[iREZ]

i know green is free, blue is inactive, yellow is active, and red is wired. but whats all that mean? should i try to have as much green as possible by closing software im not exactly gonna use in the next hour or so? im totally clueless on what is best for system performance so can somebody elaborate on this...thanks .

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by iREZ

i know green is free, blue is inactive, yellow is active, and red is wired. but whats all that mean? should i try to have as much green as possible by closing software im not exactly gonna use in the next hour or so? im totally clueless on what is best for system performance so can somebody elaborate on this...thanks .

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918

Remember that memory management is completely different from the classic Mac OS; you don't need to mess around with it.

[stinch]

IMO you are best off just ignoring it. It's complicated and designed to work with how people use computers. By messing about opening and closing programs chances are you will just waste your time and make it less efficient.

[iREZ]

ok...so am i right in thinking that long as the yellow and red arent 90% of the pie chart...im fine? thanks for the link super.

[JKT]

You are correct - so long as the wired (red) and active memory (yellow) isn't 80 to 90% of the chart all or a lot of the time, things will be fine. If this is the case, however, it is likely that you will experience excessive paging which is an indication that you need more RAM for the usage you are putting your computer through.

Having a large proportion of inactive RAM (blue) is normal behaviour and is not a problem. Having very little free RAM is also normal behaviour and not a problem (unless the above is true about the wired/active RAM).