Swap Used: The amount of space being used on your startup disk to swap unused files to and from RAM.
Until this memory is overwritten, it remains cached, so it can help improve performance when you reopen the app. Select the Compressed Memory column, then look in the VM Compressed column for each app to see the amount of memory being compressed for that app.Ĭached Files: The size of files cached by the system into unused memory to improve performance. When your computer approaches its maximum memory capacity, inactive apps in memory are compressed, making more memory available to active apps. This memory can’t be cached and must stay in RAM, so it’s not available to other apps.Ĭompressed: The amount of memory that has been compressed to make more RAM available. Wired Memory: Memory required by the system to operate. To the right, you can see where the memory is allocated.Īpp Memory: The amount of memory being used by apps. Memory Used: The amount of RAM being used. Physical Memory: The amount of RAM installed. Memory pressure is determined by the amount of free memory, swap rate, wired memory, and file cached memory.
Memory Pressure: Graphically represents how efficiently your memory is serving your processing needs. In the Activity Monitor app on your Mac, click Memory (or use the Touch Bar) to see the following in the bottom of the window:
