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If you are running RAM Charger 8 and you system grows
then this would probably be the result of some particular
application using "Temporary memory". More About This Mac is
unable to track "Temporary memory" at this point, and thus
it is shown in the System Bar. In OS 8, and not before, the
Finder's About This Mac is able to track some "Temporary
memory" usage and assign it to the appropriate application.
However, even OS 8 Finder's About This Mac cannot track all
this sort of usage (specifically, code fragments stored in
resources, a technique used by Office 98).
The bottom line is that some memory may used by
applications, but not attributed to them in About This Mac.
Instead, the memory is shown in the system bar. As a result,
the only sure way to determine what is up is to monitor you
memory as each application is started and shut down. Doing
this in combination with More About This Mac "View:by
Location in Memory" and the Finder's About This Mac should
enable you to determine the responsible application in
specific cases worth investigating.
Also, some application(s) may actually cause your system
to grow, and it may not shrink back down when the
application(s) are quit. For example, starting Word may
cause your system to grow as a result of loading in Fonts
which are still of value after Word is quit. This sort of
growth is normal. Your system starts out as trim as it can,
but may grow somewhat as you operate and more things are
kept in memory which have been used and may be used again.
In specific, Office 98 and Netscape are known to use
memory that is not always shown in their bars in About This
Mac.
Conclusion
About This Mac is not God's word. Though it shows the
truth in most cases, it does not always attribute memory
usage to the appropriate place. When the user of memory is
not known, it will be added into the "system" memory; this
does not change the fact that some applications may in fact
be responsible for the memory usage. When some symptom
introduces doubt, the only way to know for sure what
applications are responsible is to monitor Total Unused
Memory before, during, and after using one particular
application.
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