M3 Max MacBook Pro (2023) Running Out of Memory – Even With Only Safari Open

Question

Level 1

4 points

M3 Max MacBook Pro (2023) Running Out of Memory – Even With Only Safari Open

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’ve been experiencing some frustrating memory issues with my 14” MacBook Pro (M3 Max) that I purchased just about a year ago.

Specs:

MacBook Pro 14” M3 Max (2023)
Running the latest version of macOS (Sequoia, Version 15.3.2)

Problem: Lately, my system has been repeatedly showing the "Your system has run out of application memory" error, asking me to force quit apps. This happens even when I’m only using Safari with fewer than 10 tabs open — no other apps running in the background. The biggest memory hog seems to be Safari, according to Activity Monitor.

As a designer, I do have a habit of leaving multiple tabs open while working on Figma, Adobe apps, or reading articles. But even after forced quitting everything and starting fresh, the issue still comes back — sometimes with only Safari open.

What I’ve Tried:

Force quit all other apps
Rebooted in Safe Mode
Cleared Safari cache and disabled extensions
Checked Activity Monitor – Safari consistently tops the memory usage
Monitored RAM – seems like it’s not releasing memory properly over time

Why I’m Confused: This MacBook is top-of-the-line, and I bought it specifically to handle heavy multitasking and creative work. It shouldn’t be struggling with basic web browsing and light app usage, let alone throwing memory errors. This feels abnormal for an M3 Max with a large amount of unified memory.

Questions:

Is this a known issue with Safari or macOS?
Is there a memory leak happening here?
Any terminal commands or settings I can check to monitor/resolve this?
Should I consider a clean macOS reinstall?
Could this be a hardware defect?

Any help, insights, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I really want to get this resolved — it’s affecting my workflow and productivity every day.

Thanks so much in advance!

—

JJ

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Mar 24, 2025 1:19 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 26, 2025 6:02 AM in response to JJ_Saw

VPN:

A virtual private network, or VPN, is a private connection over the Internet from a device to a specific network. VPN technology is widely used in corporate environments. If you need to be "present" on an institutional network, a VPN is a great tool for accomplishing this. it is generally issued and controlled by the institution.

Almost all other uses are a SCAM. There is generally no need for you to have a private connection to a VPN vendor's Network, except to make it easier for them to harvest your data to sell. There is NO security advantage whatsoever in using a VPN. Your connections are already encrypted in most cases.

If VPN vendors just stopped there, it would be bad. But many of these packages also insist on scanning all your files, non-stop, -- nominally looking for viruses, but who knows for sure what data they are harvesting. Their non-stop file reading punishes your computer's performance in the process.

Some also break into your other secure connections so they can be FIRST to examine your data, often leaving your Mac MORE vulnerable to attack.

https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 24, 2025 8:17 AM in response to JJ_Saw

By far the easiest way to cause poor performance, instability, overheating and crashing is to install ANY third-party speeder-uppers, Cleaners, Optimizers, or Virus scanners, Bit Torrent, or a VPN that you installed yourself.

¿ Are you running any of those?