How long did it take for your Mac to slow down considerably?

[Frisco]

after one year my mini is same speed but huge apps take forever to start up... maybe better if I replaced the 256KRam w/ 1GB.

256 mb of RAM is not nearly enough for OS X. 512 is really considered the minimum. Go for 1 GB and you'll be happy!

 

[Schroedinger]

I thought my old 1 GHz G4 wasn't slowing down, but after a reformat, I'm surprised to find it is actually running quicker. (I bought a new computer, so I reformatted the old one to prepare it for it's new life).

I think with objective evidence we would all find our machines slowing down over time. The difference with respects to windows, and why I think we get the impression we aren't slowing down, is b/c with windows there is a dramatic fall off with time. The mac slowdown is more gradual, and hence less noticeable.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I have a mac mini from about a month after they came out, so I've had it about a year and a half now. I've cloaned the HDD onto a 100 gig HDD, filled the 100 gig hard drive to almost 100% full, and it's still running like the day I first got it.

 

[Cerebrum]

I have a 15 inch Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz, which I bought almost a year ago. When I first got it, it was a pretty speedy machine, after a few months it got slow, very slow. I have 1 gig of ram (same as back then), and it still felt slow. I realized that my widgets took up a good amount of system resources sometimes and I beleive I read somewhere that having too much mail (...in Mail) can slow it down too (Not sure if it's a myth or not). I had pretty much the same amount of programs running on it back then as I did today. But today it runs as fast as when I purchased it.

I simply rebooted the whole thing, started from scratch, and obviously it was fast since it only had the basics installed. I began adding programs one by one slowly and seeing any changes in speed or amount of resources taken up. Eventually I installed all my programs I had back then and uninstalled a few others (AppZapper is great at program removal) and now I had it at optimum configuration. At that point I decided to make a full copy of my HD onto my FW800 external HD, so in case anything begins slowing down for me again, I have my optimal config. saved on it so I can just put it back to the way it was.

I only notice it slow down when I use multiple programs at the same time, specially the types that take up a lot of resources, so I might upgrade to 2 gigs and see if I get a huge difference. Since i'm broke for now, however, this upgrade seems a bit far away.

 

[Zmmyt]

Bought my 12'' PB last year and haven't experienced any slowdowns.

It's running now for 23 days non stop.



All good over here!

 

[whooleytoo]

It's funny - I've often wondered if the usual "I've just installed 10.N and it's sooo much faster than 10.N-1", has a lot to do with the performance of the system degrading over time, with more processes running, prebinding breaking, incorrect file permissions, disk fragmentation (OSX has de-fragmentation, but not for all size files) etc.

So, much of the improved performance might due to basic housekeeping the new installer does, rather than vastly improved code. I have noticed when I do a clean reinstall (i.e. wiping the disk and installing the old OS again) there seems to be an immediate improvement each time.

 

[SodaPopMonster]

My 900mHz G3 iBook still runs like the day I bought it.

 

[apfhex]

I think my old PowerBook actually runs significantly faster with Tiger than it ever did with the OS X 10.1/Classic 9.2 that it came installed with.

 

[ee99ee]

I'm prob the most demanding user of a computer of anyone I know, and my Mac holds up as good as my Linux box did back in the day -- it is DEFINITLY running UNIX under the hood (duh ). I don't notice any slow down unless Safri is left open for more then a half day. A few widgets leak memory, and Safri is the memory-leakin'-mofo, but other than that things run really smooth. The longer my box is up the more smooth it gets, so I'm very happy. I've only got 1.5GB of RAM now, I might add another GB eventually.

I've got a PowerMac G5 dual 2.0GHz.

-Chris

 

[dpaanlka]

2001 iMac G3 500 mhz. began to slow down in like 2002 because of a virus. i must be like the only person that ever got a virus on a mac...

I can't wait to hear what this virus was.

 

[Bibulous]

I think my old PowerBook actually runs significantly faster with Tiger than it ever did with the OS X 10.1/Classic 9.2 that it came installed with.

Same with mine, it has become "faster" with every OSX upgrade.

I reinstalled 10.1 a few months back to trouble shoot a hardware issue. Wow, I couldn't believe how slow and dated it was.

 

[j26]

1-Bought July 2005 (but was made in April of 2004)
2-1.33 Ghz Powerbook G4 12 inches, 768 ram, 60 gig harddrive, superdrive
3-My mac has not slown down at all since when I've bought it. I'm surprised anyone's has. I verify my disk permissions about 1 time a month or so depending on me remembering. I always remember to reboot a few times a week. I try to keep 10 gigs of harddrive space free. Overall, I try to treat my machine right. Sometimes I notice that when I've had safari open for a few weeks it starts taxing the ram so I make sure to quit and reopen everyone once in awhile. Check activity monitor and check if yours is taking up entirely too much ram

My experience has been very similar, except I bought it in April 2005.

 

[ColdFlame87]

Had my iMac G4 800 Mhz since January of 2002 almost 5 years and this baby has not slowed or let me down since as time passes software requirements surpass those of my system, but for everything from browsing the internet and listening to music to some gaming and even ocassional video and audio editing (provide the my machine meets software requirements) has worked flawlessly since the day I got it.

 

[IJ Reilly]

With a little basic, regular maintenance, your Mac will never run any slower than the day you first started it. More RAM will probably not be required to keep it running at that speed, and certainly an OSX reinstall will not be needed.

 

[CubeHacker]

I leave my cube on for months at a time, and it never feels like its slowing down, period. The only time I ever have to restart is because those damned OSX updates come out too often!

 

[paddy]

About 3 and a half years and now its slooooooow. iMac G4 700mhz, 256 ram.

 

[Eniregnat]

No slowing here

2002, 12" PB, 1GB Ram 100Gb HD. It gets 8-10 hours of use a day.

No slowing. I use it for audio and video editing. I am using Apple's UA. The little thing is slow when rendering compared to a G5, or the new Intel's, but it hasn't become appreciably slower. The only thing that takes time is loading of Cepstral TTS voices.

I also use very good system maintenance and editing practices. I regularly use MainMenu (it's like Onyx as a system maintenance utility. I have separate drives application renders and scratches, clips, and final renders. I also regularly clone my HD, and from time to time nuke erase my HD and transfer back the clone.

 

[Eric5h5]

after one year my mini is same speed but huge apps take forever to start up... maybe better if I replaced the 256KRam w/ 1GB.

Yeah, a computer with 256K these days isn't going to work too well....

Dual 2.5GHz G5, nearly 2 years old and still faster than a very fast thing indeed....

--Eric

 

[patrick0brien]

The question in the title says it all.

Perhaps it'd be useful to list out:

1. when you bought it, and
2. your Mac's specifications, and
3. what indicators of considerable slowing there were.

-ericmjl

Macs to not suffer Winrot - as I suspect your question is ultimately designed to draw out of us.

There is no registry to become "haystacked".

If anything, with each successive update (with the appropriate RAM ceiling) I've only noticed my machines speeding up - even my aged 2001 Quicksilver

EDIT: Grammar