OS X is using a high amount of ram, any help?

By Chris, 1 March, 2015

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

Hi.

The subject says it all.
I've been noticing that Yosemite has been using nearly all of my system ram. I am monitoring my ram with activity monitor and when I first boot up my computer, it is using around 2 gb of ram, but as time progresses, it gets to the point where 3.8 or 3.98 gb outo f my 4 gb is used. A friend of mine told me that Yosemite was the problem, so I've gone back to Mavericks. However, I notice that my ram usage is still staying around 3 gb. What's going on here? Why is the system using so much ram? Is there anything I can do to reduce the amount of ram used?

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Comments

By Tyler on Saturday, February 28, 2015 - 07:42

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

In the processes table in Activity Monitor, check how much memory processes are using. If they are not essential or you are not using them, you can quit them.

By Chris on Saturday, February 28, 2015 - 07:42

I think the issue is the fact that it keeps using ram to cache recently opened programs and isn't clearing it. I'm still sticking with Mavericks, because it isn't using nearly all my ram like Yosemite was.
Besides, Mavericks is just a bit faster in my opinion. Anyway, does anyone know how I can stop the OS from caching recently used programs in the ram? If not, I guess I'll have to use memory clean every time I do major tasks on my computer.

This is slightly off topic, but since we're taking about ram and such, can anyone recommend a free and accessible application that can tell me my processor statistics like clock speed etc? This is moreo ut of curiosity, but it could come in handy.