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urban · Dec 2, 2003, 04:39 PM

Hello, ppl.
I am checking Activity Monitor right now and the size of VM is at 4.01GB. this is quite big considering my HDD is only 40GB. Is this normal?
Also, lately my computer has been sluggish. it shows a beachball even when I am just opening a new Safari window. I would like to add that I have default 256MB RAM and am running a 1GZ 12" pb. Does anybody know if this sluggishness is due to the fact I have too little RAM?

sanity assassin · Dec 2, 2003, 04:44 PM

yup, you could do with maybe an upgrade in ram, that'll give you some more breathing room.

Panther's Vm is a bit different to Jag's, but is much better at releasing memory. I notice that after a while, using many apps, that my Vm will go up to 2Gb, but it usually sticks at 512mb. What to do, is close down some apps, and the system will release it.

DVD Plaza · Dec 2, 2003, 04:48 PM

Given you've only got 256MB of RAM, and you're virtual memory use is so incredibly high, then yeah you desperately need more.

CIA · Dec 2, 2003, 09:23 PM

Running a QS DP800, 1.5GB of ram, and 10.3.1. The machine is on 24/7, but I restarted yesterday. Right now I'm only running Safari and Activity moniter, and my VM size is hovering around 5GB! (4.71GB to be exact) Performace seems normal tho (much improved over Jag). The only time I see a slowdown, and spinning beach balls is running iPhoto. Great program, but SLUGGISH! I have about 5000+ 4MP photos in there.. It's painfully slow to use....

Art Vandelay · Dec 2, 2003, 09:43 PM

FYI...

The amount of VM indicated is not the same as the amount of memory swapped to your hard drive. It is just the amount of memory address space allocated to all processes. For example, my PowerBook has 1GB of RAM and is using 4.1GB of VM. However, I have only one 67MB swap file.

3R1C · Dec 3, 2003, 04:48 AM

Ever since upgrading to panther, I too have had VM woes. On more than one occasion, Ive noticed 3 or more gigs of my HD space missing. So, using OmniDiskSweeper, tracked it down to VM. I had 3 gigs of space written in swap files. I have 1.5 gigs of physical ram, and I never had this problem in the past.

proton · Dec 3, 2003, 06:02 AM

Originally posted by urban:
Hello, ppl.
I am checking Activity Monitor right now and the size of VM is at 4.01GB. this is quite big considering my HDD is only 40GB. Is this normal?
Also, lately my computer has been sluggish. it shows a beachball even when I am just opening a new Safari window. I would like to add that I have default 256MB RAM and am running a 1GZ 12" pb. Does anybody know if this sluggishness is due to the fact I have too little RAM?

The "VM Size" that Activity Monitor reports is nothing to do with how much virtual memory is being used on your hard disk. Right now Activity Monitor reports my machine as having 5.29GB of virtual memory, whereas in reality it has not paged anything out to disk.

The virtual memory size in Activity Monitor is really something that most users aren't interested in, it's the amount of virtual memory that is allocated to processes, be that memory that has been shared with other processes, used privately, or not used at all. It is not a useful measure of anything much unless you're a developer.

- proton

mindwaves · Dec 3, 2003, 08:15 AM

reboot.....then if it continues, add more RAM.