M1 24" iMac - Novice Question

[Flyer2020]

Just set up my new 24" M1 8gb but having only used it for a few hours I noticed the fans roaring away when using Photoshop, so I looked in the activity monitor and discovered that the memory used is 6.4GB !!!

I cleared ALL the cached files but its still displaying 1.36GB

Can anyone give me some advise, I appreciate that maybe 16GB would have been better but how have I managed to use 6.4GB in just a few hours?

Please see attached screen shot.

Any help much appreciated

Thanks again & stay safe.

 

[coso]

Yeah it’s normal, don’t worry, macOS will allocate all the memory it can to be snappy. You actually are lucky you didn’t go over 8gb so you’re not swapping on the ssd. Just don’t worry even if this happens. Of course if you often work with photoshop and big big files then 16gb would have been better, but it’s incredible what you can do with 8gb

 

[Rich B22]

If you purchased from Apple within 14 days and your budget permits buying the 16GB, you could return it & get the larger memory

 

[wilberforce]

Your activity monitor doesn’t show PS open, but mostly Chrome instances.
Adobe apps like PS and LR take a significant amount of ram for gpu acceleration on M1, in addition to ram for cpu.
For PS 16GB ram would be a better choice, and is recommended by Adobe for Apple Silicon.
I have 16GB ram on my 14” M1 MBP and I think it is only just enough for PS and LR. I certainly would not want less.

Fans have nothing to do with ram. In fact, if anything, more ram is likely to enable the cpu to operate faster hence create more heat hence speed up the fans

 

[MacGizmo]

Looks like you have a bunch of Chrome tabs open, which is where your memory is being used the most. Chrome is a known memory hog (both on Mac and Windows). As a major Adobe user, I can tell you that Adobe is no Prince either. This is why I recommend 32 GB of RAM for people that use Adobe apps and who tend to keep browsers open or have a lot of tabs open at all times.

 

[Fishrrman]

I have to agree with Rich above.

IF you still have "return privileges", return it and get the 16gb RAM version instead.

You have just discovered "Fishrrman's conondrum" regarding the m-series Macs:
"16gb is 'the new 8'..."