Macbook pro m1 16g ram problem

[pl3xipl4y]

My M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM only has about 600mb ram available, without having software running in the background. It feels little bit disappointing to "invest" certain amount of money in a MacBook pro laptop, and spending extra on more RAM, and then experiencing almost all the ram is used.

 

[Apple_Robert]

MacOS will take as much RAM as is available. It doesn't mean it is all actively being used. MacOS does an excellent job with memory management. You don't have any problem.

I am guessing you are new to Mac and have transitioned recently from Windows?

 

[cmaier]

My M1 MacBook Pro with 16GB RAM only has about 600mb ram available, without having software running in the background. It feels little bit disappointing to "invest" certain amount of money in a MacBook pro laptop, and spending extra on more RAM, and then experiencing almost all the ram is used.

The OS is designed to operate that way, and to swap out data to disk when necessary. This shouldn’t concern you.

 

[Kung gu]

yeah thats normal on macOS. it follows the philosophy of "unused ram is wasted ram".

 

[pdoherty]

You should load up a utility that shows what memory is going to what - you’ll likely find a large amount going to cache.

 

[Jdhommert]

You should load up a utility that shows what memory is going to what - you’ll likely find a large amount going to cache.

any good recommendations?

 

[Chancha]

If you use monitoring apps like iStat Menus you can clearly see your memory pressure and actual amount of free RAM unused to gauge the real demand of your workflow.

In my experience, on my 2017 iMac with 64GB RAM installed, normal idling would yield about "44GB Free", conversely this tells me any Mac with 20GB or less will just have macOS using all RAM for various purposes (namely for caching). Once I get to do even some work or just multi-tab browsing, the "Free" amount quickly drops.

With the speed of the internal SSD inside M1 Macs these days it is unlikely you will feel slow down even when RAM is absolutely used to the max, it only gets noticeable when you start using apps that seriously demand that much more memory envelop than a 16GB environment. If you are that sort of user then the M1 series of machines being clearly entry level products, are perhaps just not for you.

 

[Mike Boreham]

The important thing to look at is the memory pressure graph in Activity Monitor. If it is green you have nothing to be concerned about. Have a look at it while doing your heaviest tasks.