RAM on M1 - help with cache and higher RAM usage

[jav6454]

Hello Community!

Can you help me here?

Days ago, when I was still using my 2013 MBA (8/128), I was getting this numbers:
View attachment 2038198

Using in the first days the M1 MBA (8/256), for the same workflow, I'm getting this:

View attachment 2038197


What is going on with my RAM utilization? How can I fix this? I think this isn't normal.

Thanks!

Unused memory is used to store files you frequently use (the cache). That's normal operation.

 

[LuisN]

Yes, it is working. Thanks for the good words. As a user, I’m just curious, and I dont want to think Ive made a bad buy.


Thanks. I’ll check if I have an OS update. I always turn off the Mac, so everyday it starts fresh new. That’s what you mean by reboot, right? Concerning RAM usage, some apps do appear with high values, like Safari and window server (dont know what is this).

I’ll check swap memory. Thanks! But if it has a lot of swap memory, what should I do?

Your sarcastic comment is the core of my curisosity. Should the RAM pressure be so much high, if my Intel kept those values real low? I’m really curious about this.

Unfortunately I cant return the Mac, it was bought as a second handed machine. It has warranty until 2024, I ran a diagnosis with no errors detected.

I don’t know if it’s the best practice to turn off your computer every day. Macs do some “house keeping/cleaning” while they’re sleeping. If you must, I’d rather reboot or shutdown and startup up on a weekly base. I have a M1 macmini 8/256 and a M1 MBAir 16/256 and only restart them when needed (updates or glitches with software). Always leave about 1/4 of your disk space free. Good management of ssd free space is very important with such small disks

 

[theorist9]

I don’t know if it’s the best practice to turn off your computer every day. Macs do some “house keeping/cleaning” while they’re sleeping. If you must, I’d rather reboot or shutdown and startup up on a weekly base. I have a M1 macmini 8/256 and a M1 MBAir 16/256 and only restart them when needed (updates or glitches with software). Always leave about 1/4 of your disk space free. Good management of ssd free space is very important with such small disks

I used to have to reboot my 2014 MBP daily to maintain stability (for my 2019 iMac, it's about once every three days), but it's an off-and-on. So it still gets to sleep and perform background tasks overnight. [I.e., I would typically wake it from sleep in the morning and do a reboot before I started my day's work.]

 

[RaphaZ]

Memory management is a complex topic. It's analogous to desk space at a workspace/office, it is much more noticeable when you don't have enough than it is when you have a surplus. It is in your Mac's best interest (for performance) to try to utilize as much RAM as it can out of the RAM that is available, so it is not uncommon to see workloads use a surprisingly large amount of memory when there is a surplus of available RAM.

Out of everything you'll have in RAM, there are basically three categories:

1) Stuff that is actively being used (and should stay in RAM, the CPU needs it and needs it often)
2) Stuff that programs allocated, but isn't being used very often. This is what Mac OS starts with when it begins to swap/compress memory. (Think code for menus or sections of an app that you never went through, or tabs in a browser that you haven't visited for hours. Quite a lot of memory typically falls under this category and can be swapped very easily with almost no negative impact to performance).
3) Cached data (stuff that isn't actually needed, Mac OS keeps it in free memory "just in case").

Mac OS' activity monitor shows you how much data is actually cached, so you'll see how much memory falls under categories 1 and 2 together under "memory used" and then cached memory separately. What Activity Monitor doesn't show you is a breakdown of how much memory is actually being actively used vs. data that is infrequently accessed. It might show 7GB of memory "in use" - but this doesn't actually give you a good idea of how much of that is actually important to keep in RAM for performance. Much of that might very well be very inactive memory that can easily be swapped with virtually no negative impact to performance (especially on newer versions of Mac OS, where the OS itself and its services tend to be very happy to allocate larger amounts of memory)

Memory pressure is the best way to really reliably get an idea on Activity Monitor. if it's in the green, you have plenty of free memory (regardless of how much is "in use" by the numbers). Yellow means that Mac OS has begun to swap and/or compress more of your memory, but that it still has enough RAM to keep your actual actively used data in RAM (and thus there is usually a fairly minimal impact to performance). Red is when your Mac is actually running out of RAM. If your pressure graph is in the red, Mac OS is swapping and/or compressing important stuff (and this is when your computer starts to grind to a halt and feel like it's a tabletop box from the 90s).

In my experience, Monterey has used more RAM than previous versions of Mac OS, but it doesn't seem to have any noticeable affect on memory pressure once the Mac is actually put under heavier workloads. The OS is happy to allocate large amounts of RAM, but this doesn't mean that it's actually actively being used. Mac OS simply starts swapping out what hasn't been accessed for a while, which frees up memory for your actual workloads. My Catalina and Monterey macs both perform about the same under load (Monterey actually performs a little better in some cases), so I wouldn't worry about it too much as long as your memory pressure isn't in the red.

Thanks for the insight. Memory pressure isn't in the red. Yesterday was yellow for a brief moment, when I was seeing a video on the internet. In your words, OS will always effectively trade and process memory, and I should not worry about that.

 

[RaphaZ]

My 2014 MBP, with 16 GB of RAM, frequently used swap, and that was because I regularly ran out of memory. And the latter was generally associated with more wait time/reduced responsiveness. My 2019 iMac, which has 32 GB of RAM, almost never uses swap (I've seen non-zero swap only once, and that's when I was doing a calculation that required more memory than the machine had available).

So, in your case more RAM would imply better performance. In my case, I believe it happens the same way, but the thing is: it reached yellow when I was just watching one video. On Intel it never — never — reached yellow, regardless my workflow operations.

 

[RaphaZ]

I don’t know if it’s the best practice to turn off your computer every day. Macs do some “house keeping/cleaning” while they’re sleeping. If you must, I’d rather reboot or shutdown and startup up on a weekly base. I have a M1 macmini 8/256 and a M1 MBAir 16/256 and only restart them when needed (updates or glitches with software). Always leave about 1/4 of your disk space free. Good management of ssd free space is very important with such small disks

Got that! I'll watch the SSD free space, and I'll try not to reboot my Mac on a daily basis. Let's see if it helps.

 

[RaphaZ]

Update: we are seeing the yellows now!

 

[gradi]

I have seen some of the Max Tech videos where he compares various Apple Silicon Macs to his $15k 2019 Mac Pro with 192gb RAM. He says that MacOS will also use swap on the Mac Pro even when it has 50-100gb of free RAM available. It is just how MacOS operates concerning memory management. So swapping is not just something it does when it is very tight on RAM.

 

[jav6454]

View attachment 2039079

Update: we are seeing the yellows now!

Mas seu uso de swap é bastante baixo. Isso significa que sua capacidade de memória atual está funcionando de acordo com suas necessidades.

Além disso, tudo o que está acontecendo atualmente é que os arquivos não são armazenados em cache tanto.

 

[evertjr]

Don't worry about that. The OS will try to keep in memory things it believes you gonna use next, so overtime it will put more ram in use and even some swap as well, of course it will release if some app needs more.
With that said, I do believe Monterey introduced several memory leaks and they are slowly fixing them. 12.5 was a huge improvement over the previous version (specially the amount of disk writes) and I hope macOS ventura improves upon it.

 

[RaphaZ]

Mas seu uso de swap é bastante baixo. Isso significa que sua capacidade de memória atual está funcionando de acordo com suas necessidades.

Além disso, tudo o que está acontecendo atualmente é que os arquivos não são armazenados em cache tanto.

Obrigado

Don't worry about that. The OS will try to keep in memory things it believes you gonna use next, so overtime it will put more ram in use and even some swap as well, of course it will release if some app needs more.
With that said, I do believe Monterey introduced several memory leaks and they are slowly fixing them. 12.5 was a huge improvement over the previous version (specially the amount of disk writes) and I hope macOS ventura improves upon it.

Ok! Thanks!

 

[gradi]

I have seen some of the Max Tech videos where he compares various Apple Silicon Macs to his $15k 2019 Mac Pro with 192gb RAM. He says that MacOS will also use swap on the Mac Pro even when it has 50-100gb of free RAM available. It is just how MacOS operates concerning memory management. So swapping is not just something it does when it is very tight on RAM.

Here is an excellent, easy to understand, practical new video:

Memory Pressure and How Your Mac Uses Memory

I have watched many of this guy's excellent videos with his tutorials on various aspects of MacOS, Mac apps, etc. over the last few months. He does it all in a calm voice, well organized, not lots of chit-chat, etc. Recommended.