Is this normal ram usage?

I have a summer 09 2.26GHz MBP w/ 2 gigs of ram. The first time I installed Snow Leopard I just did an upgrade, but I noticed a hit in performance... Spaces got slower, Firefox would lag between tabs, apps would take some time to launch, etc. I recently used time machine to backup my Leopard installation, clean installed to Snow Leopard, and used Migration Assistant to move everything back over (including apps). I'm still noticing the same hit in performance when compared to my Leopard install. I thought Snow Leopard was supposed to be faster, not slower?

Anywho, I noticed my ram usage is being choked up. Using iStat Pro I have been consistently monitoring my ram usage. As of now I am running Finder, Firefox (2 tabs), iTunes, Adium, and Skype. This is what the iStat Pro ram readout is giving me:

Wired: 205 mb
Active: 964 mb
Inactive: 496 mb
Free: 121 mb

Are these levels normal? It seems like I'm using an abnormal amount of ram for not a whole lot of intensive applications. Could this be the source of my slow-ness in Snow Leopard?

In addition, I installed Windows 7 Professional via Bootcamp on a 32gb partition. 7 also seems to be pretty darn slow from what I expect. I have Windows Experience Indexes around 5+ out of 7.9 except for the gaming graphics category (4+), but I notice slowness when switching between apps (using Windows counterparts/equivalents to the apps mentioned above). Another example of slowness would be how it took about 20 minutes to extract a 2.5gb Pro/E installer file.

This slowness is starting to bug me! Am I hitting the limits of my machine, or is there something wrong? If there is something wrong, what can I do to fix it?

 

Don't know but I suspect Spotlight indexing may be eating up your resources. Any time you make changes to your files Spotlight will re-index, so if you've just installed a new OS or done a Migration it could take some time, up to a couple of hours, for Spotlight to finish.

 

Hmmm, I don't think that's it. I've had SL clean installed for a couple days now and it's still slow. Plus, I'm experiencing the same slowness on the 7 side.

 

Backup and clean install. Mine had 2 gigs of ram and it was very fast.

 

Does that mean clean install all the programs as well? Aka, abstain from using the Migration Assistant?

What I don't understand is why I also experience slow speeds in 7 x64 via Boot Camp.

 

Have you tried the hardware test to see if anything is faulty?

 

The hardware test says everything is fine. Spotlight randomly started indexing (and did so for more than 24 hours) but I told it not to search my HDD and installed Quicksilver instead. I also repaired disk permissions.

At this point I'm thinking I might just be getting paranoid about my computer speed because I can't figure out what, if anything, is wrong.

I was messing around with 7 today and I noticed that there is a 200mb and 100+mb section of the hard drive that are allocated to neither the 7 partition or the OS X partition. Is that normal?

 

Clean install, no migration assistant. Make sure to format the drive using Snowleopards partition manager, and then install SL

 

I have also noticed Spaces lags on mine after I installed SL. Expose does a bit too... Picture preview program is also having a tough time with my 1000+ page pdf's, which is normal I suspect. I am running with 4 GB or RAM so never thought it could be a RAM problem. If you get yours sped up, let us know.

 

Windows 7 created a 100mb section on my disk during install. It is my understanding that it is related to drive encryption, and is there regardless of if you actually use bitlocker. Don't know about the 200mb section.

 

How did you install it .. ?

I have 3 Macs here... ad no phantom partitions..

Just upgraded my IMac today to 1TB Drive... did fresh install (SL) and after first boot up to check all was good with the Drive, I did Migration from old Drive (USB enclosure) ... then a clean install of 7 under BC... just booted up again and checked via Disk Util no other Partitions.... am I missing something ?
or are you talking about the GPT Protective Partition... if so thats the area that is used as part of EFI compliance... it should be at the beginning of your Drive... it does not show up under OS X as it disregards it as you Formatted your DISK as GUID as your on an intel MacBook and as this uses EFI and not a BIOS ...and therefore this partition is required... BTW "PC's" are now also getting this as Win 7 creates this if it is not there as it is also now EFI ... here some more info

from M$

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx

and Wiki on OS X

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

Enjoy...


on your ram issue go have a look at Activity Monitor and report back then we can see what the issue is... ie what if any processes are hogging the memory or CPU

 

Alright, well I started having other problems with the keyboard not working both at start up (Apple logo screen), the play/pause button, and various keystroke combinations. Now, after a wipe and clean install the keyboard problems still persist and now whenever I close the lid to put it to sleep the computer starts doing some crazy stuff and the core temps go up to 80+ degrees Celsius. I'm taking my computer into the Apple center on campus today... this is getting ridiculous.

 

I see you have other problems now. I don't know if this page helps explain about memory usage.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342?viewlocale=en_US

Modern operating systems over time will attempt to use all the available memory because they'll keep a copy of accessed files in memory. Most utilities that report memory (I don't know about OS X), don't usually make that point obvious, so you worry about how little memory you've got left. In reality, what you should be worried about is when the system has to page from the disk a lot, that's when you need to consider buying more RAM or look for that buggy program with the memory leak.

 

Ok thanks. That explanation makes a lot of sense.

I biked over to the Apple Center today and they are ordering a new top section for me. Hopefully this will fix all my problems, though I don't know about the heat issue with the sleep yet. You know how the sleep light blinks? It is on for 10+ seconds at a time... I don't remember it being on that long before. Even when I put it to sleep with no applications running, the heat goes easily up to 70+, and sometimes over 80. It's freaking me out, so until I get the computer back in the shop I'll keep from sleeping it.

 

Hi Gooey-

I am having the exact same issue. Installed Snow leopard, and now every so often the "Free" Ram as reported by Activity monitor jumps down to 11MB (!!!) and the entire system slows to a crawl. I have 14 gigs, installed, btw.

It is definitely a SL specific problem- this computer worked fine before the upgrade. ARARGGAGGG!

I haven't done a clean re-install yet because i don't have time to, but i will if that seems to be the only solution..

any new discoveries, anyone?

 

I ended up having all these other weird problems including keyboard malfunctions, an unresponsive trackpad, ridiculously slow boot up times, and sleeping issues, so I had the Apple Center on campus take a look. They ordered and replaced the entire top section in 2 days (props for Apple's CS, at least they do this part right).

Before that I had a clean install of SL, and everything has been smooth running since then so I haven't been monitoring my levels so consistently, but right now I have these readouts from iStat Pro...

Wired: 185
Active: 805
Inactive: 219
Free: 580

Right now I am running Finder, Safari (4 tabs), Adium (AIM and GTalk), Skype, iTunes (playing music), iCal, Stickies, and a bunch of background apps like Quicksilver, Caffeine, SMC, etc...

I just installed 7 again so I haven't had enough time to monitor it yet, but for the bit I was using it it seemed fine as well.