Help me understand the Memory Pressure Graph on my MacBook Air

[Internaut]

I've been reading around this but a lot of the information and advice out there relates to Intel based Macs and might not apply to M1/unified memory, so here goes. Base M1 MacBook Air. Right now I'm running:

• Parallels with a Windows 10 Virtual machine (itself running Edge with a few tabs, File Manager and a Powershell window).
• The Windows session has a VPN connection to the office (don't know if that consumes resources).
• On the Mac, Word, Safari, Tw@tter and Zoom (with no session up).

The graph is green and I'm currently seeing 2.71 GB of compressed memory, 6.72 GB of memory used and 0 bytes Swap Used. If I run a couple of additional Safari Tabs I expect the compressed memory to pop over 3GB at which point a region of yellow will emerge on the graph. I can run up more things but this doesn't seem to have any particular detrimental effect on performance. The only time I ever see red on this machine is if I'm running Adobe stuff + other stuff (so if running Photoshop and Lightroom, I usually close down my browser session).

My question is: How bad is yellow? Are there other detrimental effects I should be aware of? Should I start looking for things to close down or can I still consider my Mac in good health?

 

[satcomer]

Just open /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app. Then when in the program and menu item 'Memory' tab so click that and see your memory usage!

 

[deeddawg]

My question is: How bad is yellow? Are there other detrimental effects I should be aware of? Should I start looking for things to close down or can I still consider my Mac in good health?

The color is just an indicator of memory usage relative to capacity, it is not inherently bad or good.

Per Apple Support:

The Memory Pressure graph lets you know if your computer is using memory efficiently.

• Green memory pressure: Your computer is using all of its RAM efficiently.
• Yellow memory pressure: Your computer might eventually need more RAM.
• Red memory pressure: Your computer needs more RAM.

If memory pressure is yellow, red, or has spikes, check to see if an app is using up memory and causing the memory pressure to increase. If you no longer need to have the app running, you should quit the app.

Given that we cannot add RAM to these computers, the meaning is better interpreted as Yellow being essentially a heads up that you're getting closer to seeing performance impacts and you should consider closing unnecessary applications. It is also an indication that you should consider not going with the base RAM configuration on your next computer purchase. Were you seeing Red frequently, and you needed to keep all your apps open, that would indicate you'd purchased the wrong configuration for your needs and you would want to consider replacing it sooner vs later so as to avoid performance impacts.

 

[Internaut]

The color is just an indicator of memory usage relative to capacity, it is not inherently bad or good.

Per Apple Support:



Given that we cannot add RAM to these computers, the meaning is better interpreted as Yellow being essentially a heads up that you're getting closer to seeing performance impacts and you should consider closing unnecessary applications. It is also an indication that you should consider not going with the base RAM configuration on your next computer purchase. Were you seeing Red frequently, and you needed to keep all your apps open, that would indicate you'd purchased the wrong configuration for your needs and you would want to consider replacing it sooner vs later so as to avoid performance impacts.

Thanks for that. Sounds like what I've got is adequate for what I'm doing (though barely adequate for Photoshop and Lightroom CC bearing in mind I close a lot of other stuff down to avoid the dreaded red/SSD swap used for memory). Next time (which might be soon if I add a current M1 Mac Mini), 16GB.

 

[AltecX]

Thanks for that. Sounds like what I've got is adequate for what I'm doing (though barely adequate for Photoshop and Lightroom CC bearing in mind I close a lot of other stuff down to avoid the dreaded red/SSD swap used for memory). Next time (which might be soon if I add a current M1 Mac Mini), 16GB.

Really depends on the size of the images and how many edits/layers you are doing. If you are just using them casually you may not even notice a performance change going to 16GB.

 

[Internaut]

Really depends on the size of the images and how many edits/layers you are doing. If you are just using them casually you may not even notice a performance change going to 16GB.

24MP images but with a vague ambition to buy one of Sony's hi res, full frame bodies at some point. So certainly no rush for something with more memory right now.

 

[jerryk]

24MP images but with a vague ambition to buy one of Sony's hi res, full frame bodies at some point. So certainly no rush for something with more memory right now.

What are you using now? I shoot with a A7Mk3, and the video and still images are OK with my base 8GB M1 Air. However, the A7 Mk4 is supposed to be shipping this fall with a 24 MP sensor, and hopefully not overheating after 20 minutes of video so bigger video files. I wonder if this new camera will create issues in post-processing and my 8GB M1 Air. Using LR and DaVinci Resolve.

 

[Internaut]

What are you using now? I shoot with a A7Mk3, and the video and still images are OK with my base 8GB M1 Air. However, the A7 Mk4 is supposed to be shipping this fall with a 24 MP sensor, and hopefully not overheating after 20 minutes of video so bigger video files. I wonder if this new camera will create issues in post-processing and my 8GB M1 Air. Using LR and DaVinci Resolve.

An ageing A7 II and I don’t do a lot of video. But good grief Adobe’s M1 optimised apps are hungry. They work well but if I tried to launch Lightroom and Photoshop while using the setup I described in the OP, I think my Air would go into meltdown.

For your video, with one of newer 4K formats, I think a fan will be almost as important as the additional memory. That’s a lot of sustained processing, at least if you’re putting together something more than a few minutes.

 

[deeddawg]

An ageing A7 II and I don’t do a lot of video. But good grief Adobe’s M1 optimised apps are hungry. They work well but if I tried to launch Lightroom and Photoshop while using the setup I described in the OP, I think my Air would go into meltdown.

I’ve used Lightroom since v1.0 and photoshop (off and on) since before that.

Adobe has never been what I’d say is memory efficient and I wouldn’t expect that to change.

 

[satcomer]

I've used Pixelmator Pro and it great and uses much less RAM then others and is native M1!

 

[PowerPCFan]

My 7-yr old iMac has red spikes of memory pressure when using printify.com. Is that concerning??

I know this is a 2 year old thread

 

[satcomer]

My 7-yr old iMac has red spikes of memory pressure when using printify.com. Is that concerning??

I know this is a 2 year old thread

That means he running software not for a Silicon Mac and eating resources !