Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Maybe need a new Mac? Maybe need more RAM?

G

gregthelizard

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 9, 2015
6
1
Hi there,

I'm running a:
iMac (27 inch, Mid 2010)
Processor: 3.2 GHZ Intel Core i3
Memory 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
781GB Free of 999GB

My issue is that my computer runs terribly slow. I am a designer and use inDesign CS6, Photoshop CS6, and Illustrator CS6 all the time. And it is crazy slow. It crashes all the time.

No viruses, lots of spare room on the HD, but right now, the only things active are: Finder, Chrome, inDesign, Messenger and Stickies and I only have 449mb of free memory.

Is my mac just too old? Have I destroyed it in some other way? Should I buy some RAM or a fancy new machine?

Thanks for your help. Hope this isn't an annoying query.
 
960design

960design

macrumors 68040
Apr 17, 2012
3,700
1,569
Destin, FL
gregthelizard said:
Hi there,

I'm running a:
iMac (27 inch, Mid 2010)
Processor: 3.2 GHZ Intel Core i3
Memory 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3
OS X Yosemite 10.10.2
781GB Free of 999GB

My issue is that my computer runs terribly slow. I am a designer and use inDesign CS6, Photoshop CS6, and Illustrator CS6 all the time. And it is crazy slow. It crashes all the time.

No viruses, lots of spare room on the HD, but right now, the only things active are: Finder, Chrome, inDesign, Messenger and Stickies and I only have 449mb of free memory.

Is my mac just too old? Have I destroyed it in some other way? Should I buy some RAM or a fancy new machine?

Thanks for your help. Hope this isn't an annoying query.
Click to expand...
16GB ram is fairly inexpensive and will do wonders! 2010? Certainly time to upgrade. Three years is pushing it for tech for work, five years for non professional use; so you are due for an upgrade.
 
phrehdd

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,313
1,311
I agree with the last poster.

If you are using these CS applications, 4 gigs isn't going to cut it. Start with an upgrade to RAM. Adjust your application settings as well to reflect the best use of RAM AND also as in Photoshop, learn about settings such as history. You can speed up some facets of PS by reducing the history states.
 
boast

boast

macrumors 65816
Nov 12, 2007
1,407
860
Phoenix, USA
I would:

1. Create a new user account and use it for a bit to see if it is still slow. If it is slow, then it is hardware related, or else it is something you have installed/have running.

2. Get some RAM. It is a pretty inexpensive test to see if this helps.

3. If nothing helped, new computer time.
 
Fishrrman

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,340
12,458
For Yosemite, an SSD will yield more benefits than RAM.

HOWEVER -- only 4gb probably isn't enough, anyway.

Your main difficulty is upgrading the drive. You don't have an easy way to add an external drive because you don't have USB3 and I don't think you have thunderbolt either, is that correct?

An internal SSD upgrade is possible, but involves opening the thing up -- a modestly difficult job, and there are perils of breaking stuff inside.

After about five years of use, it may be time to start thinking "new", unless you are pressed for $$$$. Or at the very least, "Apple-refurbished".
 
ApolloBoy

ApolloBoy

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2015
778
305
San Jose, CA
As everyone else stated, a RAM upgrade would certainly do you some good. I also recommend an SSD upgrade as well, I recently did it on my mid-2010 MacBook and it's done wonders.
 
glenthompson

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god
Apr 27, 2011
2,983
842
Virginia
Unless you're very comfortable pulling apart your iMac, a SSD upgrade will cost between $150 and $200 plus the cost of the drive. Recommended upgrade if you think you can keep using the machine for a couple more years. You won't see quite as much benefit since that model only has SATA II at 3 gbps. It will still be faster than your current drive.

Fire up Activity Monitor and see what it shows for memory usage and pressure. You can also monitor your CPU usage while performing normal tasks. It's been my experience that most people rarely tax their CPU. They are better served by faster drives and more memory.
 
M

Michael Anthony

macrumors regular
Oct 18, 2012
131
21
Australia
On my late 2011 Macbook Pro, with 16GB of RAM, the system (10.10.2) takes 4GB of RAM just after booting. I remember when it came with 4GB, the extra 12GB did wonders for performance. Well worth it.:apple:
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
Adobe Creative Suite takes a lot of RAM to run properly. You want to look not at the RAM used but at the Memory Pressure. Yellow or red memory pressure means you need more RAM! That being said, OS X Yosemite does tend to run better on an SSD, but the performance should be acceptable once upgraded.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom