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Memory Swap Question on New MBPro 2023
- Thread starter straightryder
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Ignore that number. The 27% are only confusing/misleading and imho of no significant value.
Granted, with that much (free) RAM, there shouldn't be any need for swap in the first place (unless a RAM demanding application was running prior to the screenshot).
But 270MB/1GB is nothing to worry about. When you run out of actual RAM, the swap can easily reach tens of Gigabytes.
And although helpful in getting a general idea about the used system resources, not even the Memory Usage (11,6%) is the best parameter to determine if a system is running towards its RAM limit:
In macOS, everything that can will be put into the RAM to speed up further access. The more RAM available, the more is used - which does not necessarily mean a device with less RAM performs any worse.
If at all, the only value the end user should keep an eye on is the "Memory Pressure" which is based on many complex factors and increases and turns yellow or red if the system actually experiences RAM constraints.
It can be found in the RAM tab of Activity Monitor or in tools like iStat menus (as a bar from 0-100%).
edit: added/updated info
Granted, with that much (free) RAM, there shouldn't be any need for swap in the first place (unless a RAM demanding application was running prior to the screenshot).
But 270MB/1GB is nothing to worry about. When you run out of actual RAM, the swap can easily reach tens of Gigabytes.
And although helpful in getting a general idea about the used system resources, not even the Memory Usage (11,6%) is the best parameter to determine if a system is running towards its RAM limit:
In macOS, everything that can will be put into the RAM to speed up further access. The more RAM available, the more is used - which does not necessarily mean a device with less RAM performs any worse.
If at all, the only value the end user should keep an eye on is the "Memory Pressure" which is based on many complex factors and increases and turns yellow or red if the system actually experiences RAM constraints.
It can be found in the RAM tab of Activity Monitor or in tools like iStat menus (as a bar from 0-100%).
edit: added/updated info
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iStat Menus is a great piece of software for keeping track of all types of system resources and is highly customizable for the menubar items. I have been using it for several years and is well worth the price.
did you do a ram intensive session prior to that screenshot? i usually have 1-2gb swapped left over for couple of days before it went back to insignificant amount.
Done - gonna check it out. Lots of people reference that app so I think its best to check it out.
Yes - I mainly work using After Effects and PrePro off an Nvme and Photoshop/ LR off of the internal drive.
i see, honestly its nothing, if you have OCD and insist on having zero swap just restart the mac. from my experience it will never go back to zero on its own.
I have observed that as well that swap used does not go back to zero even after closing several programs/apps... Swap uses hard disk drive/solid state drive storage, is that correct?
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yep, even though ssd has come a long way in terms of durabilities, swap nevertheless detriments nand cells and the controller unit.