5 ms·

No. There is no way this has anything to do with that. That's an issue with the OS swapper algorithm, and it should be fixed in macOS 11.4 according to reports.

danieldk 5y ago
I think the grandparent meant that if there is some leak in IOAccelerator.framework that causes excessive memory use, perhaps for some inputs this leads to swapping, leading to more SSD writes. (Just trying to guess what they meant.)
- bangonkeyboard 5y ago
  Correct guess.
- marcan_42 5y ago
  The people with SSD thrashing didn't experience excessive application memory usage, so that doesn't add up. By all indications it was an issue where the kernel aggressively swaps in and out under some conditions, even when real memory pressure isn't that high. Memory leaks don't cause swap thrashing most of the time; the leaked memory gets swapped out and then just sits there, as it is unused (hence leaked).
nly 5y ago
Selling M1s with a decent amount of RAM would surely help too
- jiofih 5y ago
  The iPad Pro has 4GB with almost the same CPU and is absolutely snappy editing 4K videos, instantly switching in and out of apps etc. It’s a matter of software architecture and not raw space available.
  - nly 5y ago
    Editing 4K videos doesn't strike me as particularly RAM intensive if you optimize the common behaviors (seeking, etc) properly in software and have a fast SSD.
    - coldtea 5y ago
      Between filters, caching, CPU assets, and of course, on M1, GPU memory sharing, and so on, you'd be surprised.
- coldtea 5y ago
  Because 16GB is suddenly low? Until now most laptops sold everywhere, including high end models, where 16GB and below. 32/64 is a tiny niche (and special built to order option in most cases), even for video and music editing people. Sure, 32GB would be nice, but let's pretend this is some huge issue for but a small minority that runs several VMs simultaneously or such. Not to mention the M1 machines released thus far (Air, Mini, 13" Pro, and 24" iMac) are the lower end of the line - the kind of machines that people wouldn't tend to update to 32 even when it was an option under Intel (which itself, is not that long ago).
  - nly 5y ago
    Justify it how you like but I consider 16GB too low for my use. 32GB is minimum in 2021, with all my hardware having 64GB
    - qeternity 5y ago
      I have a 32gb overclocked hackintosh and my 8gb M1 Air blows it away in nearly everything. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is but in terms of UX, x86 ram needs do not translate to Apple Silicon 1:1
      - smoldesu 5y ago
        They do, you just notice it less. MacOS is notorious for having one of the most asinine memory management schemes in the history of software, and so causing a memory issue can be a bit of a finnecky task (but certainly not impossible). As a matter of fact, most times you don't even need to fill swap before MacOS runs out of memory: you just need to fool the OS into thinking the memory pressure is high enough to warrant GC.
        coldtea 5y ago
        >As a matter of fact, most times you don't even need to fill swap before MacOS runs out of memory: you just need to fool the OS into thinking the memory pressure is high enough to warrant GC. I do DAWs (with tons of VSTs and sample libraries), VMs (vagrant, docker) and NLEs (up to 4K), but usually not at the same time, and I've never run out of memory in macOS ever in ~20 years. 16GB is the largest amount of RAM I ever had in them. How often does this mythical "macOS runs out of memory" thing happen? >MacOS is notorious for having one of the most asinine memory management schemes in the history of software Citation needed.
Reason077 5y ago
> "That's an issue with the OS swapper algorithm, and it should be fixed in macOS 11.4 according to reports." I hope so! My MacBook Air has been running over 10 TB of writes per month. Considerably more than my old Intel MacBook Pro, which averaged 2.8 TB per month. Both 8GB machines. It's enough that I'm worried it could start to see degraded performance after a couple of years or so. That already seemed to be happening on my Intel MacBook after only ~120 TB writes (256GB SSD).

danieldk 5y ago

I think the grandparent meant that if there is some leak in IOAccelerator.framework that causes excessive memory use, perhaps for some inputs this leads to swapping, leading to more SSD writes. (Just trying to guess what they meant.)

bangonkeyboard 5y ago
Correct guess.
marcan_42 5y ago
The people with SSD thrashing didn't experience excessive application memory usage, so that doesn't add up. By all indications it was an issue where the kernel aggressively swaps in and out under some conditions, even when real memory pressure isn't that high. Memory leaks don't cause swap thrashing most of the time; the leaked memory gets swapped out and then just sits there, as it is unused (hence leaked).

nly 5y ago

Selling M1s with a decent amount of RAM would surely help too

jiofih 5y ago
The iPad Pro has 4GB with almost the same CPU and is absolutely snappy editing 4K videos, instantly switching in and out of apps etc. It’s a matter of software architecture and not raw space available.
- nly 5y ago
  Editing 4K videos doesn't strike me as particularly RAM intensive if you optimize the common behaviors (seeking, etc) properly in software and have a fast SSD.
  - coldtea 5y ago
    Between filters, caching, CPU assets, and of course, on M1, GPU memory sharing, and so on, you'd be surprised.
coldtea 5y ago
Because 16GB is suddenly low? Until now most laptops sold everywhere, including high end models, where 16GB and below. 32/64 is a tiny niche (and special built to order option in most cases), even for video and music editing people. Sure, 32GB would be nice, but let's pretend this is some huge issue for but a small minority that runs several VMs simultaneously or such. Not to mention the M1 machines released thus far (Air, Mini, 13" Pro, and 24" iMac) are the lower end of the line - the kind of machines that people wouldn't tend to update to 32 even when it was an option under Intel (which itself, is not that long ago).
- nly 5y ago
  Justify it how you like but I consider 16GB too low for my use. 32GB is minimum in 2021, with all my hardware having 64GB
  - qeternity 5y ago
    I have a 32gb overclocked hackintosh and my 8gb M1 Air blows it away in nearly everything. I’m not sure exactly what the difference is but in terms of UX, x86 ram needs do not translate to Apple Silicon 1:1
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      They do, you just notice it less. MacOS is notorious for having one of the most asinine memory management schemes in the history of software, and so causing a memory issue can be a bit of a finnecky task (but certainly not impossible). As a matter of fact, most times you don't even need to fill swap before MacOS runs out of memory: you just need to fool the OS into thinking the memory pressure is high enough to warrant GC.
      - coldtea 5y ago
        >As a matter of fact, most times you don't even need to fill swap before MacOS runs out of memory: you just need to fool the OS into thinking the memory pressure is high enough to warrant GC. I do DAWs (with tons of VSTs and sample libraries), VMs (vagrant, docker) and NLEs (up to 4K), but usually not at the same time, and I've never run out of memory in macOS ever in ~20 years. 16GB is the largest amount of RAM I ever had in them. How often does this mythical "macOS runs out of memory" thing happen? >MacOS is notorious for having one of the most asinine memory management schemes in the history of software Citation needed.

Reason077 5y ago

> "That's an issue with the OS swapper algorithm, and it should be fixed in macOS 11.4 according to reports." I hope so! My MacBook Air has been running over 10 TB of writes per month. Considerably more than my old Intel MacBook Pro, which averaged 2.8 TB per month. Both 8GB machines. It's enough that I'm worried it could start to see degraded performance after a couple of years or so. That already seemed to be happening on my Intel MacBook after only ~120 TB writes (256GB SSD).