Auto Boost Speed of Active Application

[Hack5190]

Speed Freak, at a user-specified interval, reprioritizes applications so that the frontmost (or active) application gets more processor time than background applications. By default in Mac OS X, all processes have equal priority. By using Speed Freak, you override this default by increasing the priority of whatever application you are currently using, resulting in faster application performance.

Although the authors website no longer exists, the last version is available to download from these locations:

- https://web.archive.org/web/2015100...mcast.net/~jeff.ulicny/software/apps/sf28.zip
- http://mac.brothersoft.com/speed-freak.html

 

[eyoungren]

Speed Freak, at a user-specified interval, reprioritizes applications so that the frontmost (or active) application gets more processor time than background applications. By default in Mac OS X, all processes have equal priority. By using Speed Freak, you override this default by increasing the priority of whatever application you are currently using, resulting in faster application performance.

Although the authors website no longer exists, the last version is available to download from these locations:

- https://web.archive.org/web/2015100...mcast.net/~jeff.ulicny/software/apps/sf28.zip
- http://mac.brothersoft.com/speed-freak.html

Just keep in mind that sometimes this comes at a cost.

Way back when, I used Speedfreak to put all the focus on QuarkXPress 8. QXP 8 has an issue with large blocks of text on PowerPC Macs (no issues at all on Intel Macs) because the rendering engine still trys to draw text on screen even when it's not ON the screen.

This worked to a certain extent. QXP 8 was a bit faster, but when I switched apps that was when beachball problems showed up. I'd end up having to wait until the SBBOD cleared before I could perform any functions in the app I switched to. Some apps I actually had to force quit and reload.

So, just be aware that changing the priorities can come at a cost if you switch between apps frequently.

 

[Hack5190]

Very good point and it's the reason there is no "one fits all" or "best" setting.

Thanks for the information Erick.