You can also remove unused or unwanted Chrome extensions to help it use less resources on your Mac.

Its more frustrating when youve ignored the problem for quite some time and your Macs limitations simply wont let you put a solution on hold any longer.

Thankfully, there is plenty you can do to resolve this problem and get your Mac operating smoothly again.

The first thing to note is this is a natural issue; your Mac has a limited amount of RAM.

Though more expensive Macs have more RAM, even they can butt against limitations when too many applications are running.

This is especially true of older applications which havent been optimized for modern computer architecture.

The most pertinent portion of the window is the bottom, where it shows you the total memory usage, and how its affecting your Mac.

After installing the app, it makes a home in your Macs menu bar, and monitors just about everything, including memory, CPU, GPU, disks, and network usage.

Only the items youre monitoring will have an icon in your menu bar.

A simple click on the menu bar icon surfaces a drop-down menu of how your Mac is performing at the time, and hovering over each graphic brings up a larger menu, as you can see below.

For Activity Monitor, youd make sure to highlight the CPU section of the window.

This will show you all the processes using your Macs CPU at the time.

Activating that will add a CPU and GPU monitor to your Mac menu bar, which has the same interactivity as the memory icon and menu shown above.

CleanMyMac X has an automated CPU and memory monitors built-in, which can give you a real-time view of memory usage in your Macs menu bar.

Memoy Cleaner Free Up Memory

It also has a really quick and easy way to free up memory without digging through Activity Monitor and manually shutting down apps.

Memoy Cleaner Free Up RAM

Under the apps Maintenance section is an option to Free Up RAM, which helps you clear RAM on Mac.

Once youve got this option selected, simply select Run at the bottom of the window, and CleanMyMac X will do a thorough scrubbing of your Macs RAM, and clear unused files out of the way.

Having too many open or running in the background can severely limit what your Mac can handle, and is often why a Mac overheats or slows down.

One of the functions of kerneltask is to help manage CPU temperature; you may find that your Mac fan is loud and always on, even if the device isnt hot to the touch.

Unfortunately, one of the potential downsides is a Mac can overheat to such an extent that internal systems are damaged, sometimes irreparably.

Its essentially a hard reset for your Mac, and should help your RAM and other hardware components start from scratch.

If iStat Menus or Activity Monitor has highlighted Finder as using hundreds of MBs of RAM, there is an easy solution: change the default display for a new Finder window so it doesnt show All My Files.

Under New Finder windows show, click the dropdown menu and choose any option except All My Files Close Preferences, press Alt-Control, and click on the Finder icon in the Dock.

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