A lot of web developers only test their websites on Chrome though I would not expect that to be true of MacRumors but you never know.
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M1 iMac running out of memory
- Thread starter beerglass007
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There is something terribly wrong with any browser that would usurp so much memory for a webpage or even a few in tabs. I posted here Macrumor webpage in Safari gobbling up a tremendous amount of memory. Since one cannot change a webpage, perhaps changing browser parameters is in order. Sadly Safari doesn't provide that option.
I've never seen a low memory error on my M1 mini 16 GB. I am currently running:
Firefox with 12 tabs
Brave with 3 tabs
Numbers with 2 Spreadsheets open
Notes
Reminders
Mail
Downie
Activity Monitor
Calendar
Growly Notes
Messages
Podcasts
Music
TV
Synergy
Memory Used: 11.77 GB
Cached Files: 4.01 GB
Swap Used: 48.0 MB
I also run VLC, iMovie, Think or Swim and a few other programs from time to time with no problems.
I rarely use Safari (I used it to download Firefox when I got the machine), and I don't have any other browsers installed like Edge, Chrome, Opera. This system does quite a bit with only 16 GB of RAM. I run my production stuff on a Windows desktop with 128 GB of RAM. I would like to replace the Windows desktop with an M1X mini with 32 GB of RAM.
Firefox with 12 tabs
Brave with 3 tabs
Numbers with 2 Spreadsheets open
Notes
Reminders
Downie
Activity Monitor
Calendar
Growly Notes
Messages
Podcasts
Music
TV
Synergy
Memory Used: 11.77 GB
Cached Files: 4.01 GB
Swap Used: 48.0 MB
I also run VLC, iMovie, Think or Swim and a few other programs from time to time with no problems.
I rarely use Safari (I used it to download Firefox when I got the machine), and I don't have any other browsers installed like Edge, Chrome, Opera. This system does quite a bit with only 16 GB of RAM. I run my production stuff on a Windows desktop with 128 GB of RAM. I would like to replace the Windows desktop with an M1X mini with 32 GB of RAM.
It's not the number of tabs in a browser, it's what is in those tabs. Some web pages pull down a lot of data from the internet, many web pages run buggy Javascript written by "developers" who don't really know what they are doing and don't test their site on browsers other than chrome. Web browsers are infamous for gobbling up RAM and so are Electron apps build using web technologies.
Then there are all the ads. Are you using an ad blocker? That might help.
I almost exclusively use Safari on my Macs. Currently with MacRumors loaded, I am seeing a memory footprint of 1.7GB which seems reasonable. I am using Big Sur on an Intel Mac with 64GB of RAM.
First, I appreciate what you are saying about the measure should be the content within the tabs rather than simply tne number of tabs. My point really was that Safari under normal conditions fails out for me. Presently, using no additional ad blockers nor any tools along with Safari. It makes sense that some blocker tools and such would remedy some issues as indeed a large amount of data is coming down from the site(s) in question. I'll simply say that in this day and age, one would hope that at least Apple would be aware and build in the needed tools via "settings" and such to help combat blatant and very common issues. I am using Chrome with no additonal tools (blockers etc.) and have not run into quite the problem Safari has even though it too allows large amounts of RAM to be exploited at any given time. Safari is now only dedicated to a couple of sites and that is it... no other use for now. Please recall that at one point I had only MacRumors open (3 tabs of MR) and it consumed about 2 gigs of RAM. This brings me to another point, in no way should "1.7GB" be considered acceptable. That is a ridiculous amount of data and more so if one is not doing anything on the page. This leaves code and advertisements exploiting a user's machine's RAM for no value to the user. I will say that the 1.7GB is perhaps "typical" but not acceptable.
Give a go with using Safari and let us know how that works for you (rather than Firefox) and don't add ad blockers. Understand, Apple promotes the use of Safari yet it fails miserably in many instances due to lack of controls if not more.
Certainly, make sense. This doesn't mean that because crap code and ads are within those pages that the end-user should not be considered by Apple. Seems Apple is no longer interested in "it just works" with much of their computer side of operations. Some of us recall when Gates shoved that "Frontpage" web building app everywhere that made pages that not every browser could read (in an effort to promote MS's I.E. browser). It was a nightmare for a couple of years and finally, Microsoft gave in and stopped that practice. I see this as no different - crap will be out there as long as people put up with it.
I tune the tools that I use for efficiency and portability. I want to be able to run the same software, as much as possible, on different operating systems. And Safari isn't in this category. On iOS and iPadOS, I run Brave because that's portable. I only run Safari on a new device to get Firefox and/or Brave and then just use them. Part of that is also because I worked on Firefox and I did some work with the CEO of Brave.
My maxed out M1 iMac has this issue as well which started somewhere around 11.5. I get the low memory pop up dialogue almost every time I wake the machine from sleep. I have an old 24" Cinema Display connected as a second monitor, so I wonder if it's a window server issue. When I get the low memory popup error I generally have 0 swap usage, memory pressure in the low green, and only mail, safari, and slack open (with all windows closed). I do not appear to have any real memory issues; the computer is snappy and nowhere close to maxing out the RAM. This issue is driving me crazy.
I don't have any google products on my Mac at all, and still have the crashing issue on my M1 Mac Mini running 11.6.
If it helped you @uller6 then there is more than a single problem going on with these Mac crashes.
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@ADGrant you are correct that Javascript runs in the interpreter, but you can also have wrapped apps on your Mac that are built with say Electron or Cordova that run Node.JS embedded in the app.
The first time I noticed the crash happening significantly on my M1 MacMini was when a wrapped Node.js app started crashing every time I tried to use it.
After a large amount of investigation my crash log on my system it clearly came down to an issue with the app using Node.JS version 14.3.0 embedded in the app. The Developer has even since confirmed that their code uses Node.js v14 and their app constantly crashes on all M1 hardware.
If you go and research dev issues with Node.js you will find that older versions are not compatible with M1 hardware. There are some workaround, and support for M1 hardware is available in Node.JS v16. But many devs are still using the LTS (long term support) version of Node.js (which is v14) or even older versions. Hence why I have flagged Node.JS apps or websites in many cases. Specifically many are seeing that Node.js node-pre-gyp can't handle arm architectures properly.
There is also another issue in the use of some JavaScript libraries client side in Safari on M1 systems. There are several JavaScript libraries that get loaded by websites that are basically web apps. I'm still mapping which libraries are causing the issue, but it clearly is an JavaScript issue on M1 systems. I have even been able to crash a newer M1 iPad Pro with one of the websites (ESRI ArcGIS Online Advanced Map builder).
There are other problems as well with M1 Macs and with Big Sur. But all of my crashes and memory issues seem to be coming back to JavaScript running in Safari, or Node.JS wrapped apps. I am not seeing the same crashes of webpages in Firefox. I DON'T allow Chrome or any other Google apps on my system, so I'm not sure about that.
I'm in the process of mapping which JavaScript libraries are at the root of the problems currently. Once I've learned more I'll post again.
For reference: I'm running on a M1 MacMini with macOS 11.6 with 16GB Ram and 500GB Drive with about 100GB free. Running Safari 15.0 (was seeing crashes in v14 as well) and Firefox 92.0.1. Both without any extensions enabled.
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Thank you for sharing your efforts here. I am perplexed as to why Apple allows this problem to continue. The other issue of not all monitors playing nicely or number of monitors too, is a miserable show on Apple's part for those of us with M1 based systems.
Whether the javascript is local (browser) or from a site, this type of lack of control over memory suggests the fault remains with Apple and a lack of proper concern. This is honestly absurd and we simply have to live with it is a bad attitude on Apple's part. I gave up on Safari for now and Chrome too has some issues but not nearly as bad as Safari. Seems that Apple is really doing its best to emulate Microsoft here in making the end-user not only forced to do beta but also expects them to settle for less than satisfactory.
As of MacOS Monterey all of my RAM management issues have been resolved 
The same tasks that'd fill up memory and reach 10-20GB swap on Big Sur now use 12GB memory and no swap on Monterey.
The same tasks that'd fill up memory and reach 10-20GB swap on Big Sur now use 12GB memory and no swap on Monterey.
I agree... my IT group forced me into the new M1 chip because it was more like a PC and YES that is just exactly right it runs low on memory ALL the time when working on IMPORTANT photoshop layers. IT IS NOT A GOOD MAC
With the NEW chip ... it doesn't run as smoothly as a creative computer should it is crippled by being a PC approved IT machine
The new chip makes the M1 Macs less like a PC and more like an iOS device. OTOH the Intel Macs are so much like PCs they can boot into Windows using bootcamp. That said the T2 Macs have diverged from the PC architecture quite a bit.
How much RAM does your M1 Mac have. If its the standard 8GB I am not surprised it runs low on memory all the time.
Browser tab numbers doesn't tell even part of the story. You could have sites with background processes mining alt coins in a single tab just destroying resources or some malicious ad script constantly loading and dropping ads for views / clicks while the person running no scrip or ad guard is perfectly fine with dozens of tabs open.
A lot of it IMO is people thinking they don't need some sort of DNS or Ad protection or run a half ass version of it.
A lot of it IMO is people thinking they don't need some sort of DNS or Ad protection or run a half ass version of it.
