I have noticed that my memory used does not equal the sum of my app memory, wired memory and compressed memory. Memory used is always about 0.8GB larger than the sum of the three. Does anyone know why this is? Do I have defective memory?
For example:
Memory Used: 7.07GB
App Memory: 4.96GB
Wired Memory: 1.34 GB
Compressed: 0 bytes
MacBook Pro 14″, 12.5
When using the Activity Monitor is the user using Activity Monitor >> View >> View ALL Processes
A screen shot like this would better show the complete info. Here's what mine shows:
What you have doesn't look necessarily abnormal to me. How Apple chooses to display memory usage is the subject of some discussion. You can find such discussions/explanations all over the web.
didi1443 wrote:
Thanks, this is my screen shot. As you can see the memory usage does not add up. Yours does.
FWIW, your memory is fine. Sometimes the total will be correct, sometimes not…
Try not to look for problems and enjoy your computer. 😎
Well if you what addition assist, your choice, post the Full Report from Etrecheck.
The more trailed eyes on this issue , the greater the odds of perhaps finding the offending application, extension etc.
Runnig right now on M1 MBA and here is aScreen Shot of the Activity Monitor for this machine
Keep in mind memory is always a moving target and is always fluctuating. The accuracy of these numbers probably depends on what is happening on this Mac (even with hidden background system tasks). If the memory is changing quickly, then from the moment of gathering the first value to the time the last value is retrieved & calculated the system is likely in two completely different states. Don't get hung up on accuracy. The only important factor are the relative values which for me would be "Compressed" and "Swap Used" and possibly "Cached Files" along with the memory pressure.
Thanks for all the replies. It is peculiar that I have a constant ~0.8GB differential between the sum of the three components and the total memory used. Have not seen this with any of the other screen shots that others have shared. I did do a system diagnosis which did not identify any hardware issues. I have checked the activity monitor view, as suggested above, and all processes are flagged. Perhaps, a software issue? Would be nice to figure out the inconsistency. A steady state 0.8GB discrepancy seems significant.
Perchance - has the user installed and using a MemoryCleaner Application, for macOS of which there are several when performing a fast search of the internet.
Now of which are useful to Andy version of macOS. They actually are working against the Operating System, increasing CPU and Memory usage and over a extended period of time may cause some Hardware issue done the road.
Hi P.Phillips,
Thanks for the follow-up. No, I have not used any software like that. I have run EtreCheck Pro and it has identified some software that has not been written for the m1 architecture but, like the hardware diagnostic test, did not find any issues. I think I may try uninstalling memory resident software to see if the issue goes away. ..Google drive, Onedrive, print drivers...???
I did a complete erase of the computer and reinstalled the operating system. With the baseline operating system, no software installed, the issue still persisted. The diagnostic test did not find any hardware issues. The fresh operating system had the same issue so I have to conclude that it is an operating system issue. Will leave it be for now.
If anyone else has this issue...a large (almost 1GB) discrepency between stated Memory Used and the sum of App, Wired and Compressed memory using Monterey 12.5, please post a message.
Thanks
@P.Phillips...Since you have an M1 processor, could you let me/us know if your activity monitor shows a discrepency between used memory and the sum of wired, app, cache memory? I have noticed that the problem does not exist on our Intel Macbook Air but exists on all of our M1 computers. Thanks.
Thanks, this is my screen shot. As you can see the memory usage does not add up. Yours does.
As I mentioned before, your memory is fine. From my M1 MBA.
Thanks, I now see that you have the same memory offset with your M1, about 0.7 GB. Must be an M1 issue.
You're welcome. I wouldn't describe it as an "issue". Apple Silicon and Intel machines are different. 😎
Activity monitor not showing correct memory usage
