MacBook Pro feels slower than my old MacBook, Is this normal?

[dontwalkhand]

Is this normal? I keep thinking I need more RAM, but 4GB of RAM is the most RAM I have ever had in a computer. But for some reason it does just feel sluggish, more so than my old Core Duo BlackBook. Is this because of Lion, or just an illusion I am unaware of?

I work with Virtual Machines, and running Windows inside of a VM is unbearable at times, but when I restart, it seems to be plenty fast, and I can even keep a Safari window or two open with no issues at all whatsoever. But lately, scrolling would stutter or not go at all, while Windows is running, etc.

This is with Mail.app & Safari open...AND THATS IT.

Also, Time Machine backups seem to like to keep going every time I get home, about 13GB at a time! (I don't even save much stuff during the day, so what is it backing up 13GB each time for?)

 

[thundersteele]

Lion + Safari + VM... more RAM might help.

As far as the backups are concerned... How does the VM handle the images? Is it stored in some sort of binary format? Or maybe it keeps updating the timestamps on some big files? This might create the big backups every time.
With time machine you can exclude certain folders from backups. That might help.

 

[dontwalkhand]

As far as the backups are concerned... How does the VM handle the images? Is it stored in some sort of binary format? Or maybe it keeps updating the timestamps on some big files? This might create the big backups every time.
With time machine you can exclude certain folders from backups. That might help.

I have excluded the entire Virtual Machines folder, and that helped to stop the large backups...Thanks so much .

I use VMWare Fusion, I do not know how their file formats are compared to others.

 

[thundersteele]

I have excluded the entire Virtual Machines folder, and that helped to stop the large backups...Thanks so much .

I use VMWare Fusion, I do not know how their file formats are compared to others.

I have no idea how they do it either. But 13 GB sounded like the size of a Windows installation

 

[miniConvert]

You've paged out 7GB of stuff there, a good indication that you need more RAM.

Bump it up to 8

 

[GuitarG20]

as everyone else has said, upgrade your RAM. that should hopefully speed your MBP up a lot.

 

[Mojo1]

I think that 4GB RAM is simply too little when running Fusion. Lion needs at least 2GB, integrated GPUs use RAM (you didn't specify which Mac you are using) and the virtual PC lives in RAM, so you are asking too much of your current RAM.

If you upgrade to 8GB the GPU will use 512MB RAM instead of 384MB, so there is some benefit graphics-wise but a little more RAM is "borrowed" in the process.

I have a client running Fusion/Windows 7 on a MacMini 2.4 Core2Duo. She is using some heavy-weight medical apps on the Windows side, including Dragon Dictate. No complaints regarding speed or stability during the past year.

Don't base your RAM needs on what worked for you in the past. Current operating systems and apps tend to require more RAM these days, which is why Macs are designed to accommodate a lot of RAM compared to the past.

Since an 8GB upgrade costs between $40-$70 it's a No Brainer to give it a try and see how it works in your situation.