Just me or Mavericks really smoother?

[Elho]

Hi,

Is this just me, or is Mavericks really a huge improvement for my 1st gen alu MacBook (2.0 ghz core 2 duo, 4gb RAM)??

Seems like everything is going much smoother than before with Mountain Lion...

Thumbs up !!

 

[Weaselboy]

It is not just you... Mavs handles graphics much better and has far better memory management than previous OS X versions.

 

[Chase R]

I notice it too on my v1 aluminum macbook. I did a fresh install of Mavericks a few days ago on a cheap Vertex 2 SSD. This thing runs like a bat-out-of-hell.

 

[rgarjr]

You should max out the RAM to get even smoother.

 

[Elho]

Hmm does more ram improve the speed of iPhoto?
Because iPhoto is still too slow to fully enjoy it. I'm planning to buy a new Mac mini, but i'm waiting for the next update...

 

[Weaselboy]

Hmm does more ram improve the speed of iPhoto?
Because iPhoto is still too slow to fully enjoy it. I'm planning to buy a new Mac mini, but i'm waiting for the next update...

Reboot your Mac then use it for a day with whatever apps you normally run. At the end of the day launch Activity Monitor and look in the memory tab then in the bottom right is a section for "Swap used:". If that is zero you are not running out if RAM, so more RAM won't help.

You can check watch it while you launch and run iPhoto also to give you a feel if you are running out of memory.

 

[Elho]

What if that is zero and its still slow? Is it because my iPhoto librabry is too large? Or is it just the MacBook that is too old. (Only 2.0 ghz)

 

[Weaselboy]

What if that is zero and its still slow? Is it because my iPhoto librabry is too large? Or is it just the MacBook that is too old. (Only 2.0 ghz)

The larger the photo library, yes, the slower it will open. Plus an older machine with a hard drive is just always going to be slower launching apps than a newer machine with an SSD. If you hard drive is very close to full, than can slow things also.

How much space are you using on the drive now? You could put a new SSD in there for not too much money and it would really make a difference.

 

[Elho]

i have a 320 gb HDD with 130 gb of free space. My iphoto library is only 50gb large ...

 

[Weaselboy]

i have a 320 gb HDD with 130 gb of free space. My iphoto library is only 50gb large ...

That is actually a fairly large photo library. You might want to try rebuilding the library. That may speed it up. Give these two links a look.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2638

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2511

You could pop a 256GB SSD in there for about $175 and that would really speed things up.

 

[Elho]

hmm okay, thanks for the advice!