Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook

Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by whatever1 on Friday March 13, 2026 @02:12PM (#47367686)

I am not the one claiming that apple does magic with memory. FYI right now I just opened monitor (M1 16GB) and sorted by memory:

1. WindowServer : 4.33GB 2. Safari pages (~10 open): ~ 5GB (monitor reports per tab) 3. Outlook: 1.45 GB 4. VS Code: 1.43 GB 5. Excel: 1.25 GB

Swap Used: 6.46GB.

Memory pressure is already orange and machine is slow.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by astrange on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @03:23AM (#47409613)

Run `IOAccelMemory` in the terminal to see what's causing that (dirty and wired columns). It's probably an app with a lot of windows.

Or for general memory `footprint` is good.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by whatever1 on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @12:52PM (#47415221)

Thank you so much for this! At least now I can see the worst offenders. How did you even find this tool? The internet has almost no records of it. Amazing.

Still does not explain why this balloons over time. Aka if I restart my Mac right now and reopen the same exactly apps with the same exactly windows the WindowServer will take 80% less memory.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by astrange on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @11:01PM (#47421151)

Well, now you get to file a bug with Feedback Assistant…

If you send me the number it will get looked at.

[ Parent | on HN ]