M1 Mac SSD Swapping (opens in new tab)

(twitter.com)

35 pointssslalready5y ago6 comments

6 comments

This is a whole drive write for every 6 hours of use. Modern TLC is usually only warrantied for about 600 drive writes, though it can usually go higher before failing.

So if you use your laptop for about 5 hours a day, you can expect the SSD to last at least 2 years. For an unswappable part, this is a short time.

They’re really abusing the flash and pushing it to the endurance limit. I personally switched over to all SSD when I discovered that my usage patterns would consume so little lifetime that it was a nonissue. This would make me paranoid again.

spideymans5y ago

Even on the 16 GB model, the system very aggressively swaps. During my normal workflow, RAM usage is typically at 12 GB, with 4 GB free and 4 GB+ swapped to the SSD. I have no clue why it prefers to swap to the SSD, rather than taking advantage of the 4 GB of unutilized RAM.

eyelidlessness5y ago

I overly obsessively watch memory usage and in my usage this usually indicates a pattern of consuming most RAM then purging some of it (common example is closing a browser window with 10ish+ tabs). It’s not that the OS favors swap over RAM, but that it’s very conservative about bringing memory out of swap once it’s there, because it had already been designated as low priority and may deoptimize higher priority usage in new workloads.

spideymans5y ago

Interesting. I don't think that's the case here though. I obsessively watch Activity Monitor as well, and I've yet to see memory utilization ever go above 12.5 GB on my M1, despite the system using a large amount of swap.

fsflyer5y ago

Is it swap, or is it mds (spotlight) indexing?

phire5y ago

Indexing is a read heavy workload. It shouldn't be causing TBs of writes a day.

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6 comments

BearOso5y ago

This is a whole drive write for every 6 hours of use. Modern TLC is usually only warrantied for about 600 drive writes, though it can usually go higher before failing.

So if you use your laptop for about 5 hours a day, you can expect the SSD to last at least 2 years. For an unswappable part, this is a short time.

spideymans5y ago

eyelidlessness5y ago

spideymans5y ago

fsflyer5y ago

Is it swap, or is it mds (spotlight) indexing?

phire5y ago

Indexing is a read heavy workload. It shouldn't be causing TBs of writes a day.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse