Imac fusion drive slows down adobe

[Kospas12345]

Hello, I have an iMac med2017 i5 3.4 with 1t fusion drive. I am trying to run photoshop, illustrator etc ... and I think it is a little bit slow. When I am installing for first time the programs are runs extremely slow but when I am open one of them second time it is much better. It is like Mac installs the program to HDd for first time and the second time runs the program from ssd.

Do you have any idea what to do? May be there is some settings to do or something.

Thankssss

 

[titaniumjones]

There are no specific settings, the OS decides what goes where. But you are running some heavy programmes on an i5. This is always going to be quite slow.
The other thing to consider is how much RAM you have.

 

[SkyLinx]

Problem is that the 1 TB fusion drive in the 2017 iMacs has only 32 GB (IIRC) of SSD storage as opposed to the 128 GB of SSD storage in the 2 TB and 3 TB fusion drives. 32 GB isn't much for OS and apps IMO.

 

[Fishrrman]

SkyLinx posted the "correct answer" above.

You are almost certainly limited by the reality that the SSD portion of a 1tb fusion drive is very small, and much of your "disk operations" (in/out, memory swapping etc.) are being relegated to the platter-based hard drive.
(Aside: I have read that in many cases Adobe's code just "isn't that fast" anyway)

You can "fix this", but it involves buying another drive.

What I would do to make things faster:
- Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, such as a Samsung t5.
- Put the OS, apps, and accounts on it and set it up to be "an external boot drive"
- You would then find things to go considerably faster, because the OS and apps would be running from the SSD all the time.

You could put the SSD inside, replacing the platter-based hard drive, but that involves prying open the iMac which will void the warranty. It's a very touchy job and I wouldn't recommend doing it...

 

[minik]

Problem is that the 1 TB fusion drive in the 2017 iMacs has only 32 GB (IIRC) of SSD storage as opposed to the 128 GB of SSD storage in the 2 TB and 3 TB fusion drives. 32 GB isn't much for OS and apps IMO.

The spinning hard disk could possibly a 5400RPM drive as well. We have a few late 2015 iMac and the Fusion Drive is a 24GB SSD + 1TB (5400RPM) HDD, it's terrible.

 

[campyguy]

OP, both PS and Illy have options that will certainly improve their performance. We have a 2009 iMac with the stock 1TB 7200RPM spinner in it, both PS CC and Illy CC work just fine on it (and I have a base iMP on my desk to compare it to with those apps...). Read the two links, my tip that is a must-do-now follows.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/optimize-photoshop-cc-performance.html - get a scratch disk and use it.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/optimize-illustrator-performance-mac-os.html - I've been using Illy for over 15 years, first thing is to set a Postscript printer as its default. Illy is PS-based and always has been, non-PS printer drivers kill Illy's performance.

 

[SkyLinx]

The spinning hard disk could possibly a 5400RPM drive as well.

Yep if it's a 21.4" I think?

We have a few late 2015 iMac and the Fusion Drive is a 24GB SSD + 1TB (5400RPM) HDD, it's terrible.

I just bought a 27" with 2 TB FD and so far performance is mostly very good. Good that I did some reading here before buying

 

[Kospas12345]

Guys it is not terrible. When you are using the programs it if fine. The problem is at adobe apps startup. I have not work on a big project on in design with many pages yet, but I think that it will be fine.

Now I have a question.
I have a usb3 dock & an ssd 128g. Do you think that if I install the programs here, will be faster?

 

[Kospas12345]

There are no specific settings, the OS decides what goes where. But you are running some heavy programmes on an i5. This is always going to be quite slow.
The other thing to consider is how much RAM you have.

Slow on i5 7th gen 3.4? I don’t think so.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asked:
"Now I have a question.
I have a usb3 dock & an ssd 128g. Do you think that if I install the programs here, will be faster?"

Actually, it might make the apps load faster, yes.
But... it might cause glitches, insofar as having your boot OS in one place and your apps on another drive is concerned. I'm thinking that Adobe apps in particular might be finicky about this.

You're telling us that you already have an SSD that can be mounted via USB?

Then... it costs you nothing to try my suggestion in reply 4 above.
What I would further suggest is this:
1. Erase the external SSD to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
2. Use CarbonCopyCloner to clone your fusion drive to the SSD. BUT...
2a. You will need to "be selective" about what you clone over.
3. CCC allows you to "pick and choose" what will be copied and what will be left behind
4. When you set up CCC to get ready to clone, go into your home folder
5. You need to start de-selecting "the big stuff" (so it doesn't clog up the SSD), such as the stuff inside your movies, music and pictures folders.
5a. You DO want to clone over the "first level of subfolders" (i.e., music, movies, pictures. It's THE STUFF INSIDE these folders that you need to be selective about.
5b. You DO want to clone over the Library folder that is INSIDE your home folder (this is a different folder than the "Library" at the root level, which should get cloned, as well)
6. CCC will offer to clone the recovery partition. YES, do this as well.

Then, with everything properly selected, just "let 'er go".
When done, you should have a fully-bootable SSD with the OS, apps, and your accounts.

Again, this is worth a try.
It costs you NOTHING.
If you don't like the results, just erase the SSD and use it for something else.

But... I think you WILL like the way it performs...

 

[MacGizmo]

While a true SSD drive would be helpful, the reason Adobe CSS launches faster the second (and all subsequent times until a Mac reboot) is that the code is cached in the RAM of the Mac. The reality is that all apps work this way, it's just that Adobe's apps are so monolithic that it's really, really, really noticeable.

 

[Kospas12345]

While a true SSD drive would be helpful, the reason Adobe CSS launches faster the second (and all subsequent times until a Mac reboot) is that the code is cached in the RAM of the Mac. The reality is that all apps work this way, it's just that Adobe's apps are so monolithic that it's really, really, really noticeable.

Yes I notice that. I think this is not a big deal... just annoying... I can live with this ...

 

[Kospas12345]

OP asked:
"Now I have a question.
I have a usb3 dock & an ssd 128g. Do you think that if I install the programs here, will be faster?"

Actually, it might make the apps load faster, yes.
But... it might cause glitches, insofar as having your boot OS in one place and your apps on another drive is concerned. I'm thinking that Adobe apps in particular might be finicky about this.

You're telling us that you already have an SSD that can be mounted via USB?

Then... it costs you nothing to try my suggestion in reply 4 above.
What I would further suggest is this:
1. Erase the external SSD to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
2. Use CarbonCopyCloner to clone your fusion drive to the SSD. BUT...
2a. You will need to "be selective" about what you clone over.
3. CCC allows you to "pick and choose" what will be copied and what will be left behind
4. When you set up CCC to get ready to clone, go into your home folder
5. You need to start de-selecting "the big stuff" (so it doesn't clog up the SSD), such as the stuff inside your movies, music and pictures folders.
5a. You DO want to clone over the "first level of subfolders" (i.e., music, movies, pictures. It's THE STUFF INSIDE these folders that you need to be selective about.
5b. You DO want to clone over the Library folder that is INSIDE your home folder (this is a different folder than the "Library" at the root level, which should get cloned, as well)
6. CCC will offer to clone the recovery partition. YES, do this as well.

Then, with everything properly selected, just "let 'er go".
When done, you should have a fully-bootable SSD with the OS, apps, and your accounts.

Again, this is worth a try.
It costs you NOTHING.
If you don't like the results, just erase the SSD and use it for something else.

But... I think you WILL like the way it performs...

Thank you very much.

 

[Kospas12345]

Problem is that the 1 TB fusion drive in the 2017 iMacs has only 32 GB (IIRC) of SSD storage as opposed to the 128 GB of SSD storage in the 2 TB and 3 TB fusion drives. 32 GB isn't much for OS and apps IMO.

This means that if I have open photoshop and illustrator all will be ok... if I open 3 or 4 programs will sucks.....??? System uses ssd for the program that you are using or for all the programs you have open?

 

[SkyLinx]

This means that if I have open photoshop and illustrator all will be ok... if I open 3 or 4 programs will sucks.....??? System uses ssd for the program that you are using or for all the programs you have open?

If I understood rightly how FD works, the OS will always stay on the SSD while for apps and data what you use most frequently will stay on the SSD as well. It's not about what you have open at any time, but what you open more often. Those apps will likely be on the SSD and open more quickly

 

[Kospas12345]

Guys after 1 week of work with this machine I think that the more you work with the mac, the faster it goes. It is really strange.......
I have not seen any delays during my work on the programs... only at the first opening
Nice multitasking.... really no delays ....
illustrator, photoshop, one note, mails, safari, notes, word, excel at the same time ... you can change app without any delay!