You can check the memory on a Mac computer in its Activity Monitor.; The memory pressure graph will let you check your memory. In basic terms, if the graph appears green, you have a lot of memory. 10 Free Tools To Optimize RAM Memory For Windows And macOS. 10 Free Screen Capturing Tools For Windows, Mac & Linux. 13 Free Tools To Create Bootable USB Windows 10 & Linux With ISO Files. 8 Free GPU Video Card Test Tools – Check Memory Errors & Overclocking Stability. Would someone here know how to view one's memory usage on a macbook? Whenever i check it on 'About this Mac' (this is the only place where you could see the memory of your macbook), it only shows the memory of the macbook itself (ie. I want to check how much space i have left on my macbook.:) tnx!
By Adela D. Louie, Last updated: August 27, 2019
Once that your Mac starts to slow down, then there is a huge possibility that your RAM is almost out. This usually happens as you use your Mac for the longest time that you are using your Mac. But how do you really check it for you to be aware of your RAM usage on your Mac? This article will teach you on how to check RAM usage on Mac.
Part 1. What is RAM?
RAM actually stands for “Random Access Memory” and thus it is the one responsible for giving you storage on your Mac for your tasks and processes. Though there is a difference between the RAM and the rest of your storage on your Mac is that your RAM makes it faster. That is why your Mac should be keeping some things on your RAM so that it will run faster.
Most Mac nowadays actually comes with an 8GB of RAM. However, for those old versions of Mac, it only comes with 4GB of RAM. These amount of RAM that you have on your Mac is already more than enough except if you are one of those Mac users that are aiming for more applications and games. And once that you are experiencing that your Mac is running slow, then that means that you are running out of RAM.
There are some things that you might experience some problems such as the following.
- Spinning beach ball
- You will be able to see a message on your screen that says “Your system has run out of application memory”.
- Taking too much time to load up on your Mac.
- Your applications keep on crashing.
One fact that you need to consider is that it is difficult to upgrade your RAM. But there are still some cases that were successful in doing so. That is why getting to know about your RAM usage on your Mac will really help you a lot. And there are some certain ways that you can do for you to be able to reduce your memory usage.
Part 2: How to Check RAM Usage on Mac?
As a great start, you can go ahead and check on the status of your RAM. And this is how to check RAM usage on your Mac.
Step 1: Goa head and launch the Finder window on your Mac.
Step 2: And then, go ahead and click on the “Applications” button. This is located on the left side of your window screen.
Step 3: And then, go ahead and click on the “Utilities Folder”.
Step 4: Then after that, go ahead and double-click on the “Activity Monitor”.
Step 5: After that, go ahead and click on the Memory tab. This is located beside the CPU tab at the upper portion of your screen.
Step 6: Then after that, go ahead and check the “Memory Pressure” graph. This is located at the bottom of your Activity Monitor screen. It actually has an indication such as:
- Once that the memory pressure graph is in color green, then that means you still have more memory.
- Is the memory graph is in color yellow, that means your Mac is beginning to use more of your memory.
- If your memory graph is in color red, that means your memory on your Mac is being depleted. This is the time that you should be closing one or two apps. And also, you might as well consider on getting to upgrade your RAM.
Part 3: How to Lower Mac Memory Usage?
Now, since that you already know how you can check up your RAM usage on your Mac, then it is time for to know how you can lower your memory usage. This way, you will be able to know the things that you can actually do for you to be able to lower your memory usage on your Mac.
Tip #1: Tune Up Your Google Chrome’s Task Manager
For the longest time that most of us is using Google Chrome as our web browser on Mac, only a few knows that it actually has its own task manager. You can actually use it if you would want to force quit any memory-heavy processes that you are running on your browser. This is one handy tool because using this will let you see the pages that are eating up your CPU on your Mac. And here is how you can use it.
Step 1: Go ahead and launch Google Chrome on your Mac.
Step 2: Then after that, go ahead and click on the Chrome Settings.
Step 3: Then go ahead and click on More tools.
Step 4: And then, go ahead and click on Task Manager.
Step 5: Then for you to be able to free up some space on your RAM, go ahead and close the GPU process. The GPU process is actually a helpful thing that you have on your Mac. However, this is also one of the things that are taking up a big portion on your memory usage.
Tip #2: Tidy Up Your Desktop
This tip is usually the very last thing that other Mac users do. But this is actually one of the most effective things that you can do. The things that you should keep in mind is that your Mac was actually made to treat its desktop icon as a little active window. And because of it, the more icon that you put in your desktop, then the heavier memory on your Mac is. That is why for you to be able to free up some of your RAM space, it is best that you make sure your desktop is clean.
Tip #3: Disable Your Dashboard Widget
Starting in the year 2017, Dashboard functionality on your Mac is actually becoming obsolete. This is because there are several standalone apps made for your tasks that your Dashboard had to offer. And once that you turn them off, you don’t have to worry about losing anything – because you won’t. This way you will be able to lower your memory usage on your Mac. Here is how you can do this.
Step 1: Go ahead and launch System Preferences on your Mac.
Step 2: And then go ahead and choose Mission Control.
Step 3: From the drop-down menu on your screen next to the Dashboard, go ahead and select “OFF”. This way, you will be able to turn off your Dashboard and lower the memory usage on your Mac.
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Tip #4: Reduce Memory Usage in Finder
Another great trick for you to be able to lower your memory usage for about 1GB is reducing Finder. This is because the Finder is actually set for it to search from all of the files that you have on your Mac once that you start browsing your folders. So in short, Finder will have to remember every path to all of your files and keep them in your RAM. This is clearly another burden that your Mac needs to take. So for you to reduce memory usage in Finder, here is what you need to do.
Step 1: Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
Step 2: And then, go ahead and click on “Go to Finder”.
Step 3: Under that option, go ahead and click on Preferences.
Step 4: From there, go ahead and launch General tab.
Step 5: You will then be able to see a drop-down menu on your screen, so from there, go ahead and click any location you want except for “All My Files”.
Step 6: Then the final step will be re-launching Finder by double-clicking it while pressing the “option” key on your Mac.
Tip #5: Free Up Your Disk Space If Mac is Low on Memory
Once that you have run out of RAM on your Mac, your PC will then rely on your hard disk space so that it can keep on running the applications that you have. That is why another great way is for you to clean up your disk space on your Mac. There are certain files that you should be removing from your hard disk such as your large and old files, old downloads, rarely used application, system junks.
And for you to be able to do this the fastest and the easiest way, using the PowerMyMac cleaner will do all the trick for you. This is because this software is one powerful all-in-one Mac application that will be able to free up more space on your Mac and it can make your Mac’s performance much better. Here is how to do so.
Step 1: Download and Install
Download the FoneDog PowerMyMac from our official website and then launch it on your Mac.
Step 2: Launch and Check System Status
Once that you have completely installed the FoneDog PowerMyMac on your PC, then go ahead and launch it. And on the main interface of the program, you will be able to see three options which are the Status, Cleaner, and Toolkit.
For you to check up on the system status of your Mac, go ahead and click on “Status”. This will then show you the three parts that it contains to monitor which is your CPU, Memory, and your Disk. That means using this program will allow you to check up on what is happening on your Mac.
Step 3: Choose the “Cleaner” option
After seeing the status of your Mac, you can go ahead and simply choose the “Cleaner” option from the options above beside Status.
Step 4: Choose System Junk
Since that one of the things that you should be removed from your Mac is your system junks, then go ahead and choose “System Junks” under Cleaner to start cleaning it up.
Step 5: Scan Your System Junks
Then after that, the PowerMyMac Cleaner will then ask you to scan all of the system junks that you have on your Mac. You can do this by clicking on the “Scan” button on your screen. Then the scanning process will begin. Wait patiently until the process is complete.
Step 6: View The Scan Result
Once that the scanning process is done on your Mac, you can now view all the system junks that you have. To do this, all you need to do is to click on the “View” button and all the result will appear on your screen.
Step 7: Choose the Files to Delete
From there, all you have to do is to select all the files that you would want to clean up from your Mac.
Step 8: Clean and Confirm
Once that you are done choosing all the files that you would want to remove from your Mac, go ahead and click on the “Clean” button. Then a pop-up box will appear on your screen asking for your confirmation. All you have to do from here is to click on the “Confirm” button and the cleaning process will push through.
All you have to do now is to wait until the PowerMyMac Cleaner is done cleaning up all the system junk files that you have selected earlier.
Tip #6: Close All Finder Windows
Each window that you have on your Finder is actually eating up space on your RAM. However, you would not know how many windows are open. That is why you should be doing something about this. So what you need to do is the following.
Step 1: Go ahead and launch Finder on your Mac.
Step 2: Then after that, go ahead and click on “Window”.
Step 3: And then, click on “Merge All Windows”.
From there, you will be able to manage your Finder window and reduce the use of your RAM.
Part 4: Do You Often Check RAM Usage on Mac and Free it Up?
Actually, it is must that you check on your RAM usage every now and then so that you will be able to prevent your Mac from running slow or for you to prevent your apps to crash. That is why we have shown you ways on how to check the usage of your RAM on your Mac and as well as on how you can lower the memory usage of it.
So, if you actually know some tricks on how to reduce memory usage and how to check up on your RAM, do let us know because it can be very helpful to many Mac users.
Comment ()
Mac can be conveniently purchased from the Apple store and most of configuration allows you to upgrade the memory so that you don’t need to open the case and take the risk in using an incompatible memory which would cause system lockups.
The only thing is the upgrade from Apple store cost a lot more money if compared to the one that it purchased from a computer store. For example, an additional 2GB of memory cost $50 at Apple Store while it only cost less than $10 if you search in Pricewatch. If you’re willing to take the risk in adding extra memory in your Mac either to save money or perhaps you have a few lying around, it is best to run a memory test to make sure that the RAM is fully compatible and won’t make your Mac unstable.
Here we suggest 3 different methods to easily run a memory test on your Mac OS X including the latest Mountain Lion 10.8.
1. RemberRember is actually a GUI for the popular command line memory testing tool called Memtest OS X. Instead of typing commands in terminal, you can run the test by clicking a button. You are able to test a selected amount or all of the memory, specify the number of times the tests should run and also viewing of the log. Rember includes Memtest OS X in the package so there is no need to manually download and install the memtest. Running Rember will show a table displaying the detected memory on your Mac. Select the amount of memory to test, number of loops and click the Test button to start checking the memory. When the tests is finished, Rember will show the test results.
Rember runs in Mac OS X which means that not all of the ram can be tested due to a portion of RAM being reserved for housekeeping.
Download Rember
2. Memtest86+
If your Mac has a SuperDrive, you can burn the pre-compiled bootable ISO image of the Memtest86+ and boot up the Mac with the disc. Just press and hold the C key when starting up Mac to boot from the disc.
The good thing about Memtest86+ is it runs by itself without relying on the operating system, giving you a more accurate memory test result.
Download Memtest86+
3. Apple Hardware Test
This is the recommended way by Apple to test your memory using their diagnostic tool. If you have an installation disc, insert the disc, restart your Mac, press and hold the C key. Select the language for the Apple Hardware Test and click the Test button to start testing. You can also tick the “Perform extended testing” option which would perform a more thorough test that takes considerably more time to complete. On the latest Mac OS X Mountain Lion, the Apple Hardware Test is already pre-installed and it doesn’t come with an installation disc. Simply boot up, press and hold the D key to start the Apple Hardware Test.
You can also see the amount of memory installed on your Mac at the Hardware Profile tab to confirm that the memory is correctly installed and detected. There are some Apple Hardware Test images that can be downloaded for older models. Do note that the Apple Hardware Test images are machine specific meaning that you cannot use the iBook version on a Mac Mini.
Download Apple Hardware Test
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‘Closing all apps’ is an option which can be set or disabled in the Rember preferences.
ReplyI’m trying to test DRAM one bank at a time in mid-2010 Mac mini with 2 banks of 4GB Kingston DRAM each.
Rember run overnight on max cycles (255) showed when both banks were full (8GB total), there was a DRAM failure. But run overnight on max cycles (255), Rember is so slow it’s completed less than 30 cycles. I tried this twice.
Is it not possible to check one 4GB stick at a time? (Mid-2010 Mac mini standard RAM is 1GB module in each bank for total 2GB.)
ReplyHow To Check Memory On Macbook Pro
I have several DDR3 DIMMs I want to install, but the memory timing is not printed on them. Is there an app for Macs that can tell you what the timing is on installed DIMMs?
ReplyRember doesn’t shut down existing programs… you do that yerself
ReplyRember is an amazing app! In regards to the comment above:
it closes all windows because to free-up whole RAM memory for tests.
It’s understandable that you must save your work before you open any diagnostic app.
It’s understandable that you must save your work before you open any diagnostic app.
Works great on latest 2019 iMac where Memtest failed and Apple Diagnostic Tool is a JOKE
ReplyRember
I ran this app and it closed all open windows and running apps without asking or warning me. That is bad software. Who knows what data I lost as a result, let alone time in reopening what I can remember was running. memtest does not do this.
ReplyCheck Memory On Macbook Air
How To Check On Mac For Memory Loss
Hope this works well, thanks!
Reply