Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Monitor the Virtual Memory value to track the overall amount of virtual memory that
the system has reserved.
Monitor the Swap Used value to track how much of the virtual memory OS X and
your apps are using.
Note:
Swap Used should be 0 most of the time, but it may grow to a few megabytes. If
you see that it grows to hundreds of megabytes over a short period, Mac Pro likely does
not have enough memory for the programs you are running.
TIP
What is virtual memory?
Mac Pro can address memory beyond what is physically installed on the system. This non-
physical memory, called
virtual memory
, is set up as an extension of the Mac Pro's physic-
al memory. Although the size of the virtual memory can be several gigabytes or more, only
a small part of that is usually in use at any time, and that part is called the
swap file
. It is
implemented by using a piece of the Mac Pro hard drive that OS X has set aside and con-
figured to emulate physical memory.
