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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Virtual Memory: Why so much?

Virtual Memory: Why so much?
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mpancha
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Aug 21, 2005, 11:02 PM
 
here's a screen shot from sys-stat (dashboard widget that shows system info) that shows my virtual memory size:



why is my virtual memory at over 4 gig, and how can I not make it that huge?
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hldan
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Aug 21, 2005, 11:31 PM
 
Originally Posted by mpancha
here's a screen shot from sys-stat (dashboard widget that shows system info) that shows my virtual memory size:



why is my virtual memory at over 4 gig, and how can I not make it that huge?
From the looks of the sys-stat it shows that you have 768MB of ram in your computer. You have tons of page outs which result in the computer running out of system memory and paging out to the HD for virtual memory. Virtual memory is calculated based on your system memory and HD space. What's most important are the page outs. They show that the activity that you do with the computer far exceeds the amount of ram you have installed.
If you have options then I would recommend increasing ram.
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chabig
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Aug 21, 2005, 11:38 PM
 
I think your memory usage looks normal.

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Thinine
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Aug 22, 2005, 12:08 AM
 
And since you can't actually have 4.31 GB of page files, that stat is almost meaningless. Find out how big your /var/vm directory is and then we can tell you if you have a problem.
     
Randman
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Aug 22, 2005, 12:15 AM
 
Run your cron jobs, empty caches, log off and back on and see what the results are.

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Kvasir
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Aug 22, 2005, 09:01 AM
 
That virtual memory size you see in SyStat (or top for that matter) is the amount of virtual memory pages reserved by the system - it says nothing about how much of that space is actually being used (if any). At boot, the kernel reserves VM page space based on the amount of RAM present and how much free HD space is available (I think the formula also takes into account the HD size too, but can't remember the details).

You need to dig deeper to know how much of that reserved space is being used - eg. as mentioned, look in /var/vm and see how many swapfiles you actually have. SysStat on my 2GB RAM dual G5 always shows Virtual Memory of something like 7 or 8G, but I've yet to actually generate more that the default single swapfile0 on that machine, despite pushing it pretty hard at times.
     
Taipan
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Aug 22, 2005, 11:53 AM
 
Hi!

Maybe you are using too many silly widgets?



OK, I apologize...
     
mpancha  (op)
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Aug 22, 2005, 01:38 PM
 
hmm, alright, well, here is a screen shot of var/vm:



what do the page in/page outs actually mean? Or rather than explaining it, if someone has a good link about it that works too. Right now I'm converting about 100 songs to mp3 in itunes, so that probably would explain the number of swap files.

The only reason that 4 gig virtual memory stat in sys stat annoys me is b/c I only have a little over 3 gig free, yet, I dont have that much crap on the laptop. I've dug through and my itunes music library is only 7 gig, I just imported a bunch of pictures from the last couple days onto the laptop, so that's another 1 gig, I dont have any videos on here.... and I know I dont have 18+ gig of applications on this thing.
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Squozen
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Aug 23, 2005, 12:48 AM
 
mpancha, that screenshot shows you were using 512Mb of swap, fairly standard for a machine that's been running for some time and running multiple apps.

Paging in/out simply means the process of moving data from physical memory to the swap file and back. More info can be found here - http://developer.apple.com/documenta...outMemory.html
( Last edited by Squozen; Aug 23, 2005 at 12:49 AM. Reason: clarity)
     
mpancha  (op)
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Aug 23, 2005, 08:58 AM
 
Thanks Squozen! and thanks for the link, that's exactly what I was looking for. I signed up for a Developers account, but I've only used it for the Dev kit downloads, never really looked through the documents. thanks again.
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astepanuks
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Aug 26, 2005, 06:49 AM
 
I am monitoring RAM usage via Memory Gauge which is a Konfabulator widget. It is swelling as the time goes by.
I have 1.4 Gig RAM installed and in freshly booted system my G4 uses aqbout 15% of RAM with Entourage, Safari, Word and misc utilities running. After about 3 or so hours of oparting time, RAM usage blows to over 42% with same apps running. I checked in Activity Monitor, and most RAM hungry is:
Safari with 250 Meg of real and 390 of virtual in use
2nd in line is kernel with about 80 real and 860 of virtual and
3rd is Entourage with 75 real and 280 virtual.
Is it normal?
andy
     
JKT
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Aug 26, 2005, 09:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by mpancha
<snip>
The only reason that 4 gig virtual memory stat in sys stat annoys me is b/c I only have a little over 3 gig free, yet, I dont have that much crap on the laptop. I've dug through and my itunes music library is only 7 gig, I just imported a bunch of pictures from the last couple days onto the laptop, so that's another 1 gig, I dont have any videos on here.... and I know I dont have 18+ gig of applications on this thing.
Download OmniDiskSweeper if you want to find out what is using up your disk space in a nice graphical manner. If you have Garageband/iDVD installed you could well find that several GB are taken up by the Application Support files, etc.
     
eddiecatflap
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Aug 26, 2005, 09:14 AM
 
safari is a ram sponge
     
chabig
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Aug 26, 2005, 10:58 AM
 
Originally Posted by astepanuks
I am monitoring RAM usage via Memory Gauge which is a Konfabulator widget. It is swelling as the time goes by.
I have 1.4 Gig RAM installed and in freshly booted system my G4 uses aqbout 15% of RAM with Entourage, Safari, Word and misc utilities running. After about 3 or so hours of oparting time, RAM usage blows to over 42% with same apps running. I checked in Activity Monitor, and most RAM hungry is:
Safari with 250 Meg of real and 390 of virtual in use
2nd in line is kernel with about 80 real and 860 of virtual and
3rd is Entourage with 75 real and 280 virtual.
Is it normal?
andy
That is normal. The OS automatically manages all available RAM. Memory management is not something we users should be concerned with.

Chris
     
astepanuks
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Aug 26, 2005, 06:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by JKT
Download OmniDiskSweeper if you want to find out what is using up your disk space in a nice graphical manner. If you have Garageband/iDVD installed you could well find that several GB are taken up by the Application Support files, etc.
Good suggestion. I ran it and as you said, 2 Gig with Jam Pack loops and over a Gig of standard loops. iDVD also had several hundred of Meg with sample files.
Thanks
andy
     
   
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