could...but really not necessary.

- Nick

But if i boot up sayyyyyy After effects now, wont it only have the 3gb free to use?

i didnt know newly opened apps could use inactive ram, thought that was for previously closed apps to quicken boot times haha

ClarkeFace said:

i didnt know newly opened apps could use inactive ram, thought that was for previously closed apps to quicken boot times haha

Click to expand...

It is used that way but if you run out of free memory, the inactive is reallocated to meet the needs. So, like pigoo3 mentioned, you can, for all intents and purposes, consider is free memory.

Ahh yeah it makes sense now, thanks both of you!

Some reading to solidify what was said: Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used