I've been running the betas for awhile and never saw this... Just format and install fresh and see how it goes I guess.
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Awful Ram usage on Mountain Lion... new Macbook Air 2012
- Thread starter Andre29
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I've been running the betas for awhile and never saw this... Just format and install fresh and see how it goes I guess.
I didn't advise anyone. I was just being sympathetic to the OP's problems. If you have a good knowledge of how ram SHOULD work then why don't you enlighten us with that knowledge that we so dear need. unused ram is wasted ram right?
Umm, I'm not a Mac developer. I am a consumer I rather leave the major bug fixes in the beta stages. that's what devs are for. they need to test this out and perform QA on it. This release seems so beta like vista almost. yea there are a lot of 'new' features but make sure they work ok. I'm voicing my consumer voice because if everyone is just like 'yay apple, i love ML' then there wouldn't be any improvements. YKWIM?
Can you stop with the not being sympathetic/compassionate line here? I'm just getting to the point and have offered to help. He clearly doesn't know what is going on and jumps to the conclusion with the scare headline "Awful Ram usage on Mountain Lion". I noted he didn't seem to know really what's going on and asked him to just specify the problems and not go on assuming things about RAM usage.
So, back to Andre29: What is going on now? Did you reinstall?
I'm not really sure what you are supposed to be impressed with. Do you have a performance issues or do the numbers somehow matter to you? Keep in mind all of this is managed by the OS on the fly precisely so you don't have to.
Assuming? I think that's what you're doing actually; assuming you know anything about my knowledge in RAM and how it works.
Simple math here: little to zero gain except iOS features, and I have over a GB less RAM used than before. I've been using Apple computers and have built my own PC's for nearly a decade now.
I don't understand how it could have been clearer and with me posting trying to figure out if it's just ML, or if something is using too much resources and is awaiting a patch.
Frankly, it just shows how far Apple has declined over their years in respect to their professional audience. I would gladly take out these ridiculous iOS features for more freed up RAM. My PC has had 4GB for years before, and never was close to reaching it even with gaming. In other words, this is probably my last Mac.
Currently running a MBA 13 with 4GB of RAM
Free - 440MB
Wired - 1.02GB
Active - 1.53GB
inactive -1.03GB
0 bytes a sec page outs.
Free RAM does not matter it's about having a low number for Page Outs.
Free - 440MB
Wired - 1.02GB
Active - 1.53GB
inactive -1.03GB
0 bytes a sec page outs.
Free RAM does not matter it's about having a low number for Page Outs.
Guys, I was having some serious memory leaks after I upgraded to Mountain Lion from Lion on my iMac. It would drop down to less than a GB of free memory without anything running after leaving it on for a few hours.
I found that after I uninstalled VMware 4.x and Logmein, the memory leak seems to have gone away.
Right now, I have Safari with one tab and Activity Monitor with the following stats:
Free:2.45 GB
Wired: 285.9MB
Active: 1.03 GB
Inactive: 149.2 MB
Used: 1.55 GB
The Kernel task is now sitting around 317.5 MB for the past ten minutes. I think that the above to applications may have had memory leaks in some drivers they loaded.
I found that after I uninstalled VMware 4.x and Logmein, the memory leak seems to have gone away.
Right now, I have Safari with one tab and Activity Monitor with the following stats:
Free:2.45 GB
Wired: 285.9MB
Active: 1.03 GB
Inactive: 149.2 MB
Used: 1.55 GB
The Kernel task is now sitting around 317.5 MB for the past ten minutes. I think that the above to applications may have had memory leaks in some drivers they loaded.
This thread really should be locked. About 90% here have absolutely no idea how memory management in the average operating system works and OS X in particular. Unfortunately they are falsely claiming that they do know. The misinformation continues with the "purge" command.
Too bad because Apple has written some very clear articles about how memory management in OS X works. There are also lots of other books and online articles about memory management in the average OS.
The OP continuously evades every question about what problems (s)he has with the OS memory-wise. That leads to the conclusion that (s)he definitely does not have the knowledge that (s)he is claiming to have. Yet (s)he is picking on the people trying to help. Now, why on earth should we help any further, it is clear that the OP and others here are only after yet another flamewar and spreading of complete misinformation. *sigh* It is getting old you know....
Too bad because Apple has written some very clear articles about how memory management in OS X works. There are also lots of other books and online articles about memory management in the average OS.
The OP continuously evades every question about what problems (s)he has with the OS memory-wise. That leads to the conclusion that (s)he definitely does not have the knowledge that (s)he is claiming to have. Yet (s)he is picking on the people trying to help. Now, why on earth should we help any further, it is clear that the OP and others here are only after yet another flamewar and spreading of complete misinformation. *sigh* It is getting old you know....
well
too many people here have a schoolyard bully attitude that requires fixing. 'purging'.
learn to teach people nuttards rather than bring them down because they dont know.
i had the same problem with my mac, fresh boot, safari, vlc would crawl to play a vid.
'support forum' - the lot of you thrown on an island the size of the panties you got in a wad when you wrote those posts . For Shame @@@
too many people here have a schoolyard bully attitude that requires fixing. 'purging'.
learn to teach people nuttards rather than bring them down because they dont know.
i had the same problem with my mac, fresh boot, safari, vlc would crawl to play a vid.
'support forum' - the lot of you thrown on an island the size of the panties you got in a wad when you wrote those posts . For Shame @@@
I'm not really sure what you are supposed to be impressed with. Do you have a performance issues or do the numbers somehow matter to you? Keep in mind all of this is managed by the OS on the fly precisely so you don't have to.
Most likely he's having performance issues, otherwise he wouldn't go to look for his memory usage.
I personally am having performance issues. Ever since I bought my first Mac back in 2008 -- it was a Mac Pro running Leopard -- whenever it was running out of memory, everything was slowing down to a crawl. Switching between apps, scrolling down web pages, opening files and dialogs, beach ball of death, etc. I have had 4 different Macs ever since my first one and every single version of OS X up to the current 10.8.2 -- all of them were having this issue.
My current iMac has 16 GB of RAM and whenever it drops below 100-200 MB -- which is pretty rare, but it happens sometimes, especially when there's a leak -- everything slows down to a crawl.
So, please take off your pink fanboy glasses and admit that there's (and has been for quite a while) a problem with memory management in OS X.
If you've never encountered it, it doesn't mean it's not there.
Got your tough guy e-pants on huh?
Whats with the hostility? And the insults? I asked for clarification in a way that didn't defend apple in any way. How is trying to understand the reason for a post being a fanboy?
someone gave me an early 2008 running Mountain Lion (Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz) this weekend. Compared to my early 2006 running Snow Leopard (Core Duo 1.8Ghz), it is definitely slower. CPU load is nothing but memory usage is brutal! Both have 2Gigs of RAM and I just ordered an upgrade to 4Gigs yesterday
some people might disagree because they never had the problem, kudos to you. And some might even say the machine is old. Yes it is ... but it is unix-based not windows so let's not get into that ... I am a Solaris admin by trade, fwiw.
but I agree with Mark, the problem exists.
inactive ram = cache.
when running virtual machines, i've had several gb of "inactive ram" on my mbp as it is using this to cache disk access for my VMs.
Stop looking at memory usage in performance monitor until you see a performance problem and let the OS cache things as required.
all you're going to do by running purge is dump the disk cache and kill IO performance.
Ideally, after you've been running for a while you should have a very small amount of free ram. as much as possible should be consumed by disk cache until the OS needs to purge the cache to reclaim memory for allocation. This is the way real operating systems work, and have worked, for years. RAM is a cache for the disk IO.
As an example, a FreeBSD box i have doing mail relay (it's a VM and has only 1gb ram allocated, it is text mode only):
Mem: 37M Active, 777M Inact, 127M Wired, 26M Cache, 111M Buf, 26M Free
It's currently been up for 3 1/2 months.
Same stuff, different OS.
Same with our accounting system box. It's linux and out of 8gb of RAM in it, 7.2gb is currently CACHE, only 500mb is "free". Just because previous versions of OS X didn't cache as aggressively, it doesn't mean Lion onwards is "broken".
As above, the memory stats to be concerned about are your page outs and (more importantly) pages/sec numbers. Some paging isn't bad, so long as the app being paged out isn't active. Hence, pages out/sec is your most reliable metric for RAM pressure.
when running virtual machines, i've had several gb of "inactive ram" on my mbp as it is using this to cache disk access for my VMs.
Stop looking at memory usage in performance monitor until you see a performance problem and let the OS cache things as required.
all you're going to do by running purge is dump the disk cache and kill IO performance.
Ideally, after you've been running for a while you should have a very small amount of free ram. as much as possible should be consumed by disk cache until the OS needs to purge the cache to reclaim memory for allocation. This is the way real operating systems work, and have worked, for years. RAM is a cache for the disk IO.
As an example, a FreeBSD box i have doing mail relay (it's a VM and has only 1gb ram allocated, it is text mode only):
Mem: 37M Active, 777M Inact, 127M Wired, 26M Cache, 111M Buf, 26M Free
It's currently been up for 3 1/2 months.
Same stuff, different OS.
Same with our accounting system box. It's linux and out of 8gb of RAM in it, 7.2gb is currently CACHE, only 500mb is "free". Just because previous versions of OS X didn't cache as aggressively, it doesn't mean Lion onwards is "broken".
As above, the memory stats to be concerned about are your page outs and (more importantly) pages/sec numbers. Some paging isn't bad, so long as the app being paged out isn't active. Hence, pages out/sec is your most reliable metric for RAM pressure.
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4gb Ram and Mountain Lion - Major issues
Im noting vastly increased ram usage in Mountain Lion, all fanboi's need not comment i'm after someone suffering the same issue not someone who has no issues defending apple, I recommend all my clients to buy machines now with at least 8gb because of these issues, but some twerp genius in the apple store persuaded my client to go for a 4gb macbook air because 8gb is a build to order option and they dont cary it in stock! A******s . Im thinking of taking it back a getting them to exchange for an 8gb bl***y apple, and now im supposed to support this crippled Air they shouldn't make them 4gb soldered on, thats selling them as redundant from the start !
Its one thing to say that os x lion/ML does a allot of caching now, but if it doesn't free up that cache as other programs need it ? (photoshop(though its memory leaks are infamous)restarting doesnt help), or give me control over the amount of caching going on, then its a fing nightmare, typical for apple the user gets no control over the amount of caching ? unless of course you are a unix command line freak who wants to poke the guts in terminal with arcane commands, again if I wanted to spend my time in terminal to resolve basic issues id switch to linux and not use OS X. why the hell did i upgrade from command line based machines in the 80's ? DOS CPM etc if im spending the tweenies using such antiquated arcane rubbish still, If i was a coder id accept such things but seriously apples users should not require this level of expertise or support to deal with basic issues which often revolve around the OS being designed badly, and not any longer including gui based expert control ? thats what Im paying for in an gui OS ? gui control ?
My average client barely deletes emails, insisting they need 3 years back coverage at least, mail folders can range from 4gb-15gb easily, itunes can be well over 50gb with podcasts and movies etc and the same or more with iphoto, now we have ssd's finally storage is begining to move things around quicker and they think 4gb memory is enough ? not on mountain lion it aint. well compared to the PS3 that seems designed crippled with 256mb I guess were rolling in it, but imo 4gb is nowhere near enough any longer, the machines as basic should come with 8gb until apple can get there memory issues under control.
On of my clients with a macbook pro has the finder and photoshop CS6 fully updated live version open with an image 1024x700 pixels in dimension and thats her 4gb gone !!! and the machine is running at a crawl, so badly its impossible to use ! i used to run photoshop on my LCII4/160 ie 4mb of ram a thousand times less memory ! they need to get a grip on this quick, 64bit only code should not have increased memory usage by the amount it seems to have ? No doubt because the user was migrated over using apples rubbish migration assistant, this is an install issue and the "stock" suggestion will be a "clean install" again to resolve, Yeah thank apple thanks for wasting my time and my clients money with migration assistant that somehow B******S's up installs 50% of the time, cheers I can really rely on that. If I was happy doing clean installs every 5 minutes i'd use vista. OH and the fact in my experience that now Upgrade installs of mac os lion and upwards go wrong 50% of the time also, means imo Mountain Lion and Lion should have come with a health warning, these Os's will make you machinery redundant as memory usage will double, and spend vast amount of tech time to troubleshoot, and by the way we will by default recommend and sell to you an air that is crippled with 4gbs of memory and make it impossible to upgrade because we have turned into one of the least moral company's in tech. Apple are beginning to aggravate me, by making my work four times harder than necessary as a tech support, I've been using apples since the Apple IIe days, what apple are forcing me to do is to move all my clients to ***** windows or linux at this rate, get a grip apple.
and macrumours dont make the time out so aggreesive on login as editing this post becomes a nightmare or do I have control of that in a profile preference ?
Im noting vastly increased ram usage in Mountain Lion, all fanboi's need not comment i'm after someone suffering the same issue not someone who has no issues defending apple, I recommend all my clients to buy machines now with at least 8gb because of these issues, but some twerp genius in the apple store persuaded my client to go for a 4gb macbook air because 8gb is a build to order option and they dont cary it in stock! A******s . Im thinking of taking it back a getting them to exchange for an 8gb bl***y apple, and now im supposed to support this crippled Air they shouldn't make them 4gb soldered on, thats selling them as redundant from the start !
Its one thing to say that os x lion/ML does a allot of caching now, but if it doesn't free up that cache as other programs need it ? (photoshop(though its memory leaks are infamous)restarting doesnt help), or give me control over the amount of caching going on, then its a fing nightmare, typical for apple the user gets no control over the amount of caching ? unless of course you are a unix command line freak who wants to poke the guts in terminal with arcane commands, again if I wanted to spend my time in terminal to resolve basic issues id switch to linux and not use OS X. why the hell did i upgrade from command line based machines in the 80's ? DOS CPM etc if im spending the tweenies using such antiquated arcane rubbish still, If i was a coder id accept such things but seriously apples users should not require this level of expertise or support to deal with basic issues which often revolve around the OS being designed badly, and not any longer including gui based expert control ? thats what Im paying for in an gui OS ? gui control ?
My average client barely deletes emails, insisting they need 3 years back coverage at least, mail folders can range from 4gb-15gb easily, itunes can be well over 50gb with podcasts and movies etc and the same or more with iphoto, now we have ssd's finally storage is begining to move things around quicker and they think 4gb memory is enough ? not on mountain lion it aint. well compared to the PS3 that seems designed crippled with 256mb I guess were rolling in it, but imo 4gb is nowhere near enough any longer, the machines as basic should come with 8gb until apple can get there memory issues under control.
On of my clients with a macbook pro has the finder and photoshop CS6 fully updated live version open with an image 1024x700 pixels in dimension and thats her 4gb gone !!! and the machine is running at a crawl, so badly its impossible to use ! i used to run photoshop on my LCII4/160 ie 4mb of ram a thousand times less memory ! they need to get a grip on this quick, 64bit only code should not have increased memory usage by the amount it seems to have ? No doubt because the user was migrated over using apples rubbish migration assistant, this is an install issue and the "stock" suggestion will be a "clean install" again to resolve, Yeah thank apple thanks for wasting my time and my clients money with migration assistant that somehow B******S's up installs 50% of the time, cheers I can really rely on that. If I was happy doing clean installs every 5 minutes i'd use vista. OH and the fact in my experience that now Upgrade installs of mac os lion and upwards go wrong 50% of the time also, means imo Mountain Lion and Lion should have come with a health warning, these Os's will make you machinery redundant as memory usage will double, and spend vast amount of tech time to troubleshoot, and by the way we will by default recommend and sell to you an air that is crippled with 4gbs of memory and make it impossible to upgrade because we have turned into one of the least moral company's in tech. Apple are beginning to aggravate me, by making my work four times harder than necessary as a tech support, I've been using apples since the Apple IIe days, what apple are forcing me to do is to move all my clients to ***** windows or linux at this rate, get a grip apple.
and macrumours dont make the time out so aggreesive on login as editing this post becomes a nightmare or do I have control of that in a profile preference ?
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Adobe products are known to take system resources as if their devs lives depend on it. I'm not at all surprised that with Adobe Photoshop CS6 it takes away all the RAM. It needs 1GB at minimum according to Adobes specs and a lot of the editing you do is done in memory. You can set limits in Photoshops options. If you were to run Windows with 4GB of memory you'd run into the exact same problem. Where I work all the people running PS6 are using 8GB or more RAM in their machine because of this (most of them are running Win7 64 bit btw).
PS6 isn't the best application to use as a comparison for memory usage. It is quite possibly the worst example you could have picked. I'd look at a different application which isn't known for needing lots of memory and using up system resources.
PS6 isn't the best application to use as a comparison for memory usage. It is quite possibly the worst example you could have picked. I'd look at a different application which isn't known for needing lots of memory and using up system resources.