Mac OS Monterey using a lot of RAM is this normal?

[snerkler]

I've just upgraded from a 16GB RAM Touchbar Macbook Pro to a 64GB M1 Macbook Pro and have just checked the activity monitor and it's showing as using 19GB RAM (it was 24GB until I restarted dropbox), this is more that the total RAM I had in my previous Mac. Is this normal as it seems very high, especially as all I'm currently doing is downloading the soundbank for Logic Pro, and CPU usage is 3.72% System and 6.64% user? RAM pressure looks OK.

 

[ssls6]

Yes it is normal. You have lots of ram and aren't using it so the system will use more.

 

[macdos]

No, it's not normal. As you can see, it has started to "compress" memory rather than free all that useless cached stuff.

in terminal:
sudo purge

 

[snerkler]

Yes it is normal. You have lots of ram and aren't using it so the system will use more.

No, it's not normal. As you can see, it has started to "compress" memory rather than free all that useless cached stuff.

in terminal:
sudo purge

Thanks guys, as long as it's normal that's fine. Macdos I'm not that au fait with how these things work so I've no idea why it compresses memory and why it would free cached stuff, or why I'd need to purge but my main concern was that something was wrong which obviously I now know is not the case 👍🏻

 

[yitwail]

If you want less memory usage, try switching from Google Chrome to Safari.

 

[snerkler]

If you want less memory usage, try switching from Google Chrome to Safari.

Safari still causes issues with certain pages (in particular my banking) so prefer to use chrome 👍🏻

 

[saudor]

No, it's not normal. As you can see, it has started to "compress" memory rather than free all that useless cached stuff.

in terminal:
sudo purge

it's perfectly normal as depicted by that super low memory pressure and no tasks randomly gobbling tens of gbs of RAM. Free RAM is wasted RAM and all that so cache is good too. Small amounts of compressed memory/swap is fine too.

 

[yitwail]

Safari still causes issues with certain pages (in particular my banking) so prefer to use chrome 👍🏻

I just discovered it causes issues with MacRumors forums, so now I'm typing this in Opera, which is highly similar to Chrome but has a built-in ad blocker. The difference in CPU use between Safari and Opera on this site is startling. In Safari, it's using M1 performance cores, but in Opera, it's not.

 

[pacmania1982]

I have Messages, Safari and Activity Monitor open and I'm using 9.48GB RAM. I have the 16GB M1 MacBook Air. I figured higher memory usage was normal. Don't forget that the RAM is also used for video memory as it's unified.

 

[IowaLynn]

Normal. I was using 7 of 8GB on older MacBook, and went to 16GB on Mini, and similar.

If you want to cut out ads and more and use whatever browsers, I highly recommend AdGuard Pro or similar (not just the AG extension). It does work and worth the cost.