One thing I really love about my Mac is that I rarely have to reboot it. However, by using a little system monitor in my toolbar I've been noticing that the amount of free RAM goes down when I use an app, but hardly goes back up at all when I close it. Should I be restarting periodically to free up my RAM? Thanks!
Rebooting to free the RAM?
- Thread starter Thalias
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Simple question, but when you "close" the program, do you just hit the red "x" in the upper left corner or do you quit by clicking on the application name in the Taskbar on top and selecting the Quit option (or using the Apple + Q shortcut)?
If you're just hitting the little "x", then you're not really closing the program, which would explain why your RAM isn't getting freed up.
If you're just hitting the little "x", then you're not really closing the program, which would explain why your RAM isn't getting freed up.
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There is memory and there is memory. Generally, *nix systems (and this includes Mac OS X) consider that unused memory is wasted memory. In general, they will fill up available memory over time on purpose, caching stuff there to improve performance. This is not a bad thing. Memory usage will creep up over time, and this is design intent.
On the Mac, there are four types of memory buckets reported on:
Wired memory
This is memory that applications or the system needs immediate access to, so it can't be cached to disk. It will vary depending on what applications you're using.
Active memory
This is memory that is actively being used.
Inactive memory
This memory is no longer being used and has been cached to disk. It'll remain in RAM until another application needs the space.
Free memory
This memory is not being used.
It is probably the Inactive memory that you are seeing going up? This is what happens on my system over time. Inactive memory goes up and up, and this seems to have no performance implications at all - just standard *nix memory management.
If it is wired memory, that is a different matter.
On the Mac, there are four types of memory buckets reported on:
Wired memory
This is memory that applications or the system needs immediate access to, so it can't be cached to disk. It will vary depending on what applications you're using.
Active memory
This is memory that is actively being used.
Inactive memory
This memory is no longer being used and has been cached to disk. It'll remain in RAM until another application needs the space.
Free memory
This memory is not being used.
It is probably the Inactive memory that you are seeing going up? This is what happens on my system over time. Inactive memory goes up and up, and this seems to have no performance implications at all - just standard *nix memory management.
If it is wired memory, that is a different matter.
Thanks everyone!
Kash: No, I've learned enough about Macs so far to know that you have to manually quit the program for it to really be closed, and that's what I do (most of the time.).
I'm going to try logging off every night now, instead of just putting it to sleep. Thanks for the advice everyone!
Kash: No, I've learned enough about Macs so far to know that you have to manually quit the program for it to really be closed, and that's what I do (most of the time.).
I'm going to try logging off every night now, instead of just putting it to sleep. Thanks for the advice everyone!
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