Apple I Stat Pro widget says 10 MB memory free, but swap file is 256 MB. What does this mean

[mshan]

I have a 20 inch Intel Core Duo 2 Ghz iMac with the stock 512 MB memory stick.

The most intensive things I do are video and photo editing, and the system does seems to lag or sometimes dvd menus stutter.

Do I need more memory?

I Stat Pro widget will say that I have around 10 MB of free memory, but the swap file will say 256 MB or even 512 MB.

 

[halfadder]

The Intel version of Mac OS X uses about 30% more memory than the PowerPC version to do the same tasks.

Unless you're only using one application at a time, I would seriously consider upgrading to at least 1 GB. www.crucial.com is your friend.

No matter how large that swapfile gets, the machine will always show some free ram. A big swapfile means you're low on ram. Pay special attention to the pagein and pageout counters to see how often the machine is swapping. Pull up a console (terminal) and run top (type "top" and press return).

 

[acaeti]

You should probably add more RAM. iMacs, Mac Minis and new Mac Books all use DDR2 SODIMMS; I ordered two of these from Newegg.

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: acaeti
You should probably add more RAM. iMacs, Mac Minis and new Mac Books all use DDR2 SODIMMS; I ordered two of these from Newegg.

Have you installed/used them without issue?

 

[mshan]

Does the fact that the I Stat Pro widget is showing any swap file mean that the cpu is constantly accessing the hard drive?

Also, is that Crucial 512 MB stick closely matched enough that it will run in dual channel on the 20 inch Intel Imac (someone said that they have to have same configuration of memory chips, in addition to same general specs)?

And what do you guys think of this Gigaram memory?:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820221043

 

[flyers1]

Take a look at this article on apple's website link. This will tell you how much free memory you really have. Basically you should use activity monitor to see how much memory is free and inactive. Inactive memory is RAM that was used but the info will remain in RAM until the space is needed by something else.

You should definately upgrade to 1gb or RAM or more anyway though. Going from 512mb to 1.5gb on my Imac G5 was like night and day. OSX really is memory hungry so the more the better...