Help! Beast Macbook Pro runs like a turtle!

[ASGreen33]

Hi everyone! I have a 2010 Macbook Pro with the Intel Core i7, 8gb ram memory, and the 500mb hard drive. My OS version is up to date (10.6.8).

I am an animation student, and bought this not so cheap laptop to run Autodesk Maya 2011 and Photoshop CS5. When I run Maya, (even with no other program running) it has a tendency to lag with clicking and actions. I do not use safari, I use Firefox.

My hard drive has 349 gb available.


Any suggestions to help my Macbook run faster?

Thank you in advance!

 

[miles01110]

Your computer is essentially maxed out already. Find out what is slowing down your machine in Activity Monitor > All Proceses > Sort by CPU. If it's Maya you'll need to get a more powerful machine.

 

[ASGreen33]

So the "%CPU" is where I am looking correct? is the higher the percent the slower it makes your computer? All I have open right now is firefox and it shows it at 4 to 5%. Do I need to open Maya to see what percent it is at?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

So the "%CPU" is where I am looking correct? is the higher the percent the slower it makes your computer? All I have open right now is firefox and it shows it at 4 to 5%. Do I need to open Maya to see what percent it is at?

Yes, the % is showing the CPU usage in percent (of 400% total CPU capacity).
If your Mac is slow when using Maya, then you should run a sample scene via Maya, to see, if it is the culprit.

Do you run Maya on the dedicated GPU?

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Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.
Also check the "System Memory" tab to see what your "Page ins:", "Page outs:" and "Swap used:" are.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Further reading:

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Making The Most of Activity Monitor
What Is Activity Monitor (or How to Take Your Mac's Pulse)​

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[dusk007]

What did you expect. A MacBook Pro is just a Notebook and not even a very fast one for the money.
For Rendering and stuff you'd want at least a 2011 Quad Core MBP or even better a Desktop with much more number crunching power.

Though when you just run Maya and it is not doing something it shouldn't make the whole computer lag. If the lag doesn't correspond with high CPU load an SSD can help.
An SSD is more or less the equivalent of a Mulit Core CPU because its performance doesn't break down to an almost halt as is the case with an HDD if multiple applications ask for too many IOs.

 

[ASGreen33]

How would I run Maya on its own GPU? When I ran it with the Moniter open it would jump between 23-45% under CPU.

 

[Quinoky]

How would I run Maya on its own GPU? When I ran it with the Moniter open it would jump between 23-45% under CPU.

Get gfxCardStatus, select the GT330M GPU and run Maya again (remember to switch it back to "Dynamic" when you're done or it'll drain your battery).