How to Check Memory Usage on Mac

The Activity Monitor on a Mac is a program that displays comprehensive information about CPU, memory, energy, disk, and network usage. It proves to be useful for obtaining an overall report on the status of your Mac. The program is organized into different sections, allowing users to easily switch between them and access various types of information.
In a single window, the Activity Monitor presents a summary of device activity. To delve into understanding the Activity Monitor better, let's explore its features:
The View menu provides options to customize the display of processes:

1. All Processes: Displays all the processes operating on the system.

2. All Processes Hierarchically: Presents processes in a parent-child relationship format.

3. My Processes: Highlights processes associated with the current user account.

4. System Processes: Exhibits processes specific to the macOS.

5. Other User Processes: Reveals processes from additional user accounts.

6. Active Processes: Shows currently running processes.

7. Inactive Processes: Displays processes that are currently in a sleeping state.

8. Windowed Processes: Lists processes capable of opening windows.

9. Selected Processes: Focuses solely on the process that the user has selected.

10. Applications in Last 12 Hours: Lists apps running processes within the past 12 hours.

Get acquainted with the Activity Monitor's functionality by exploring these view options in order to gain insights into your Mac's performance.


How to Check Memory Usage on Mac using Activity Monitor:
This section shows all the information about the memory.

1. Memory: The overall memory utilized by the application.

2. Compressed Memory: The aggregate memory that has been compressed for the application's use.

3. Information provided in the lower section:

4. Memory Pressure: Represents the current graphical depiction of the load on memory. Different colors signify the memory state:

• Green indicates available memory.

• Yellow signifies memory allocated by the memory management process.

• Red represents used memory.

1. Physical Memory: The total installed RAM on the machine.

2. Memory Used: The overall memory currently in active use.

3. Cached Files: Indicates the amount of memory cached by applications and processes. Applications utilize cache memory for quick loading, and this memory may also be accessible to other applications.

4. Swap Used: The total space on the macOS startup drive occupied by memory management.

5. App Memory: The cumulative memory used by applications and their respective processes.

6. Wired Memory: The portion of memory that cannot be transferred to the Mac's drive. This memory is exclusive to the application and cannot be utilized by other processes.

7. Compressed: The total RAM that has been compressed for use by other processes.

Read More: your system has run out of application memory
Optimize The Memory On Mac

Cleaning a Mac involves several straightforward steps, so ensure that you complete each of these tasks. With each step, you'll notice improvements in the performance of your Mac.

Step One: Update Your Software

The fundamental step in optimizing your system is to update the Operating System. The latest operating system releases from Apple include security updates, patches, and system optimizations. It's crucial to regularly download and install these updates as they become available. Software updates not only enhance the stability and security of your Mac but also optimize the system, ultimately cleaning up memory.

Step Two: Remove Apps from Startup

Applications that launch at startup consume memory and can slow down your system. Check for programs running at startup on your Mac and remove them to free up memory, ensuring a smoother performance. To do this:

Click on the Apple menu, then go to System Preferences, followed by Users & Groups, and click on Login Items.
Review the applications listed and disable or remove those you don't want starting up. This helps save memory and improves overall system performance.
Note: Regularly restart your Mac to clear memory and shut it down to free up memory resources.

Step Three: Uninstall Unused Apps

Many applications on your system may have been installed long ago and are no longer in use. Identify and uninstall these unused apps to reclaim memory and recover space on your Mac. You can remove programs either from the App Store or by moving them to the trash.

Step Four: Remove Unwanted Files from Downloads Folder

Often, we forget to delete unnecessary files downloaded from the internet. Many of these files serve no purpose and can be easily deleted. Keep your Downloads folder clean by removing unwanted files, contributing to a more streamlined and efficient Mac.

Step Five: Maintain the Health of Your Storage Disk

Ensuring the optimal condition of your storage disk is a crucial aspect of Mac optimization. Follow these steps to perform disk optimization:

1. Open Disk Utility, located in the Utilities section of the Applications folder.

2. Select the disk, then proceed to verify and repair it for optimal performance.

Additionally, to further enhance disk cleanliness, eliminate all unwanted files and empty folders. Cleaning your disk from these unnecessary elements will result in a smoother-running Mac, providing more free space and faster responsiveness.
Step 6: Clear Cache Files
While caches play a vital role in speeding up websites and programs, they become obsolete once their purpose is fulfilled. Reclaim significant space on your system by cleaning up these caches.
Step 7: Remove Resource-Intensive Programs
Various programs on your Mac may excessively consume memory, negatively impacting system performance. Identify and eliminate these resource-hungry applications to free up memory. Follow these steps to identify memory-intensive applications:
Open Finder.
Click on Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.
In the Activity Monitor, select the Memory tab.
Review the applications using substantial memory and either delete or close them if they are unnecessary.

Step 8: Empty the trash
By emptying the trash we can save lots of space on our Mac.

Verdict:

Keeping Mac in good shape is very necessary as without it your Mac will become slow and sluggish. There are different methods for optimizing the MAC, and you have to follow all the steps for keeping your Mac in good shape.