Questions dealing with performance of Apple hardware or software, especially about troubleshooting or improving poor performance.
0
votes
4answers
462 views
MacBookPro / MacBookAir performance question [closed]
I plan to replace my old MacBook with a new MacBookPro or Air but I am not exactly sure what I need. I work as a windows software developer so I need to run Windows with Visual Studio 2010. I am very ...
1
vote
1answer
96 views
Are there advanced performance profiling tools (ideally, with a graphical interface) aside from DTrace?
Simply put, I'm looking for a utility akin to Windows NT's Performance Monitor (perfmon.exe). The ability to specify which metrics I want to track (ex. reads/sec, writes/sec) for a given object (ex. ...
6
votes
3answers
945 views
Is the i7 2.3 Ghz CPU significantly faster than the 2.2 one?
I'm shopping for a 17-inch MacBook Pro and trying to figure out my minimum specs.
From the Apple website it appears these are the two procesor options...
2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor ...
2
votes
1answer
649 views
Hard disk performance drastically declined after OS X Lion upgrade
After upgrading to Lion (10.7.1) a while ago I'm currently faced with a very poor performance of my system. It's a 2.2 GHz Core2Duo with 4 GB RAM and a 500GB HD.
E.g. the JBoss6 AS needs about 5 ...
1
vote
1answer
54 views
Slow in opening videos on iPod Touch
I have an iPod Touch 3G 64GB with 4.3.3, and, with just 5 videos loaded i get a problem with this symptoms:
When I tap Videos, it takes ages to load, crashes, then I can load again, still slow
Every ...
4
votes
1answer
245 views
How fast should my MBP internal drive be?
I'be been experiencing an ongoing (if not precisely measurable) feeling that my MBP is underperforming, and it seems to be related to disk IO. I recently downloaded a disk benchmarking tool, to see ...
28
votes
12answers
17k views
Why would I disable swap file in Mac OS X?
I came across a thread about installing an SSD drive in MacBook Pro.
Someone in the comments also recommended to disable the swap file but didn't say why:
sudo launchctl unload -w ...
32
votes
7answers
10k views
How to simulate slow internet connections on the mac
What's a good software solution to slow down internet connections on the mac for testing and simulations?
My primary need is when testing code in the iPhone / iOS simulator, so slowing down the ...
2
votes
7answers
15k views
After installing Lion my mac became super slow
After installing Lion, my macbook pro became unbelievably slow.. what could be the reason?
Safari sometimes freeze for 30 seconds (in particular when there's Flash content). When I open mail after ...
0
votes
1answer
541 views
How can I effectively analyse my macbook's performance issues?
In recent months my macbook has been steadily running slower.
It's about 2 years old and gets heavy use so my initial suspicions are that maybe the hard drive is starting to get old. I used the disk ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
How much will adding an extra hard drive to my MacBook Pro affect battery performance?
I have a current MacBook Pro 15" i7 2.2Ghz with a 500GB 7200RPM (default) hard drive.
I am thinking of replacing both the current hard drive and the superdrive with two Seagate Momentus Hybrid 500 GB ...
1
vote
3answers
219 views
Will I see performance boost if I add memory with these Page-In/Page-Out statistics?
Currently, if I open Photoshop after a days time, the load up time is about 5 seconds. If I close and open again (right after), the load up time is about 2 seconds (I assume this is caching?). Can ...
0
votes
1answer
134 views
Can I force Mac OS to cache my most frequently used applications?
If I buy a lot of ram for my new iMac (16GB), is there a way to make the system cache my most frequently used applications so the launch time is much faster?
4
votes
4answers
1k views
Will the MacBook Air (2011) perform as well as my MacBook Pro (2008)?
I've got a 13" 2009 MBP (8GB, 2.53Ghz). A lot of the time it runs a Win 7 web dev environment (Visual Studio, SQL Server databases, various editors, Photoshop etc.) under Parallels Desktop. It ...
0
votes
1answer
248 views
Why does my FCE export to DV take forever?
I am exporting a sequence from FCE 3.5 with these settings:
Export Using QT Conversion…
Quicktime Movie>Options
Deselected "Prepare for Internet Streaming"
...
1
vote
0answers
620 views
How many CPUs can be assigned to a Parallels Desktop VM?
I have an iMac with the quad core i7 CPU which shows up in Mac OS X as an eight core CPU (thanks to Hyper Threading, I think). Parallels Desktop allows me to assign 1-8 cores to the Windows VM that ...
0
votes
4answers
1k views
How do I increase rendering speed on Final Cut Express?
How do I increase render speed on FCE? I have several overlaid HD video tracks, and it is SLOW.
EDIT: I am on a MBP 13", 2.3 GHz Intel Core i5, 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3. The render disk is an external USB ...
4
votes
1answer
3k views
Mission Control slow and jerky on 2011 MacBook Pros: any fix?
Mission Control has been horribly slow on my 2011 MacBook Pro 15" (2GHz quad i7, 8GB RAM, 256MB graphics, SSD) -- swiping up usually freezes the screen for 2 seconds, before showing me the Mission ...
10
votes
5answers
683 views
What scenarios benefit from Mac OS X allowing apps to run when no document windows remain?
As a rule of thumb programs on Mac OS X stay running when you close all their document windows.
This is the behavior I noticed in MacVim, VmWare Fusion, Chrome and host of other applications.
I ...
1
vote
2answers
2k views
Is upgrading an iMac to an SSD over USB 2/FireWire an upgrade?
I bought the smallest 21" iMac model of the 2011 update cycle. I was planning on having the HDD replaced with an SSD later on. Turned out this would not be an option.
So I'm either stuck with the ...
0
votes
2answers
655 views
Problematic performance of Adobe CS5.5 suite on OSX (Snow Leopard)
We are running some 17 iMacs ranging from 2008 models to 2010 models, all with 4gb ram. Most are on 10.5, the newest one on 10.6
We upgraded from CS 4 to CS 5.5 last month. We also upgraded from ...
4
votes
1answer
2k views
Snow Leopard vs. Lion performance: what are the differences?
Is Snow Leopard or Lion faster?
And how significant is the speed difference?
5
votes
4answers
1k views
How can I best use an SSD?
I have a Mac Pro, and I've added an Intel 80GB SSD to improve performance in LightRoom and Photoshop. So far so good.
But after moving all of my current work, catalogs, etc. to the SSD, I still have ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
Will upgrading to Lion boost performance and responsiveness?
I remember going from Leopard to Snow Leopard was a huge performance boost.
Going to Lion, is it going to be the case? Read so many reviews yet none of them discussed this (many discussed gestures ...
0
votes
2answers
143 views
Wifi on Macbook vs Macbook Pro
How will you rate your wifi experience and over all experience between Macbook and Macbook pro?
How much of that good or bad is to do with Aluminium body?
2
votes
1answer
253 views
Mac app to show cumulative CPU usage?
Activity Monitor will show you how much CPU time the current instances of each process have taken. I want an app that will show the total CPU time all instances of each process have taken, so I can ...
3
votes
4answers
5k views
What can I do to speed up a Mac that is running slow?
My mac seems like it is running slower and slower. While I am thinking abut installing Lion from scratch, I figure there has to be stuff I can do now to help. I have reset PR RAM recently, I have run ...
1
vote
1answer
885 views
XCode 4 - slow performance [closed]
I have an issue with XCode 4 which is responding very slowly to user interactions (e.g. editing code, scrolling areas). This particularly happens with larger scale projects with many controllers/view, ...
2
votes
3answers
2k views
What is the point with iMac + SSD?
The newly released iMac can be built with an optional 256 GB SSD. To complement this, the new iMac's also contains the Intel Z68 chipset:
Z68 mproves performance by putting files
that are ...
1
vote
1answer
886 views
iPhoto '11 is really slow to launch
Ever since updating to iPhoto '11 it has become incredibly slow to launch. Using it is acceptable performance wise, but launching is terribly slow. I just closed it and reopened it to get an accurate ...
1
vote
2answers
6k views
The new iMacs come with AMD HD 6770M or HD 6970M. How do they compare?
the 27" versions of the new iMac come with either the AMD HD 6770M or HD 6970M GPU. How do they compare performancewise? Is it worth its money?
1
vote
2answers
135 views
Will reducing the number of or disabling spaces improve performance?
If I turn off spaces on my MacBook, or reduce the number of spaces, will that improve graphics performances?
EDIT:
I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.7 Snow Leopard on a MacBook 7,1 with 2GB of memory
11
votes
5answers
451 views
Should you format your Mac?
Back in my Windows days, I used to fully format my PC once a year or so, to start fresh and get rid of some of the slowdowns. It helped.
Would you recommend the same for Macs? What's the recommended ...
8
votes
3answers
62k views
What is the best version of iOS to use on an iPhone 3G?
my girlfriend is currently using an iPhone 3G (iOS version 3.1.3 - 7E18) and I've noticed it can be very sluggish. She doesn't use it for much more than the usual messaging/safari/mail. Compared to my ...
5
votes
3answers
10k views
What's the fastest connection speed / shortest elapsed time using Migration Assistant?
When using Migration Assistant to move users, files, and folders from an old Mac to a new one, you have a few different choices, depending on the Macs involved. Presuming that both Macs have ...
3
votes
2answers
690 views
If I install more RAM should I boot into 64bit Kernel? Does it matter?
I've got an Early-2009 Unibody Mac Book Pro 17".
It came with 4 GB RAM and by default it boots into 32-bit Kernel.
I've just upgraded to 8 GB RAM and my main concern is getting maximum performance ...
1
vote
3answers
281 views
Safari slowdown issues
Safari is quite slow when I open new tabs. I get a busy cursor, and I cannot interact with other tabs.
Is there any way to make it faster?
I have a 2010 MacBook Pro, MacOS 10.6.6, Safari 5.0.3.
3
votes
2answers
2k views
Mac Pro Memory - Should I use 8 RAM slots in dual-channel mode or 6 RAM slots in triple-channel mode?
I have a Mac Pro tower with a 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon chipset, and 8 RAM slots. I have been told because of the processor's triple-channel memory capability that I should be installing RAM ...
24
votes
3answers
7k views
What are the differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+?
I'm about to format an external hard disk drive (HDD).
What are the key differences between journaling HFS+ and non-journaling HFS+? Apart from the fact that one has journaling and the other does ...
15
votes
5answers
2k views
Does the use of SSD give one a dramatic performance boost?
I use Mac book pro 15", and it's time to buy a new one.
For HDD, now I see a new option of SSD, which is pretty expensive.
I can expect shorter boot-up time and faster access of files, but I'm not ...
3
votes
2answers
542 views
Why has moving emails from my inbox in Mail.app become so slow?
Sometime in the last few weeks, Mail.app has become painfully slow when moving an email out of the inbox and into a folder. I have five email accounts that I check in Mail.app—one is pop3 and the ...
4
votes
2answers
361 views
How do I tell what processes are driving I/O loads?
Something is driving a lot of Disk I/O on my system lately. I can see in ActivityMonitor that there are huge volumes of reads and writes every second. But none of the "normal" suspects are active when ...
2
votes
3answers
763 views
Are there any performance limitations when running a VM of a Boot Camp installation?
I'm planning on installing Windows on my Mac, and would like to be able to use both Boot Camp (for when I need to be able to use all of the hardware of the computer) and a virtual machine (for those ...
-1
votes
1answer
143 views
Browsers performance in OS X [closed]
This is to collect the UI performance experiences we have with browsers in OS X.
I don't care about the benchmarks I care about how fast the UI responds to the user's actions.
I have come to the ...
3
votes
3answers
312 views
Relative performance of 2006 Mac Pro and 2007 iMac
I'm trying to evaluate a purchase but am having trouble finding apples-to-apples performance comparisons for these two machines. A year and and many details separate them. Are there any common ...
2
votes
6answers
3k views
Does iOS 4.2 improve performance on the iPhone 3G?
I've "inherited" an iPhone 3G from a friend who upgraded to iPhone 4. He had complined about the slowness of iOS 4. Although I personally have no problems with it, I was wondering if iOS 4.2 offers ...
23
votes
5answers
947 views
Is there any way to speed up my iPhone 3G since upgrading to iOS4
I have recently upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS4 and there is some noticeable performance issues will some of the basic tasks (text messaging, loading application, etc.)
I have restarted my iPhone and ...
