SWAP is not being used.

[robertdaleweir]

HI
I have a Mac desktop with 4 GB of RAM installed. I only have four programs running but it is using almost all of my RAM. The SWAP shows as 0 (zero). It appears that it is not using the SWAP at all and the unit will hardly run if I try to open another app. Is there a way to get the SWAP working? It is using Maverick OS. How can I find out why the SWAP is not being used?

 

[BrianBaughn]

It would seem the swap is being written to your hard drive…which is expected behavior when you're out of RAM…and if it's a spinner HD that would explain the severe slowdown.

 

[robertdaleweir]

It would seem the swap is being written to your hard drive…which is expected behavior when you're out of RAM…and if it's a spinner HD that would explain the severe slowdown.

Hi BrianBaughn
Thanks. How can I find out how much SWAP space is actually setup which could be used? Is there a command line interface function to check the swap setup. I notice 'swapon' is not available, although many other Unix commands are available. Is there another command where I can examine swap? I do not see in Activity Monitor any way of seeing how much Swap is assigned? Maybe I over looked something.