Filevault slowing down Macbook 12?

[pjny]

Hi,

Just got the 12" Macbook 1.3ghz 256gb today and turned on Filevault. I've never had it turned on on any of my machines. My previous machine was a early 2011 2.3 Core i5 with 16gb ram and samsung ssd.

I noticed some stuttering while running chrome as well as switching apps.

I am using the macbook to process 16-36 megapixel RAW photo images using Capture 1. I need max speed and I was wondering if Filevault is worth the processor speed hit.

Are there any figures on how much of real world impact Filevault has? This machine is already slower and I want to get out every ounce of perfomance from the CPU.

I am willing to turn it off as I can turn on Firmware password.

 

[newellj]

After it has finished encrypting the disk you shouldn't notice any performance slowdown.

 

[pjny]

How long is that supposed to take on a brand new macbook?

I turned it on filevault after unboxing the laptop.

I did a benchmarking test and the mac was slightly faster than my macbook 13" 2011 2.3ghz.

After it has finished encrypting the disk you shouldn't notice any performance slowdown.

 

[Big Ron]

How long is that supposed to take on a brand new macbook?

I turned it on filevault after unboxing the laptop.

I did a benchmarking test and the mac was slightly faster than my macbook 13" 2011 2.3ghz.

You don't really nead to filevault this drive, it was mainly intended for traditional spinning hard drives that could be phyisically removed. The SSD on a rMB can't be removed so they would have to steal you whole MacBook, in which case your logon password should suffice.

 

[Queen6]

Question why do you want FileVault 2 activated on the Retina MacBook; I would consider turning off FileVault 2 as it doesn't really bring any benefit to the new MacBook. The SSD is now a component on the main Logic Board so physical removal of the drive is near impossible. Applying the firmware password alone will keep any unwanted guests out of your data. This will help to reduce the overhead on the hardware by a small percentage. FWIW my Retina MacBook is the only Mac currently running that is not encrypted with FV-2.

Some other considerations mostly for battery life, equally some can impact performance

1. uBlock Safari extension
2. System Preferences - Accessibility - reduce transparency
3. System Preferences - Dock - deselect "Animate Opening Applications"
4. System Preferences - Dock - Minimise Windows using "Scale Efect"
5. System Preferences - Dock - deselect "Magnification"
6. Chrome users, switch to Chrome Canary as is far more optimised for OS X
7. VLC users, switch to Movist as less resource intensive, 30% global CPU versus 7%
8. Close applications, when not in use, you can deselect "Close windows when quitting an app" in System Preferences - General to bring them back to the same state when opened
9. Those that require AV, use ClamXav and set up sentry & scanning intelligently
10. Open PDF`s in Quick View or install Skim, the PDF rendering engine in OS X Preview is broken and burns a lot of CPU cycles as result, hence why some complain of "choppy" PDF scrolling
11. Skip Flash period

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

You don't really nead to filevault this drive, it was mainly intended for traditional spinning hard drives that could be phyisically removed. The SSD on a rMB can't be removed so they would have to steal you whole MacBook, in which case your logon password should suffice.

Your better to set the Firmware password, this will precent anyone from tampering with the system period, the login password only protects the user account.

Q-6

 

[Roman2K~]

FileVault is hardware-accelerated using AES-NI instructions that the Core M supports. There's this article about the performance impact of FileVault but it's dated from 2011 (OS X Lion). Apple and Intel each must have further optimized their stuff since then. In this thread, there are SSD benchmarks with and without FileVault and it doesn't have an impact.

Anyway, you're seeing stuttering in Chrome and while switching apps, neither of which tap the SSD. So I highly doubt FileVault is the cause of those. It could impact image imports since you're going to make heavy writes, but judging by the benchmarks linked above, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

 

[Queen6]

FileVault is hardware-accelerated using AES-NI instructions that the Core M supports. There's this article about the performance impact of FileVault but it's dated from 2011 (OS X Lion). Apple and Intel each must have further optimized their stuff since then. In this thread, there are SSD benchmarks with and without FileVault and it doesn't have an impact.

Anyway, you're seeing stuttering in Chrome and while switching apps, neither of which tap the SSD. So I highly doubt FileVault is the cause of those. It could impact image imports since you're going make heavy writes, but judging by the benchmarks linked above, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I believe there is an impact to running FV2, equally it`s very less just a few percent, how much this impacts Core M in practicality is debatable given much is done in hardware on the fly.

Only real way would be to replicate similar tests, and as the new MacBook`s SSD is also new introducing NVME to portables which casts another stone in the pond for bench-testing. Personally I left FV2 off, as it doesn't really achieve anything with the MacBook, nor I am seeing any performance issues, equally everyones usage and software-load is so different in all honesty it`s not practical to compare.

Certainly if the drive/SSD is removable you should apply FV2, as the Retina MacBook SSD is fixed, this may also explain Apple`s default value of "off"

Q-6