[Siren]

from the activity monitor program .. it shows:

Wired: 76MB
Active: 144MB
Inactive: 355MB
Used: 577MB

Free: 190MB
VM size: 3.64GB
Page ins/outs: 47703/16

I have a total of 768MB ram (recently installed a 512 stick)

I'm just running safari (to post this message)
nothing else ... what's taking up that RAM?

I took a snapshot of the screen (Activity Monitor) but can't figure out how to upload it show other people can view ...

hopefully this description is enough ...

thanks for your time ... maybe I should upgrade to 1gig?
I actually don't even feel the difference between 768mb and 256mb (default)

[dodo_nutter]

I've got 512 in my 15"

Running: Mail (hidden), Safari, iTunes, Activity Monitor, and Temp Monitor (hidden)

I've got:
66-67 Wired
121-122 Active
147 Inactive
174 free

But i have got 5Gigs of VM and hundreds of thousands of page in/outs but that just because i haven't turned it off for ages.

Have you looked in activity monitor to determine which app is consuming the most memory??

Mine are:
Kernal task--55MB
Window Server--38MB
Safari--32MB
Butler--12MB
iTunes--9MB....etc

how do those compare??

I was stupid enough not to pay the little bit extra to have 1 512 stick instead of 2x256 so i have to buy 2 512 sticks to get up to the Gig of ram i want. any idea when 1Gig sticks will become affordable!?

[Siren]

Real Memory or Virtual Memory? (my VM are all in the hundreds)
here are my top Real Memory uses:
Safari: 30MB
Finder: 24MB
WindowServer: 21MB

I've got noting else running besides this

and it seems my Free memory has gone down since I first posted 5min ago ... now i'm down to 186mb ...

i'm very curious to whats happening ...

[dodo_nutter]

Sorry that was real memory

I think your system is running normally, seems to be at the same sort of level as mine proportionate levels of RAM that is. I think if you want to make sure that there isn't a massive VM size you need to put in the max 2GB of RAM but still i think you would have a roughly equal VM size. Having a faster HDD would defiantly help performance issues with VM which is why i got the 5400 option.

(Unless anyone else comes on saying your systems gone wrong) I think your PBs workin just fine.

[JKT]

This is nothing to worry about. The more you use OS X the more memory gets used and this is normal behaviour. The figure to look at there is your inactive one - this (if I understand it correctly) is memory that has been used by applications in the past that is being stored in RAM until either of two things happen - 1) you re-launch or start using those apps again in which case it becomes active once more or 2) another app needs that RAM in which case it gets paged out to the hard drive as Virtual Memory so that the new app can use the RAM.

The reason why it gets stored as inactive in physical RAM is that it is faster for the OS to access it from there when it needs it again than it is from the hard drive (which is what it would have to do otherwise).

Just for the sake of completeness:

The active memory is that which is being used by open apps at the current time.

The wired memory is that which is used by the system and can't be paged out as it is essential for operation.

Free is what it says on the tin.

Edit: the big difference with increased quantity of physical RAM in your machine is that you will get less frequent paging (where RAM is swapped into and out to the hard drive), and not that you will have more free RAM available at all times. Putting it another way, the more RAM you have the less paging you get and therefore the more responsive is the system because it is relying less on the relatively slow hard drive compared to the relatively fast RAM.

[d.fine]

Open :
Safari
Mail
Adium
InDesign CS
iChat
Preview
Temperature Monitor

[Frumpy]

Yeah, with the specs that you see listed below...my system has given itself 6.22GB of virtual memory. Sounds a little crazy to me, but oh well. The machine runs fantastic, so I really can't complain.

[Gig103]

d.fine

Hi I'm new to the OSX world (first Apple since the IIe) and was wondering how I access that tool?

[d.fine]

Handy little app called MenuMeters

Once installed check your 'System Preferences' & at the bottom you'll see a new button ...

Enjoy