2

I think its a problem probably because of this CleanMyMac 3 app that says i have got only 100mb from my 8gb and when I click on "Free Up" I get more than 3gb free RAM only to fill it again after a while. The only thing feels slow on my system is when I enable the Transparency effects the minimizing and dragging the apps windows seems utterly slow (lagging).

I tried to install fresh copy of Yosemite and it was smoother and the lag was gone but I have to use this system so restored it. That's why I think some apps are causing this issue?

Activity Monitor

As you can see only 100MB of RAM is free!

From CleanMyMac 3

My Mac specs:

enter image description here

EtreCheck report as advised: http://pastebin.com/rxuGqef6

Dave G
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  • Why do you think this is a problem? Your RAM is there to be used and provide the CPU with fast access to data. – Mr. Mel Jul 21 '15 at 04:09
  • The system will always try to use maximum memory (what is the point of having unused RAM). – Ruskes Jul 21 '15 at 04:41
  • Added more details to my question – Dave G Jul 22 '15 at 06:32
  • @patrix there might be a difference between Mavericks and Yosemite RAM usage, so I vote this not to be a duplicate. – Ruskes Jul 22 '15 at 07:10
  • Currently nothing indicates that the issue is any different from the one in the linked question (aka mainly a misconception about what "using too much RAM" means). Dave, as asked in the first comment already, why do you thing your screenshots above point out a problem? Memory pressure is low/green, 5.4 GB out of 8 are used for applications, 2.5 GB is used for cache (which speeds up the system actually). – nohillside Jul 22 '15 at 08:07

3 Answers3

3

Free RAM is wasted RAM. It is electrically powered regardless of its contents.

Your screen shot shows 2.52gb of cache[1], 0.375gb of compressed memory and 0.574gb of swap.

The 2.52gb of cache will be assigned to processes that ask for more memory. The difference between the "new" way and the "old" way is that the contents of "freed" memory is tracked.

Apps that "free up" memory just flush the cache - meaning they cause the operating system to forget what was in memory (the actual contents are not cleared) and all requests for the previously cached items have to wait for the data to load from disk. You won't usually notice this penalty in a big way, but the system will feel slower.

Less than a gb of swap is nothing, but if you see this number increasing while cache memory is near zero (which should show yellow or red memory pressure) it is a sign that something is making heavy demands for memory.

As for compressed memory, CPUs are so fast now that its actually faster to compress and decompress data than it is to wait for data to load from disk. As memory pressure increases, the OS will compress the memory to meet demands instead of swapping.

For more information on understanding what Activity Monitor shows, see:

Activity Monitor: Determine if your Mac could use more RAM
Activity Monitor: View memory usage

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_(computing)

the eels have eyes
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0

Try to avoid using Chrome, Safari works quite well on Mac OS X Yosemite. If it still an issue you might try NVRAM and SMC reset to see if it helps eliavte the problem. However more information is needed as to why your Mac is using so much ram. Use etrecheck(google it) and post the log here.

Nvram and SMC reset instructions: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204063 https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201295

peekaboo
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  • Any source on why to avoid Chrome? – oarfish Jul 22 '15 at 06:43
  • I use chrome for a Shadowsocks VPN plugin that is installed inside Chrome. One click and its turned on for Chrome also Mailchecker plugin for Gmail that adds multiple gmail accounts and notify when there is incoming. Are there any such plugins on Safari too? – Dave G Jul 22 '15 at 06:51
  • @oarfish a quick google search and you can see that chrome eats memory fast especially if you have lots of tabs or extension or playing flash. Use chrome only if the webpage seems broken on safari or doesn't load correctly. – peekaboo Jul 23 '15 at 03:02
  • @DaveG not familiar with those plugins Dave sorry – peekaboo Jul 23 '15 at 03:02
  • Use chrome only if the webpage seems broken on safari or doesn't load correctly. – I think that's silly, as long as one does not feel the memory pressure, one should use the browser one prefers. But that's off-topic here. – oarfish Jul 23 '15 at 10:34
  • @oarfish i get what you're coming at haha. honestly i dislike using safari pre-yosemite era however safari has improve. and it is well documented on reddit or any other forum that chrome is a battery/memory eater unless you do not care. – peekaboo Jul 23 '15 at 12:39
  • Well using safari over chrome is double sided blade - you most likely get more RAM but your losing so much that it's hardly worth it. All the other browsers are so far behind chrome today :/ Unless your super simple user, but I bet you will regret it sooner or later anyway. – Srneczek Feb 15 '17 at 23:45
0

Ok, you need to look at the whole picture.

In the old days (not so long ago) one had to worry to keep free RAM.

Now days systems do the opposite. They use full RAM available, but then manage it so that the system operates at maximum efficiency = memory pressure.

If you look at the Compressed RAM, those are files that you used, but not currently using (so it is compressed, but still there for fast acesss

Your Memory pressure is in Green (good sign).

The one to pay attention to is the SWAP, That is when system uses the hard drive as extended RAM when not enough RAM is available. With todays SSD drives that is almost not noticeable in processing speed (not so with Hard Drives). Your SWAP is minimal.

Now lets look at the big consumers.

  • Kernel task- almost normal

  • SystemUIserver- way to high ? (something not right here)

  • discoveryd- way to high ? that is your Spotlight (disk indexing)

  • Google Chrome uses almost 1 Gig of your RAM (combined), but that is normal depending how many tabs you have open.

Lets try to fix the problem with your systemuiserver. Sometimes it is caused by menu bar extras.

In Terminal use the killall -KILL SystemUIServer and see if it drops in memory consumption. If not, you need to disable some of your menu bar extras.

Ruskes
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  • SystemUIserver- way to high ? (something not right here)

    • Is this related to UI apps such as BetterSnapTool?

    • discoveryd- way to high ? that is your Spotlight (disk indexing)

    I also have Alfred app installed on my do you think that is causing this issue?

    As for the menu bar I am not sure if you are talking about the area near clock (I do have many menubar apps running there) or from the right click menu?

    – Dave G Jul 22 '15 at 06:48
  • yes, menu bar where the clock is. things like bettersnaptool and alfred will consume lots of your RAM. I do not know why your spotlight is running so much, need more info. – Ruskes Jul 22 '15 at 07:03
  • run this app http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck which will give you a different look in to your system. – Ruskes Jul 22 '15 at 07:05
  • Thanks for the advice here is the report http://pastebin.com/rxuGqef6 – Dave G Jul 22 '15 at 17:40
  • Thanks for the report. Do you want to discuss that report and problems in a separate tread? This one is done based on positive votes answer. You can see Google chrome eats up 1/4 already :) , try not to leave so many web pages open. I would take a guess you have more than 20 tabs open. – Ruskes Jul 22 '15 at 21:58