Increase Your Free RAM

As I described in detail in RAM, free RAM correlates strongly with speed, and running out of free RAM—which in turn increases virtual memory usage—is a major reason for slowdowns. So in this chapter I explore ways to keep more of your RAM free.

The things that free up RAM often reduce CPU usage and disk access too, but here I’m looking here at cases where RAM is the primary consideration. (For example, a well-written application might use virtually no CPU cycles when it’s idle, but still chew up RAM, so that puts it in this category.)

Of course, the best way to increase your free RAM is to add more (see Add RAM). But if your Mac won’t hold any more, or if you can’t afford to add physical RAM, the steps in this chapter should help.