Sonoma RAM usage

[WalsallSaddler]

Saw one test on YT, where guy tested different MacOS on M1 and here his results of ram usage after startup:
Big Sur: 3.57 GB.
Monterey: 3.24 GB.
Ventura: 3.39 GB.
Sonoma: 4.88 GB.

This is weird on Sonoma, maybe something went wrong with his test. Want to check with users, who use Sonoma on a daily basis, have you actually noticed increased ram memory consumption, compared to older MacOS?


I'm on Ventura, MacBook Air M1 (8 GB) — so ram usage of MacOS is important for me, before decided to update.

 

[Bigwaff]

I'm on Ventura, MacBook Air M1 (8 GB) — so ram usage of MacOS is important for me, before decided to update.

Over here we’ve got 2020 i3 MBA 8GB memory running Sonoma just fine.. and this MBA is arguably the lamest MBA in existence.

 

[coffeemilktea]

have you actually noticed increased ram memory consumption, compared to older MacOS?

I run a lot of AI models locally on my MacBook Pro, and as soon as I updated to Sonoma, some of the larger models would crash when I run them due to a lack of memory, presumably since the OS is now hogging more RAM for itself.

Now I just run them on another device that's slower but has more memory to spare.

 

[TorontoTom6402]

I used a m1 air for a little while with 8gb of ram. i remember using sonoma it would idle at like 6gb of ram until i opened anything than it would go down when i closed all the apps before id shut down. it would end up going down to the level i had on monterey. monterey used for me like 3gb on my air and on my 2019 pro with 32gb it idles at 4. sonoma on the air would idle at 6 but go down to 4. i haven’t bothered to update my 2019 pro to sonoma because i like the low ram, settings ui, and don't care for any of the new features of mac os sonoma. and if i do update and want to go back I have to reset my laptop including my windows install so monterey is the best mac os for me. now I noticed that the m1 air never slowed down when it had the 6gb of ram on idle. what may be happening is when you boot your laptop mac is launching files for most used apps like windows causing high ram usage but not slowing it down instead speeding it up especially since the mac had 4gb after i was done using it and ready to shut it down. which seems to show it has the same ram usage. this could be due to the new release being designed for M macs. I may test it one day on my 2019 pro on a external ssd or something to see how it does with even more ram on a intel mac just to see. if i do ill post the results on here.

 

[chabig]

I never look at it. I let the machine take care of memory management, and all of the other system functions, including battery management, temperature management, storage management, etc.

 

[TorontoTom6402]

I never look at it. I let the machine take care of memory management, and all of the other system functions, including battery management, temperature management, storage management, etc.

i never let my machine manage anything especially temps. macs and every computer is set to run at like 90 before the fans really speed up. when i use my system for anything other than regular use i set the fans to max first for the whole time. id rather a bit of noise over a shorter lifespan of the computer.

 

[Navvier]

i never let my machine manage anything especially temps. macs and every computer is set to run at like 90 before the fans really speed up. when i use my system for anything other than regular use i set the fans to max first for the whole time. id rather a bit of noise over a shorter lifespan of the computer.

Personally for me, it's not a question of lifespan, but a question of comfort.
Palm rest at 38 degrees C with default (system controlled) fan settings is too hot

 

[WilliApple]

Hey that's my video!
Thanks for watching,

Nowadays, its a little bit better, but it could be higher due to it not being perfected as Ventura or Monterey.
I will for sure run the tests again once the next macOS comes out and I guarantee Sonoma will be a lot lower.

And as to why you should upgrade to Sonoma, what do you do?
Light video editing, browsing the internet, and other things should be fine.

 

[chabig]

Personally for me, it's not a question of lifespan, but a question of comfort.
Palm rest at 38 degrees C with default (system controlled) fan settings is too hot

On Intel machines maybe. Apple Silicon machines don’t get hot like that.

 

[WalsallSaddler]

Hey that's my video!
Thanks for watching,

Nowadays, its a little bit better, but it could be higher due to it not being perfected as Ventura or Monterey.
I will for sure run the tests again once the next macOS comes out and I guarantee Sonoma will be a lot lower.

And as to why you should upgrade to Sonoma, what do you do?
Light video editing, browsing the internet, and other things should be fine.

Thanks for the reply. It would be great, if you retest this on next MacOS.

Im multitasking on my base Air 8GB and ram usage of MacOS is important for me.

 

[Emmanuel.th]

On M2 Air 8GB after restart OS or Turn on device It has already used 1GB of swap memory.

 

[WalsallSaddler]

On M2 Air 8GB after restart OS or Turn on device It has already used 1GB of swap memory.

Maybe you have ton of 3-rd party apps installed?

 

[chevyboy60013]

On Intel machines maybe. Apple Silicon machines don’t get hot like that.

So far on my 2017 MacBook Pro, I have only heard the fans come on during the initial set up after I purchased it, signing in to my iCloud, it downloading my photos, emails, messages and web bookmarks and such and updating it to macOS Ventura, and using it for most of the work day, if I actually spend time doing the days work instead of the minimum it never gets even warm and the fans do not run. my 2010 MacBook Pro runs much hotter and uses fans much more.

 

[nottorp]

Made a new user on a M3 pro mbpro with Sonoma 14.3 and this is what I got. No application open except Activity Monitor. There may have been some crap background tasks like the Zoom virus.

Whatever those numbers mean...

 

[snakes-]

wow a swap file with 18GB ram..... New user means your Mac create a new index from all the files this takes some time and yes eat a bit of ram, mds, spotlight and others.

 

[Bigwaff]

wow a swap file with 18G ram

Look again. Looks pretty normal to me.

 

[nottorp]

wow a swap file with 18GB ram..... New user means your Mac create a new index from all the files this takes some time and yes eat a bit of ram, mds, spotlight and others.

27 Mb is not a swap file And yes there was a mds running so I guess the base ram use is a bit lower than 5 Gb.

On 16-18 Gb macs which is all I have atm I managed to go 4-7 Gb in swap. But I was working or running games with wine (which seems to eat a lot of memory as video ram and evicts unused apps to swap).

 

[WalsallSaddler]

Hey that's my video!
Thanks for watching,

Nowadays, its a little bit better, but it could be higher due to it not being perfected as Ventura or Monterey.
I will for sure run the tests again once the next macOS comes out and I guarantee Sonoma will be a lot lower.

And as to why you should upgrade to Sonoma, what do you do?
Light video editing, browsing the internet, and other things should be fine.

Maybe you can test this again? Just restart MacBook and look how much memory used? And reply to this thread? Thanks.

My personal opinion: Sonoma uses more ram because of live wallpapers.

 

[WalsallSaddler]

I’m finally updating to macOS Sonoma and after my testing I don’t seen more ram usage on newer system, compared to Ventura.