Hi... For some time now I've noticed the following problem. I have 8 GBytes of RAM in my MacBookPro. When I start the Mac, about 2 GBytes of memory gets used... Then when I start VMware Fusion and launch one of three different installed versions of Windows (XP, 7, 8), all of which I have previously assigned to have 2 Gbytes dedicated to the OS, the memory usage goes up to about 4 total Gbytes, the 2 being used by the Mac and 2 more being used by Windows... So far so good... But then, over the next half hour or so, Inactive memory begins to grow and grow... On a mac, there are for categories of memory, Wired, Active, InActive and Free. Wire and Active are not available to be used elsewhere while Free certainly IS available... InActive is supposedly available to other apps. It was previously used by another app and it is still sitting there in case that old app needs it again. But it is supposedly available to other apps...
However, over say 1/2 hour after launching Vmware Fusion and Windows, the InActive memory just grows and grows until there is NO MORE FREE memory. And when I open other apps, rather than using some of this supposedly available Inactive memory, instead the app begins to Page swap into Virtual Memory and everything slows down...
I saw another post from a couple years ago that talked about exactly this same problem, where Inactive memory grows and grows until the rest of the computer begins too sluggish to use... At that point, I am forced to restart the entire computer and leave Windows off if I want to do other work. It's clear that Vmware Fusion is what is causing the Inactive memory to squeeze out the remaining free memory and for reasons unknown Fusion appears to be locking or holding on to that Inactive memory just as though it is Wired or Active memory...
Any thoughts?? thanks... bob...