4GB of RAM - Not Enough?

Logsi · 16 Dec 2009 at 17:02

Anyone else finding 4GB of RAM is just not enough?

I'm constantly maxing out all my RAM and it's starting to chug and lag quite a bit in general use. I have cleared my cache out, done multiple maintenance programs and defragged. One thing i have tried now is reset my PRAM and it does seem to of made things better.

Sometimes my page outs can be over half my page ins also. Here's what is happening right now. While not too bad at the moment though.

I'm kinda thinking a proper wipe and reformat is in order.

I'm hoping that those reports of that 1.8 EFI update allowing 8GB of RAM in the Late 2008 2.8 Unibody are true. I just really need more RAM.

NickK · 16 Dec 2009 at 17:05

Quit Safari and restart... I'm convinced there's a memory leak in it..

I've been noticing the same, oddly Leopard was fine with the same configuration and applications... everything starts ok then after a while it's used all the free and started swapping - which is unheard of.

Kainz · 16 Dec 2009 at 17:38

Hmm i've yet to see any high ram usage in SL on my 2008 uMacbook. It hardly ever eats into the page file with Firefox, iTunes, Tweetie, Colloqay and Mail running - and those are pretty much all the apps I frequently use.

I don't use Safari though, can't stand it when FF just does what I need miles better.

JAMAL · 16 Dec 2009 at 18:16

Logsi said:
I'm hoping that those reports of that 1.8 EFI update allowing 8GB of RAM in the Late 2008 2.8 Unibody are true. I just really need more RAM.

Could you point me towards them reports old chap, hopefully this means the macbook uni 2008 base model too?

n111ck · 16 Dec 2009 at 19:34

NickK said:
Quit Safari and restart... I'm convinced there's a memory leak in it..

I've been noticing the same, oddly Leopard was fine with the same configuration and applications... everything starts ok then after a while it's used all the free and started swapping - which is unheard of.

I think you're right - my Safari is using 207MB just to display this page...

MacRS4 · 16 Dec 2009 at 19:50

Your image there doesn't show anything out of the ordinary?

Wired & Active show your used amount. So you're using 2.53Gb.

The inactive & free is free memory effectively. Inactive is cached but available.

Mine is currently showing:

Personally 4Gb is not enough - I tend to have multiple VMs running so I can exhaust the 4Gb quite quickly.

Great article here explaining memory usage: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342

Logsi · 16 Dec 2009 at 19:52

NickK said:
Quit Safari and restart... I'm convinced there's a memory leak in it..

I've been noticing the same, oddly Leopard was fine with the same configuration and applications... everything starts ok then after a while it's used all the free and started swapping - which is unheard of.

I was thinking this also. I'm pretty sure safari is using 800mb of RAM at times...

My Mac never seems to access inactive RAM. It just uses all the free RAM till there is nothing then never actually tries to use the inactive RAM at all. Just chugs and pages once all the free RAM is used up even though there is nearly a GB of data inactive in the RAM.

Here's the thread about 8GB. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2031746&start=45&tstart=0

I'm just hoping the posts are true! Because i would so get 8GB at this moment in time. I'm getting extremely infuriated by this. Also, i think my graphics chip may be on it's out. Hopefully it is so then i can get a new one with a chipset that can take 8GB!

Resetting my PRAM does seem to have made it a little better.

MacRS4 · 16 Dec 2009 at 20:07

Free will be used before inactive. Inactive is then switched to free when required.

Logsi · 16 Dec 2009 at 21:40

MacRS4 said:
Free will be used before inactive. Inactive is then switched to free when required.

It never uses the inactive RAM. Just seems to page straight away...

Adrianr · 16 Dec 2009 at 22:03

4GB ram seems almost archaic. Funny because it really doesn't seem like yesterday when 4GB of ram was a positively ludicrous amount. Now I plain sail at around 8/9GB usage whenever Photoshop is open and the Mac Pro's I use with 4/6GB just chug with my workflow.

MikeHiow · 16 Dec 2009 at 23:14

I've just ordered 2x2GB sticks for my 09 MBP (Originally 2GB). To be fair, it works fine with 2GB, but it isn't sufficient ram to run Parallels/VMWare or similar.

I have 4GB in my PC ([email protected]), and I don't think I've ever been into Page/Swap.

K1LLSW1TCH · 17 Dec 2009 at 00:49

Just to compare I don't seem to be having many RAM issues. Not a lot of programs open at the moment but a typical evening for me is MSN, Safari, iTunes and Mail. Never really experienced any slowdown since owning a Mac, and that's just over a year. Screens here if anybody is interested.