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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Operating System
Quick Tip: Regaining Stolen but Unused Memory
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<blockquote data-quote="vansmith" data-source="post: 1423433" data-attributes="member: 71075"><p>It's important to note that the purge tool will clear up your inactive memory which may not be all that helpful. To better explain this, one needs to know what inactive memory is. Inactive memory is memory that <em>was</em> used by various applications. When you close an application, the memory it was using is relabeled inactive. The purpose of this is quite simple - when you attempt to reopen an application, the inactive memory for that application becomes active again. This process of "relabeling" the memory is much quicker than reallocating it and as a consequence, your application opens faster (ever notice that an application always launches faster the second time?). What's important to note though about this memory is that it can, if need be, be reallocated if you run out of free memory. In effect, it lies dormant until it's needed by either the application it was allocated to or another if you run out of free memory. Perhaps an example will make this clear.</p><p></p><p>Let's say that you have 1GB of memory and you open an application that needs 500MB. Upon launching that application, you now have 500MB of active memory and 500MB of free memory (I realize that I excluded wired but that complicates the example). You use the application for a while and then quit it. You now have 500MB of free memory and 500MB of inactive memory. If you were to relaunch that application, the 500MB of inactive memory would be "relabeled" active memory. However, let's say you launch a second application instead of the first and it needs 700MB of memory. In this case, it would appear that you don't have enough free memory. Remember though that inactive memory can be reallocated so 200MB of that inactive memory will be reallocated automatically by the OS.</p><p></p><p>I say all of this because the purge tool, while clearing out the inactive memory, is largely unneeded for most users. If your machine needs some of that inactive memory, it will just take it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="vansmith, post: 1423433, member: 71075"] It's important to note that the purge tool will clear up your inactive memory which may not be all that helpful. To better explain this, one needs to know what inactive memory is. Inactive memory is memory that [I]was[/I] used by various applications. When you close an application, the memory it was using is relabeled inactive. The purpose of this is quite simple - when you attempt to reopen an application, the inactive memory for that application becomes active again. This process of "relabeling" the memory is much quicker than reallocating it and as a consequence, your application opens faster (ever notice that an application always launches faster the second time?). What's important to note though about this memory is that it can, if need be, be reallocated if you run out of free memory. In effect, it lies dormant until it's needed by either the application it was allocated to or another if you run out of free memory. Perhaps an example will make this clear. Let's say that you have 1GB of memory and you open an application that needs 500MB. Upon launching that application, you now have 500MB of active memory and 500MB of free memory (I realize that I excluded wired but that complicates the example). You use the application for a while and then quit it. You now have 500MB of free memory and 500MB of inactive memory. If you were to relaunch that application, the 500MB of inactive memory would be "relabeled" active memory. However, let's say you launch a second application instead of the first and it needs 700MB of memory. In this case, it would appear that you don't have enough free memory. Remember though that inactive memory can be reallocated so 200MB of that inactive memory will be reallocated automatically by the OS. I say all of this because the purge tool, while clearing out the inactive memory, is largely unneeded for most users. If your machine needs some of that inactive memory, it will just take it. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
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Quick Tip: Regaining Stolen but Unused Memory
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