Is the beach ball always bad news, even if its only for a second?

[AndiS.]

I'm completely new to Macs and OSX, and from what I read that Beachball is bad news. I'm getting it every time for no longer than a second when loading Unigine's Heaven, does anybody else get that on their 2012 iMac?

I'm not really sure if that is a problem at all, but from what I read this means an application is unresponsive, does anybody have suggestions?

[bobright]

Do you have a base model without Fusion?

I'd imagine it might pop up doing CPU intense stuff.

[AndiS.]

Originally Posted by bobright

Do you have a base model without Fusion?

I'd imagine it might pop up doing CPU intense stuff.

no, Fusion / i5 / 680MX. It's only for a second during the load screen and still benches 39 FPS. It also appears when loading Diablo 3 in OSX, for a second.

Update: I checked Activity monitor, nothing there. I mean, my system isn't really slowing down, but since I'm new to OSX I was wondering whether that thing showing up at all is reason to worry?

I also ran Black Magic Disc, I get over 300 write and over 400 read.

[slffl]

Originally Posted by AndiS.

I'm completely new to Macs and OSX, and from what I read that Beachball is bad news. I'm getting it every time for no longer than a second when loading Unigine's Heaven, does anybody else get that on their 2012 iMac?

I'm not really sure if that is a problem at all, but from what I read this means an application is unresponsive, does anybody have suggestions?

No it's not bad news. It means that the CPU or HDD is being used to capacity. Get Menu Meters or a similar program so you can see how much of your CPU and HDD is being accessed.

Solve it by getting as much RAM as possible and Fusion or SSD drive.

[AndiS.]

Originally Posted by slffl

No it's not bad news. It means that the CPU or HDD is being used to capacity. Get Menu Meters or a similar program so you can see how much of your CPU and HDD is being accessed.

Solve it by getting as much RAM as possible and Fusion or SSD drive.

Thanks, I have Fusion and 16 GB Ram are on the way

[sjinsjca]

Also be sure your Fusion VM isn't using all the cores in your CPU. As in, if you have a dual core CPU, you can expect the occasional beach ball if you run a VM configured as having a two core CPU.

[AndiS.]

Originally Posted by sjinsjca

Also be sure your Fusion VM isn't using all the cores in your CPU. As in, if you have a dual core CPU, you can expect the occasional beach ball if you run a VM configured as having a two core CPU.

Thanks for your reply, but I'm not sure if I follow. The 2012 i5 (3470) is a quad core, but what is the Fusion VM? Virtual Manager?

Update: by Fusion I was referring to the Fusion Drive (SSD+1TB) in the new iMacs, I googled Fusion VM and there must've been a misunderstanding

[auwkeung]

It's just the mac version of the hourglass in Windows

Nothing to worry about, as long as it doesn't stay there constanty

[bordenkecher]

I was getting this on my MBP when I upgraded the HDD to an SSD and moved the HDD over to replace the Super (disk) Drive. I figure it was just hanging for a sec while the HDD spun up when I had to access something off it. Once I replaced the old HDD in my MBP to a dual SSD set up I stopped seing the spinning beach ball.

I could be wrong on the cause, but that was my experience.

[Gelite55]

Sounds normal.