O n my non-SSD mini, before the change to SSD, I often had the experience you mention. Since then, no. But likely the behavior is still the same, just that the SSD manages it better.
Before SSD, I had to run "purge" in a terminal to get the memory back. I'll try starting lots of apps and see what happens on the new mini/SSD. Would be nice if Apple, finally, learns to handle swap space better. Maybe Mountain Lion did so? -- Owen On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 2:27 PM, Steve Smith <sasm...@swcp.com> wrote: > Owen ( and other OSX fanbois) - > > I'm guessing that a few others here will be interested in the technical > details of this topic... > > I did not become interested in OSXs memory management until about 6 months > ago when my PBPro with 4G running 10.6.x started throwing me the rainbow > frisbee of death (or at least tedium) often. I began to look at the > process table (via Activity Monitor) and noticed that **all** my > applications seemed to be bloating up with memory... as if each and every > one had memory leaks. > > Firefox, Thunderbird and Skype were the most notable. I kind of assumed > that the problem was a system library that they all shared, and aggravated > by the fact that they were all naturally wanting/needing/using lots of > their own internal cache (well, maybe not Tbird so much?)... I also > assumed that I had not updated my system properly (I tend to be pretty > cavalier about keeping up with suggested updates, but trust the system (at > large) to know what needs to be updated and not leave anything in the > cracks)... > > I recently finally buried that machine after stripping it down to replace > the charging port only to find afterwards that the problem was NOT that my > battery was zeroed and my charge port too fried to take power... I finally > gave up and blamed the easy/last-resort "logic board failure". I give my > machines a lot of abuse. One of the SFX interns inherited the one my wife > ran over in Iowa (shattered screen... he used it with an external monitor). > > Anyway... back on topic. The 15" 2010 MBP I bought to replace it had 8G > and Mountain Lion installed. I assumed (hoped futilely) that my problems > would evaporate with a full (up to date) fresh system (10.8.4 install and > max memory). I didn't fret about it much but within a few days I started > noticing (mostly because my previous machine had taught me to compulsively > check the Memory Usage monitor) that I was operating on virtually 0 free > memory as before. The big difference was that I was not getting the > whirling frisbee of death very often and nearly 1/2 of the memory is > labeled "Inactive", though under the 4G 10.6 circumstance I also had > significant "Inactive" memory available at all times... > > I am postulating (very tentatively) that this new machine/configuration is > more efficient at reclaiming "Inactive Memory" just-in-time... perhaps > because it has the quad-thread version of the duo core or perhaps 10.8 > fixed it up, or because my old system was just poorly configured (memory > management libraries out of date?). > > One thing I am wondering is if others have had this problem (saturating > physical memory and NOT getting efficient reclaiming of Inactive memory)? > Or if others understand whether this is a real problem or just my lame > understanding of how the memory management is supposed to work (I would > sort of expect the Apps themselves to be managing memory more effectively > than they seem to themselves, not just trusting the VM to keep them out of > trouble?). > > - Steve > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
