IMac starting to slow down
Discussion
Yeah the RAM is probably the main limiting factor. My iMac uses 10GB (out of 32) with just Chrome open, with just 4GB to play with it's going to struggle. Like every OS the thing requires more resources every year.
The SSD upgrade would also be good if you are on a standard hard drive but it's not the easiest thing to do on an iMac. Stick to upgrading the RAM first, Apple made that bit dead easy.
The SSD upgrade would also be good if you are on a standard hard drive but it's not the easiest thing to do on an iMac. Stick to upgrading the RAM first, Apple made that bit dead easy.
jonny70 said:
I have a late 2010 iMac (4gb Ddr3 ram ) and its only used for web browsing/word/excel, recently it's started really slowing down during use /being laggy after an hours use etc
Is there anything I can do to speed up the iMac and make it faster/ more efficient ?
Thanks
What OS are you running?Is there anything I can do to speed up the iMac and make it faster/ more efficient ?
Thanks
Brainpox said:
Yeah the RAM is probably the main limiting factor. My iMac uses 10GB (out of 32) with just Chrome open, with just 4GB to play with it's going to struggle. Like every OS the thing requires more resources every year.
Unixes don't use memory like windows machines do, and given enough time a unix box will use all the ram (in filesystem cache)This is best illustrated by the following.
"Windows sees RAM as a valuable/precious thing and tries to use as little of it as possible. Unixes see RAM as a useful thing and tries to use as much of it as possible".
Usual tricks apply, 4Gb of RAM is generally enough unless you're habitually running a million chrome tabs, or in-design or adobe acrobat, etc. More is always better but won't give you any more cpu speed. It just lets you run more programs with less swapping. SSD is also a great upgrade and if you haven't done it, do it. It's a cheap way of breathing life back into a machine. Finally and this is actually a pain to do on an imac - cooling. Make sure any cooling fans and heatsinks are clear of dust and are doing their job, because an overheated cpu is a slow cpu.
Also - modern operating systems (OPs was a 2010 imac) run more stuff than ones that are 7 years old and will be slower than the old OS was. (if you've updated to the latest and greatest)
gavsdavs said:
Usual tricks apply, 4Gb of RAM is generally enough unless you're habitually running a million twenty chrome tabs,
Source: Pak's best guess.But still, I would put the SSD upgrade first, RAM second. If you can only do one that is.
There's a big chance a 7 year old disk won't keep on spinning...
I'm also using a 2010 iMac, except that I doubled the RAM to 8GB quite a few years ago. I use mine for Photoshop work and some light development, with VMs running etc and yes it is slow, but still usable. How much hard disk space have you got free? Mine noticably slows down with less than 10% free disk space.
.I have a 2008 iMac. Upgraded the HHD to SSD when it started to slow down a bit and now it flies. It only has 4Gb RAM but never needed any more. Does have Sierra on it but not upgraded it to the new one. Don't put Windows on it unless you enjoy problem solving, waiting for updates and all the other pleasures that Windows offers.
My 2011 27" iMac started to slow down earlier this year. It would occasionally take ages to wake up from sleep and then the bluetooth and wifi became flaky, with the mouse pointer stuttering and wifi slowing down in use. IT should still be a fast machine, with a 3.4GHz i7, 16GB of RAM and an SSD.
I thought about it and it occurred to me that after six years I would always have changed the thermal paste on a PC's CPU. I did a bit of googling and found several instances of people with slowing iMacs who had opened them up, found the thermal paste had gone hard and crumbly, replaced it and enjoyed a rejuvenated iMac.
I therefore looked up the ifixit guides and a couple of youtube videos, opened up my iMac (the most annoying thing is the magnets that hold the glass grab at the screws holding in the LCD) , dismantled the iMac and found that, yes, the thermal paste on CPU and GPU was hard and crumbly. I cleaned the surface thoroughly, applied new thermal paste and reassembled it. Now it works perfectly again.
Apart from the afore-mentioned magnets, the myriad cables that need be detached then reattached in reassembly are the worst part. Take photos of every step, because it helps a lot with reassembly. The whole job took under two hours. You can take the opportunity to put in an SSD at the same time. I already had one, but I replaced the Bluetooth and wifi cards with an 802.11ac wifi card and a Bluetooth 4.1 card.
I thought about it and it occurred to me that after six years I would always have changed the thermal paste on a PC's CPU. I did a bit of googling and found several instances of people with slowing iMacs who had opened them up, found the thermal paste had gone hard and crumbly, replaced it and enjoyed a rejuvenated iMac.
I therefore looked up the ifixit guides and a couple of youtube videos, opened up my iMac (the most annoying thing is the magnets that hold the glass grab at the screws holding in the LCD) , dismantled the iMac and found that, yes, the thermal paste on CPU and GPU was hard and crumbly. I cleaned the surface thoroughly, applied new thermal paste and reassembled it. Now it works perfectly again.
Apart from the afore-mentioned magnets, the myriad cables that need be detached then reattached in reassembly are the worst part. Take photos of every step, because it helps a lot with reassembly. The whole job took under two hours. You can take the opportunity to put in an SSD at the same time. I already had one, but I replaced the Bluetooth and wifi cards with an 802.11ac wifi card and a Bluetooth 4.1 card.
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