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by rbinv 2999 days ago
> This makes it clear when some app is starting to blow up and consume a huge amount.

And how often does that actually happen anymore, really? Yes, Chrome and friends are memory hogs, but a constant RAM indicator? If a MacBook (or any other device for that matter) starts swapping, you'll know right away.
3 comments
__jal 2999 days ago
Multiple times a week. And yes, Chrome and the Chrome-devilspawn (Slack) are frequently to blame, but are not the only bad actors.

I use iStat Menus for that stuff. Working without various monitors seems to me a lot like doing without speedometers and gas gauges.

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saagarjha 2999 days ago
> And how often does that actually happen anymore, really

Pretty often, especially if you open an app that decides to allocate a lot of memory very quickly (Xcode, VirtualBox) or when you switch to an app that causes a lot of memory to be swapped in.

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glhaynes 2999 days ago
But if I just started up one of those apps, I'm wanting (and expecting) it to allocate a lot of memory because that's what those apps do. So I don't really see what actionable information an always-visible meter does for me. But I don’t begrudge those who like them!
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masklinn 2999 days ago
> And how often does that actually happen anymore, really?

Every few weeks to a few times a week depending what I'm working on/with.

> If a MacBook (or any other device for that matter) starts swapping, you'll know right away.

1. not necessarily, SSDs make swapping way less problematic than it used to be

2. ideally you want to nip the problematic process before it locks up the entire machine

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