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Resolved Slow Mid-2013 Air

L

LovelyPenguin

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 15, 2013
15
0
Hi all,

I own a Mid-2013 Air with i5, 8GB RAM, 128 SSD.

It's been almost 2 years with it. Recently, it's become somewhat slow. Usually, I have two Firefox browsers - one in private mode - with around 10 tabs open, Spotify client, one or two documents - Words or PDF, several Finder windows, Calender app, Reminders app, and sometimes Windows on VMware. Even though I use VMware, I believe 8GB RAM should be enough.

I feel like it is more likely to be slow when (1) VMware is open, (2) after sleep. When I reboot, with the same set of programs concurrently open, it's not as slow.

Any thoughts?
Thanks!
 
LovelyPenguin said:
Hi all,

I own a Mid-2013 Air with i5, 8GB RAM, 128 SSD.

It's been almost 2 years with it. Recently, it's become somewhat slow. Usually, I have two Firefox browsers - one in private mode - with around 10 tabs open, Spotify client, one or two documents - Words or PDF, several Finder windows, Calender app, Reminders app, and sometimes Windows on VMware. Even though I use VMware, I believe 8GB RAM should be enough.

I feel like it is more likely to be slow when (1) VMware is open, (2) after sleep. When I reboot, with the same set of programs concurrently open, it's not as slow.

Any thoughts?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Can you run Activity Monitor and look at the CPU and memory tabs in particular and see if you have any unexpected processes using CPU time or if you're experiencing memory pressure (yellow in the memory pressure graph)?
 
motrek said:
Can you run Activity Monitor and look at the CPU and memory tabs in particular and see if you have any unexpected processes using CPU time or if you're experiencing memory pressure (yellow in the memory pressure graph)?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I often check Activity Monitor, and all the top processes that consume CPU and memory are what I'm running. There is no other unexpected apps running. Also, the memory pressure rarely stretches beyond the half-point.

I have no idea as to where these occasional lags come from...

Thanks.
 
It seems Firefox is the problem. I refreshed it, and now it's much better. My problem seems to have been solved, at least temporarily. Thanks!
 
Firefox is as big a memory hog as Chrome is, maybe bigger. It makes my machine run hot by taxing the CPU.
 
JBat said:
Firefox is as big a memory hog as Chrome is, maybe bigger. It makes my machine run hot by taxing the CPU.
Click to expand...
May I ask what browser you're using then?
When I'm running Firefox, I don't see a high level of memory pressure, at least in Activity Monitor. Wonder if it's in fact sucking all the memory.
 
hi

my wife's macbook air 2013 is the core i7. we are not noticing any lag using either 10.10.3 or 10.10.4.

the mid-2013 spec models differ as below:

Processor Intel Core i5 or Core i7 (4250U, 4650U) ("Haswell")
Processor Speed 1.3 GHz (Core i5) or 1.7 GHz (Core i7)
Cache 3 MB (1.3 GHz) 4 MB (1.7 GHz) shared L3

the rule of thumb that i have used during the last few years when buying laptop macs is:
if you only need it to last for 2 to 3 years, then buy the slower processor but still max out on memory
if you want it to last 4 to 5 years, then max out on both processor and memory.
 
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niji said:
hi

my wife's macbook air 2013 is the core i7. we are not noticing any lag using either 10.10.3 or 10.10.4.

the mid-2013 spec models differ as below:

Processor Intel Core i5 or Core i7 (4250U, 4650U) ("Haswell")
Processor Speed 1.3 GHz (Core i5) or 1.7 GHz (Core i7)
Cache 3 MB (1.3 GHz) 4 MB (1.7 GHz) shared L3

the rule of thumb that i have used during the last few years when buying laptop macs is:
if you only need it to last for 2 to 3 years, then buy the slower processor but still max out on memory
if you want it to last 4 to 5 years, then max out on both processor and memory.
Click to expand...


Hi, thanks for your reply. I recently noticed that indeed the occasional lags are due to sudden peaks of CPU usage. I thought the both CPUs wouldn't give a difference in speed, but it in fact does.

I thought, 8g memory with ssd would just do the job. My mistake.
Next time I buy a laptop, I will keep in mind that unlike others say, CPU could matter.
 
dollystereo said:
The speed difference between the i5 and i7 in the U-series processors is almost negligible.
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Many argue that two CPUs don't give much of a difference, but I wish I had a i7 now, at least to see if the lags I come across quite often would also happen.
 
LovelyPenguin said:
Hi, thanks for the reply.

Many argue that two CPUs don't give much of a difference, but I wish I had a i7 now, at least to see if the lags I come across quite often would also happen.
Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by "two CPUs."

Do you think the i7 has two chips, or processors, or CPU cores, whereas the i5 only has one?

Because that's not right. The i5s and i7s in MacBook Airs are both single-chip, dual-core processors.

In fact they are really almost literally identical except for some clock speed differences.

The i7 will be some small percentage faster, around 20%. So if you are noticing lags, then those lags would only be 20% shorter. So the lags will only be 20% less annoying and not 100% less annoying.
 
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motrek said:
I don't know what you mean by "two CPUs."

Do you think the i7 has two chips, or processors, or CPU cores, whereas the i5 only has one?

Because that's not right. The i5s and i7s in MacBook Airs are both single-chip, dual-core processors.

In fact they are really almost literally identical except for some clock speed differences.

The i7 will be some small percentage faster, around 20%. So if you are noticing lags, then those lags would only be 20% shorter. So the lags will only be 20% less annoying and not 100% less annoying.
Click to expand...


Hi, sorry for the confusion. I meant there is a difference between the two CPU models - i5 and i7. And it seems the i7 would also give a lag, but it would be shorter.

Anyway, I'm okay with this machine, and will stick to it. Just wanted to know some other folks are having similar issues. :)
 
It's software related, not hardware. I wipe my Mac's every year, and install everything fresh. It takes about a day, but it's worth it for the rest of the year.
 
Virtual Machines definitely slow down the computer, since it has to juggle resources for two operating systems at the same time. I have a 2012 Air with 8gb ram to (computationally, about the same as the 2013, just not as power efficient). I think the main problem is Yosemite not being fully baked. I've been running the Public Beta of 10.11 and my Air just flies in a way it hasn't since Mavericks was on it.
 
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