is there any way for me to free up more memory on my mac?

[Semidevil]

I'm using an older 2011 macbook air, with 2gigs of ram. I'm also running SAS on virtual machine for programming and every time I try to run a command, the system will sometime just get 'stuck' at running, and never output the results.

I asked around and people say it's probably because of my low memory. While I ran SAS and the virtual machine, I also had my activity monitor, and it shows that 1.99/2.00 memory is being used, at all times.

Since the macbook can't upgrade the RAM, is there any other way I can make the computer more efficient? Anything I can get rid just to get extra memory?

whenever I look at activity monitor, under memory, I guess I don't know what can be deleted and what can't.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm using an older 2011 macbook air, with 2gigs of ram. I'm also running SAS on virtual machine for programming and every time I try to run a command, the system will sometime just get 'stuck' at running, and never output the results.

I asked around and people say it's probably because of my low memory. While I ran SAS and the virtual machine, I also had my activity monitor, and it shows that 1.99/2.00 memory is being used, at all times.

Since the macbook can't upgrade the RAM, is there any other way I can make the computer more efficient? Anything I can get rid just to get extra memory?

whenever I look at activity monitor, under memory, I guess I don't know what can be deleted and what can't.

Can't help it: Never got my feet wet with Apple; wouldn't be able to offer advice on reducing memory consumption unless you are specific about which OS is used; and even then -- it may be insufficient.

But you mentioned SAS. Do you mean "Statistical Analysis System" developed by the company in Research Triangle Park, N. Carolina? I once used SAS when it was running on an IBM 370 in the early '80s.

 

[postmortemIA]

are you running windows in a VM? if so, you might want to dual boot using boot camp. at least most of windows will work fine with itself + few programs on 2GB.

BTW newer OSX will always use all available RAM, so it is not indication of how much is actually required.

 

[Semidevil]

are you running windows in a VM? if so, you might want to dual boot using boot camp. at least most of windows will work fine with itself + few programs on 2GB.

BTW newer OSX will always use all available RAM, so it is not indication of how much is actually required.

I'm actually using virtualbox and running SAS on it, so not running windows.

And yes, it is That SAS, that old program. i'm running mavericks if that makes any difference.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm actually using virtualbox and running SAS on it, so not running windows.

And yes, it is That SAS, that old program. i'm running mavericks if that makes any difference.

It was a very fast transition. Sometime between '84 and '87, there were PC versions of SAS and that other one -- ah! -- took a while to remember --- SPSS. I think as early as '84, there was more specialized econometric software and a programming platform called GAUSS for the PC. I had a licensed copy of SPSS and of another one -- an econometric package, but I forgot the name of it. It'll come to me . . .

I think it was '81 or '82 that I was specifying the sampling and analysis procedures for a major project, and a colleague with a punch-card machine was taking trays of Hollerith cards across the street to the data-management-center's counter. SPSS had procedures like discriminant analysis -- which we needed.

 

[Essence_of_War]

What version of os x are you running? Mavericks and above support memory compression which should help you squeeze out extra performance.

 

[Semidevil]

Yea, im on the most updated version of mavericks

 

[Essence_of_War]

That might be just about all you can do then :\

 

[h9826790]

There is almost nothing you can do. The 1.99/2.00 RAM usage is not a problem at all. Idle RAM is a waste of resources.

On the other hand, the memory pressure in activity monitor is a reliable indicator to you. If that stays at green, that mean the system can compress RAM to fulfil the demand. So no problem at all.

If that goes to yellow or even stays at red. That means the system keep using swap file now, you may feel the system struggling due to high HDD I/O operation.

If memory pressure is red. The first thing you can do is to check your login items in "system preferences" -> "users & groups". Remove all unnecessary items, also, remove all unnecessary software which will keep running in the background (e.g. iStat), then reboot your computer.

2G of RAM should be OK for normal daily use, but a little bit low for virtual box. Mavericks is already the best OSX in terms of RAM optimisation. Really not much you can do.