#Macos process monitor install
#Macos process monitor update

This is typically done with data that is time sensitive to access e.g. a section of memory may never be swapped to disc. Wired Memory: This is memory that a process has marked as always having to stay in RAM, i.e. Hidden, mostly inactive apps, on the other hand rarely cause high memory pressure after the initial swap out.Īpp Memory: RAM used by processes (apps, OS, plugins …). High memory pressure is an indicator, that the parts of the running apps that need to be in memory at the same time, are to big to fit in RAM. Excessive movement is usually the cause of unresponsive apps and 'beachballs'. Memory Pressure is usually a way more interesting measure (than Swap Used) as it indicates the amount of data being moved to/from disc by the Virtual Memory system. Note that this goes both ways as the memory swapped to disc is typically memory that will be used at some later date. Swap Used: the Virtual Memory system will move infrequently used memory to disc if there is not enough RAM to go around.

Cached files will automatically be discarded if you need more RAM, so there is no need to use 'memory cleaner' apps to free up memory. Memory Used: this is kind of what it sounds like, this is memory used by processes (as seen in Activity Monitor) some of these are apps, but most are UI-less app helpers, plugins or OS processes.Ĭached Files: free memory will be used to store (cache) files/apps previously loaded into memory, this speeds up app relaunching and re-opening of documents. Physical Memory: the amount of RAM in the Mac. These statements are only half correct at best. Not just that, the OS only use ~3 GB for cache, so you're literally have about 3 GB of empty/unused memory. your memory is not under pressure, so it's green). From that screenshot, you still have about 6 GB free, which means there are still a lot of headroom (i.e. This is the most important indicator that your Mac may need more RAM.īasically, you'll only see it goes yellow or red when you're using nearly all of your memory.

#Macos process monitor install

To make more RAM available, you can quit one or more apps or install more RAM. Red: Memory resources are depleted, and macOS is using your startup drive for memory. Yellow: Memory resources are still available but are being tasked by memory-management processes, such as compression. The current state of memory resources is indicated by the color at the right side of the graph:

#Macos process monitor update

The graph moves from right to left and updates at the intervals set in View > Update Frequency. Memory Pressure: The Memory Pressure graph helps illustrate the availability of memory resources.

From Apple Support article about the Activity Monitor: