Mac mini M1 sluggish

[tillathenun]

I bought the Mac mini M1 the moment it was launched. It clearly looked far more capable than the 2017 MacBook Pro 13" I've been using.

I'm finding it's extremely slow though, to the point where I want to throw it out the window. Even more so because so often it doesn't wake from sleep. And the Bluetooth issues causing stuttering. Going from one app to another (native ones) can be very slow.

Luckily I kept the laptop so I can use that when the Mac mini inevitably locks up for a few minutes.

My big mistake is that I should have configured it with 16GB RAM so I understand it's using swap memory a lot, but just looking at the disk usage blows my mind. It's been on a week and yes, probably needs to be restarted but should I really have to?

Bottom line is, I'm kicking myself for falling for the hype. I thought it'd be a pro machine and it clearly isn't.

So yes, I know I should have configured with 16GB but do the figures in the screenshot look right to you?!

 

[chabig]

I think it would be more helpful to see the CPU tab to figure out what's causing your machine to be slow.

 

[tillathenun]

I think it would be more helpful to see the CPU tab to figure out what's causing your machine to be slow.

That would have helped! It’s always kernel_task although the Mac manages to run like treacle even with that only at 20%.

 

[mi7chy]

It helps to have the complete picture with Disk tab by descending bytes written and also include Memory tab so we can see the swap usage. Kernel_task seems to be the aggregate bytes written from all the processes but the numbers don't add up from the screenshot provided. There's phantom writes unaccounted for.

 

[SuperMatt]

If you’re trying to manage a “pro” workload on a machine with 8GB, you’re gonna be disappointed. Still, your results even with 8GB sound anomalous to me… try calling Apple support.

 

[alien3dx]

restart it. and close all apps first

 

[dogslobber]

Disable spotlight.