Macbook Pro slow and using virtual memory

[bwnny]

Hi all,

I updated my Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 to Yosemite as soon as it came out and it was fantastic. Everything was faster, sharper and more beautiful.

Unfortunately, in the last month or so, I have noticed my laptop becoming increasingly slow and the battery never lasts over 1 and a half hours either.

I checked activity monitor and found that all my memory is being used and even 'virtual memory' is taking another 4.26gb. I was wondering if you would know of any reason that virtual memory is being used and how to get my laptop back to normal.

Your help is much appreciated!

 

[yjchua95]

Hi all,

I updated my Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 to Yosemite as soon as it came out and it was fantastic. Everything was faster, sharper and more beautiful.

Unfortunately, in the last month or so, I have noticed my laptop becoming increasingly slow and the battery never lasts over 1 and a half hours either.

I checked activity monitor and found that all my memory is being used and even 'virtual memory' is taking another 4.26gb. I was wondering if you would know of any reason that virtual memory is being used and how to get my laptop back to normal.

Your help is much appreciated!

What were you doing at that time swap was heavily used?

You may want to consider upgrading your RAM and using an SSD. An SSD will do wonders.

PS - if you're using Chrome, trash it. Chrome is a resource hog.

 

[snaky69]

Hi all,

I updated my Macbook Pro 13" Late 2011, 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 to Yosemite as soon as it came out and it was fantastic. Everything was faster, sharper and more beautiful.

Unfortunately, in the last month or so, I have noticed my laptop becoming increasingly slow and the battery never lasts over 1 and a half hours either.

I checked activity monitor and found that all my memory is being used and even 'virtual memory' is taking another 4.26gb. I was wondering if you would know of any reason that virtual memory is being used and how to get my laptop back to normal.

Your help is much appreciated!

How much RAM do you have?

Your battery is 4 years old, going on 5, it's nearing it's end of life, no surprises there really.

If you still have a mechanical hard drive, those tend to slow to a crawl before eventually kicking the bucket. Looks like yours is about to do so. I hope you have a recent backup handy, and if you don't, give yourself a sharp whap at the back of the head then make one ASAP. Data recovery is often very expensive and not always successful.

 

[T5BRICK]

I checked activity monitor and found that all my memory is being used and even 'virtual memory' is taking another 4.26gb. I was wondering if you would know of any reason that virtual memory is being used and how to get my laptop back to normal.

Take a look at your activity monitor and see what processes are using memory.

There is no reason to upgrade to a SSD if you need more RAM. It won't fix the problem, it'll just make it less obvious.

 

[bwnny]

Yeah, understand the situation with the battery and how that is probably going to go soon.

Im not really sure that my hard drive is about to go though. I am still finding it quite fast, although, is that not any indicator? Could it still go anytime soon.
I do have a 1tb Seagate External Drive which I backup my laptop to.

By way, thanks to everyone for all their help and speedy replies!

As for the RAM, here is a screenshot: (I only have 4gb and thinking of upgrading. Do you suggest 8 or 16gb?)

 

[yjchua95]

Yeah, understand the situation with the battery and how that is probably going to go soon.

Im not really sure that my hard drive is about to go though. I am still finding it quite fast, although, is that not any indicator? Could it still go anytime soon.
I do have a 1tb Seagate External Drive which I backup my laptop to.

By way, thanks to everyone for all their help and speedy replies!

As for the RAM, here is a screenshot: (I only have 4gb and thinking of upgrading. Do you suggest 8 or 16gb?)

Well you don't know whether the hard drive is fast or not until you benchmark it with Blackmagic. You don't need more RAM, your RAM usage is quite low.

A regular HDD should perform around 80-100MB/s, while a SATA3 SSD should perform around 400-500MB/s. You have no idea how fast an SSD is until you buy one and use it. My old 2011 15" MBP boots up in just 11 seconds with a 512GB Samsung 840 Pro.

 

[T5BRICK]

As for the RAM, here is a screenshot: (I only have 4gb and thinking of upgrading. Do you suggest 8 or 16gb?)

Your memory pressure is fine, I wouldn't worry about upgrading your RAM.

What exactly is slow when you're using your MBP?

 

[bwnny]

What does the virtual memory mean then?

Loading applications and programs are extremely slow. Also Safari and general multitasking. What do you think i need to do? (If there is anything i can)

 

[yjchua95]

What does the virtual memory mean then?

Loading applications and programs are extremely slow. Also Safari and general multitasking. What do you think i need to do? (If there is anything i can)

Don't worry about virtual memory. The only relevant graph is the memory pressure.

What you really need is an SSD. You have more than enough RAM.

 

[bwnny]

Alright, thanks. I will start looking around at new SSDs. Any you would recommend?

 

[yjchua95]

Alright, thanks. I will start looking around at new SSDs. Any you would recommend?

Crucial makes some good SSDs. Samsung ones are pretty good, but they have TRIM issues with UNIX-based OSes (and that includes OS X).

I'd recommend the Crucial BX100 for you, or if you can splurge a bit more, the MX100/200 will be nice too.