EDIT - Disregard. Upon further searching I think I know the answer. Inactive is basically the same as Free, but with usable data in it "just in case"...
I have had a mac for a bit over a month now, and I use a program called X Resource Graph, which puts an info pane with memory usage stats, network traffic, disk usage, etc on your screen. One thing that I keep on eye on is the memory usage, which gets broken into several types, one of which is called "inactive" memory.
I have noticed that as time goes by (certain programs cause it more than others), the amount of inactive RAM can get pretty big. From what I have read, this is memory that is no longer in use by a program, but hasn't been released yet?
Does this inactive memory ever become free memory again? I find myself restarting (or just shutting down overnight) to free up this memory every now and then. Is this really necessary?
I can't say that it slows down my machine when it is in this state...
Thanks,
Jeff
Top
