Where does your Ram Idle?

[copanewbe]

I'm just curious as to Apple's distribution of RAM between different computers and/or different amounts of memory. My results are based on my MBP C2D with 1 GB of RAM. I used the iStat Pro 3.2 widget to determine the RAM allotment after all applications had been closed and the system reached a stable idle. There was nothing running in the menu bar-bluetooth is turned off as well as Airport. Ethernet was connected and I was running about 8 widgets (I dont think this would matter much). My computer has been running for about 5 days as well. Here are my results:

Wired: 136 MB
Active: 290 MB
Inactive: 61 MB
Free: 534 MB

I assume most MBP's with 1 GB should have similar results, but it would be interesting to note the differences if any. I'm also interested to see if MB owners experience much of a difference. Lets see what you guys got!

 

[phungy]

I don't have a MBP and I don't have 1GB but I'd like to contribute to your thread.
Running Firefox with 5 tabs.

 

[extraextra]

MB C2D (2GB), no apps running, BT and Airport turned off -

Wired: 210MB
Inactive: 450MB
Free: 1.09GB
Active: 266MB
Used: 940MB
Swap: 64MB


This was about 5 minutes after the computer had been sitting idle.

 

[Soundburst]

What exactly is inactive?

Whats teh difference between Inactive and Free?
I have 350mb free , and 427mb Inactive.

 

[tyr2]

What exactly is inactive?

Whats teh difference between Inactive and Free?
I have 350mb free , and 427mb Inactive.

Inactive is basically cache. It's memory that has been used, might be used again but can be thrown away for free space if needed.

Your total free available ram is free+inactive.

 

[Soundburst]

Thanks, so say i reset safari, i would expect alot of that inactive memory to vanish?