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Q: Mavericks Performance on a Mid-2009 Macbook 5,2

Hi All,

 

I'm thinking about upgrading my Mid-2009 13" Macbook from Snow Leopard to Mavericks, but I'm a little concerned about the performance of a newer OS on an older machine, espcially with so many threads about decreased speed on newer machines.  I'd really like to utilize some of the features in the new OS... Does anyone with similar hardware have any experience with Mavericks?  How has it worked?

 

  Model Name:MacBook
  Model Identifier:MacBook5,2
  Processor Name:Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:2.13 GHz
  Number Of Processors:1
  Total Number Of Cores:2
  L2 Cache:3 MB
  Memory:4 GB
  Bus Speed:1.07 GHz

 

Thanks!

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Dec 5, 2013 12:32 PM

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Q: Mavericks Performance on a Mid-2009 Macbook 5,2

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  • by hands4,Helpful

    hands4 hands4 Dec 5, 2013 1:32 PM in response to sctanner
    Level 4 (2,227 points)
    Dec 5, 2013 1:32 PM in response to sctanner

    I would stay put on your current OS for now.  Mavericks slowed down my late 2009 MacBook. 

     

    I’m testing if more memory and an SSD will gain back the speed.  I’ll post back when I know how this experiment turns out.

     

    After Mavericks slowed down the MacBook I upgraded the memory from 2 GB to 8 GB and that cut the boot time by a factor of three and improved the time to start applications but the system is still slower than before and slower than I would prefer.  I am about to upgrade the disk to an SSD to speed it up some more.  I do not plan to downgraded it from Mavericks and will live with the speed I can I get.

     

    On the other hand my 4 GB MacBook Air with an SSD is runs Mavericks with alacrity.  So it is not the memory size that is the issue, although bigger is better. 

     

    According to Mactracker benchmarks the system performance of these three systems is similar. 

     

    Mactracker benchmarks:

    MacBook Mid 2009:  2742  91%

    MacBook Late 2009:  3245 108%

    MacBook Air Late 2010:  3003 100%

     

    (Note my older MB is rated faster than my MBA.  Go figure.)

     

    So if my MacBook has double the memory of the MacBook Air and is rated with 8% faster system performance then logically the only difference left is the disk vs. the SSD.  However I don’t trust that logic.  I’ll post back when I have installed the SSD.  That won’t happened until next week.

     

    Instead of a small SSD there are new 1 TB Seagate hybrid SSD-disk drives now available for ~$110 to ~$130.  Google "Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch”.  Even if you don’t upgrade to Mavericks you might enjoy the speedup from such an upgrade.

  • by sctanner,

    sctanner sctanner Dec 6, 2013 8:26 AM in response to hands4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 8:26 AM in response to hands4

    Thanks for the insight... It does seem strange that the disk type would make that much difference, but please let me know how it turns out!

  • by Drew Reece,Helpful

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Dec 6, 2013 8:37 AM in response to hands4
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 6, 2013 8:37 AM in response to hands4

    hands4, are these 'clean installs' or are you simply choosing to install over the top of the previous OS?

    (clean install = erase the disk before install).

     

    Many of the people posting to the "Mavericks is slow" threads eventually clean up old software (via EtreCheck reports) and they report the OS is better.

     

    It seems that the new features do not play well with old kernel extensions, startup items and launchd jobs loading into the system level.

     

    sctanner, an EtreCheck report on 10.6 may indicate if you have a lot going on, check out the app.

    http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

     

    I run 10.9 fine on a 2009 iMac with 4GB of RAM.

  • by hands4,

    hands4 hands4 Dec 6, 2013 9:39 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 4 (2,227 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 9:39 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Good points.  I did not perform a clean install on either the MacBook or the MacBook Air.  That is a useful idea.  I plan to do clean install on the MB as I install the SSD.  That will be changing two things at once about speeding it up but since I need to reload the data during the upgrade.

     

    As you suggest, I will use eterecheck before I perform the SSD upgrade.  I expect neither system has the 3rd-party additions that tend to slow down the OS because I have not installed any but a check for that is prudent.

     

    So, so far the 2 GB to 4 or 8 GB memory upgrade clearly makes a difference.  If that is not fast enough for someone’s purposes then I would try a clean install and an SSD, in that order.  So the SSD or SSD-hyrid disk upgrade would be the last option for someone to consider.

  • by Drew Reece,

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Dec 6, 2013 9:57 AM in response to hands4
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 6, 2013 9:57 AM in response to hands4

    Crikey, Apple say 2GB is the minimum supported RAM for 10.9.

    http://www.apple.com/osx/specs/

     

    That seems a bit low to me, 4GB will stay out of swap for most tasks in my experience.

     

  • by hands4,

    hands4 hands4 Dec 6, 2013 10:41 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 4 (2,227 points)
    Dec 6, 2013 10:41 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Drew,

     

    Given your poke, I retested the speed on the MacBook.  The boot time is slower than on my MBA but starting applications is now quite fast and much faster than before the RAM upgrade.  With EtreCheck the only SW I found that I did not expect was TomTom for a GPS system.  Given my new interactivity test I don’t think that matters.  So I will continue with the SSD upgrade to get this system to go as fast as I can but I would not put it on a have-to-upgrade list for Mavericks performance.  I would put the 2 GB to 4, 6, or 8 GB upgrade as an important factor for performance.

  • by sctanner,

    sctanner sctanner Dec 9, 2013 5:59 AM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 9, 2013 5:59 AM in response to Drew Reece

    Thanks Drew Reece,

     

    Sorry for the slow reply... the internet was out this weekend with the bad weather.  I ran the EtreCheck, and I was wondering if you could help me interpret the results?  Thanks for all your help so far - would you reccomend a clean install for 10.9?  Is that what you did on your iMac?

     

    Hardware Information:

              MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)

              MacBook - model: MacBook5,2

              1 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

              4 GB RAM

     

    Video Information:

              NVIDIA GeForce 9400M - VRAM: 256 MB

     

    Startup Items:

              VirtualBox: Path: /Library/StartupItems/VirtualBox

     

    System Software:

              Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549) - Uptime: 0 days 0:23:14

     

    Disk Information:

              FUJITSU MHZ2160BH FFS G1 disk0 : (149.05 GB)

                        (null) (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 200 MB

                        Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 148.73 GB (39.54 GB free)

     

              MATSHITADVD-R   UJ867A

     

    USB Information:

              Micron Built-in iSight

     

     

              Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

     

              Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

     

              Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

                        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

     

    FireWire Information:

     

    Thunderbolt Information:

     

    Kernel Extensions:

              com.sophos.kext.sav          (8.0.4)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp          (4.2.12)

     

    Problem System Launch Daemons:

              [not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist

     

    Problem System Launch Agents:

              [failed] com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist

     

    Launch Daemons:

              [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

              [invalid] com.Affinegy.InstaLANd.plist

              [loaded] com.bradfordnetworks.agent.plist

              [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

              [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

              [failed] com.sophos.autoupdate.plist

              [loaded] com.sophos.intercheck.plist

              [loaded] com.sophos.notification.plist

     

    Launch Agents:

              [loaded] com.Affinegy.InstaLANa.plist

              [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

              [loaded] com.lexmark.bmlaunchd.plist

              [loaded] com.lexmark.lexnetlaunchd.plist

     

    User Launch Agents:

              [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

              [failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

              [loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist

              [not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

     

    User Login Items:

              Garmin Express Service

              iCal

              Stickies

              CSA

              SophosUIServer

              HP Scheduler

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes:

              Flash Player

              Flip4Mac WMV

     

    Internet Plug-ins::

              o1dbrowserplugin: Version: 4.9.1.16010

              Google Earth Web Plug-in: Version: 7.1

              OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin: Version: 12.3.4

              Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.3.6.5

              RealPlayer Plugin: Version: Unknown

              AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.8

              FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6

              Silverlight: Version: 5.1.20513.0 - SDK 10.6

              Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.152 - SDK 10.6

              iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0

              googletalkbrowserplugin: Version: 4.9.1.16010

              npgtpo3dautoplugin: Version: 0.1.44.29 - SDK 10.5

              AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.8

              CouponPrinter-FireFox_v2: Version: Version 1.1.6

              QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.6.6

              SharePointBrowserPlugin: Version: 14.3.9 - SDK 10.6

              JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 13.9.8 - SDK 10.6 Outdated! Update

     

    User Internet Plug-ins::

              Picasa: Version: 1.0

              Unity Web Player: Version: UnityPlayer version 2.6.1f3

     

    Bad Fonts:

              None

     

    Old applications:

              None

     

    Time Machine:

              Information not available

     

    Top Processes by CPU:

                  19%          firefox

                   3%          EtreCheck

                   2%          WindowServer

                   1%          Microsoft Word

                   1%          InterCheck

     

    Top Processes by Memory:

              470 MB          firefox

              135 MB          InterCheck

              94 MB          Microsoft Word

              53 MB          WindowServer

              37 MB          iCal

     

    Virtual Memory Statistics:

              1.71 GB          Free RAM

              940 MB          Active RAM

              830 MB          Inactive RAM

              314 MB          Wired RAM

              143 MB          Page-ins

              0 B          Page-outs

  • by Drew Reece,Solvedanswer

    Drew Reece Drew Reece Dec 9, 2013 5:01 PM in response to sctanner
    Level 5 (7,552 points)
    Notebooks
    Dec 9, 2013 5:01 PM in response to sctanner

    I did a clean install yes. I wanted to see the OS without any old stuff changing it etc. I also know what apps I need to install to get up and running so it's what I will do from time to time.

     

    Cleanup:

    All the usual caveats apply, backup before you modify the system, delete the items (or move them to another disk or folder if you are worried about deleting the wrong thing) but ensure the originals are gone or updated.

    Use the Finders "Go menu > Go to Folder…" when you need to open the hidden ~/Library (your users library).

    Reboot for the system changes to take effect.

     

     

    Kernel Extensions:

              com.sophos.kext.sav          (8.0.4)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt          (4.2.12)

              org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp          (4.2.12)

     

    Virtualbox is a few months out of date, so update that if you want to keep it installed, it runs items in the system level, so it's important to keep it up to date.

     

    I don't use Sophos so I don't know how old that version is. Others have removed it & said the system improved on 10.9. So that is something I would consider removing now and then installing after I have run 10.9 for a while, if it makes a diffrence you can assume it's Sophos. It's also running 3 background jobs, which are at the system level, so it's crucial that is is 10.9 compatible.

    Personally I just use ClamXAV for antivirus, it doesn't have the extra load & tools that Sophos has (there are many threads here debating if AV & 'system utilities' are a good thing on OS X).

     

     

    Problem System Launch Daemons:

              [not loaded] org.samba.winbindd.plist

     

    Problem System Launch Agents:

              [failed] com.apple.Kerberos.renew.plist

    These are a concern, they are Apple jobs that are failing.  I think the services they use will be updated via an upgrade, so they should start working on 10.9.

     

     

    Launchd jobs: several types

    LaunchAgents          - Stored in /Library/LaunchAgents (SYSTEM LEVEL)

    LaunchDaemons       - Stored in /Library/LaunchDaemons  (SYSTEM LEVEL)

    User LaunchAgents   - Stored in ~/Library/LaunchAgents  (USER LEVEL)

     

    Launch Daemons:

              [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

              [invalid] com.Affinegy.InstaLANd.plist

              [loaded] com.bradfordnetworks.agent.plist

              [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

              [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist

              [failed] com.sophos.autoupdate.plist

              [loaded] com.sophos.intercheck.plist

              [loaded] com.sophos.notification.plist

     

    Launch Agents:

              [loaded] com.Affinegy.InstaLANa.plist

              [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

              [loaded] com.lexmark.bmlaunchd.plist

              [loaded] com.lexmark.lexnetlaunchd.plist


    User Launch Agents:

              [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

              [failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

              [loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist

              [not loaded] org.virtualbox.vboxwebsrv.plist

    These are all background jobs, they are not necessarily bad, but if they are loading old code it could be doing untold damage to the performance & stability of the entire OS. Focus on the 'System' level jobs (the ones inside /Library - the system level) also remove ['failed'], non-system jobs.

     

    EtreCheck gives a status on launchd jobs…

    [loaded]                  - a running job

    [not loaded]            - jobs that are set not to run, basically harmless, remove them unless you plan to use the associated software (if it is up to date)

    [failed]                    - jobs in a crashed or unknown state, it could be forking processes or using all the system resources, remove these.

     

    Delete 'com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist' from ~/Library/LaunchAgents (your username has been redacted via EtreCheck)


    If you can figure out those apps, update or remove them via the developers instructions or uninstallers.

     

    User login items:

    Applications and helpers that are managed inside 'Systems Preferences > Users and groups > Login Items tab'.

    These are loaded at the 'User level', consider removing all of them whilst you troubleshoot.  When you decide to re-add them ensure the software is up to date.

     

     

    3rd Party Preference Panes: & Internet Plug-ins:

    /Library/PreferencePanes/ and ~/Library/PreferencePanes/

    /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ and ~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/

    Once again these items all must be up to date, or remove them from your system. If the prefpanes manage additional software use the uninstaller or see the developers site for uninstall instructions. You can also right click to remove 3rd party preference panes in System preferences.

     

    Read the list of Internet plug-ins carefully, there are often duplicate Flash player versions that won't help stability, it's just wasted space too.

    Don't forget to also update Safari's extensions in it's preferences (if you have any).

     

    Re-run EtreCheck after cleaning up to see if items have returned (some apps will reload the background jobs when re-opened, so either update or remove the software).

  • by sctanner,

    sctanner sctanner Dec 10, 2013 2:10 PM in response to Drew Reece
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 10, 2013 2:10 PM in response to Drew Reece

    Thank you so much for the info.  I'll probably try to upgrade during the holiday break, when I have time to do a clean install.  I'll post the results.

  • by hands4,

    hands4 hands4 Dec 10, 2013 11:07 PM in response to sctanner
    Level 4 (2,227 points)
    Dec 10, 2013 11:07 PM in response to sctanner

    I have the results of upgrading the software and hardware on my MacBook.

     

    Summary:

     

    On a late 2009 MacBook, applying a $100 upgrade from 2 GB to 8 GB of RAM delivered good speed on Mavericks, halving the boot time and cutting time to start applications from tens of seconds to a few seconds.  A clean install of OS X after writing zeros to the entire disk would also be prudent.  If one then wants even more speed, an SSD upgrade can improve the speed another 5x for a total improvement of 10x.

     

    Details: 

     

    The benchmark I used was to time booting and then time starting Chrome.  The overall speed improved 10x, from 240 seconds down to 23 seconds.  The memory upgrade doubled the boot speed and starting applications went from slow responsiveness (tens of seconds) to a few seconds.  The SSD upgrade doubled the speed.  A clean install on the SSD increased the speed by another 2.5x for total speedup of 10x.

     

    Interestingly, after the 8 GB upgrade and before the SSD upgrade a clean install of OS X on the disk did not improve the timings.  This included writing a pass of zeros when erasing the disk.  I attribute this lack of improvement to the disk being healthy before the clean install with only 25% of the disk in use.  It indicates that even on a healthy disk, 2 GB of RAM is too small for running Mavericks.

     

    The MacBook with 8 GB of RAM and an SSD now boots 1.4x faster than a MacBook Air with 4 GB of RAM and an SSD.

     

    On Mountain Lion, prior to the Mavericks upgrade, the MB system was slow, but not as slow as after the SW upgrade.  I do not have quantitate Mountain Lion benchmarks.  After upgrading to Mavericks and upgrading the hardware, the MacBook runs with alacrity.

  • by paulonslow,

    paulonslow paulonslow Dec 31, 2013 8:54 AM in response to hands4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2013 8:54 AM in response to hands4

    Hi

     

    I've the same machine but I thought 4GB was the maximum RAM possible. I'm also just about to install an SSD and a clean install of Mavericks

     

    Thanks

  • by hands4,

    hands4 hands4 Dec 31, 2013 9:17 AM in response to paulonslow
    Level 4 (2,227 points)
    Dec 31, 2013 9:17 AM in response to paulonslow

    Here is the OWC (macsales.com) RAM page for a MacBook 5,2.  It specifies 6 GB as the maximum.

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Apple_MacBook/White/2.13GHz

  • by paulonslow,

    paulonslow paulonslow Dec 31, 2013 10:34 AM in response to hands4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2013 10:34 AM in response to hands4

    Thanks, didn't you say you had 8GB though?

  • by sctanner,

    sctanner sctanner May 9, 2014 8:07 AM in response to hands4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 9, 2014 8:07 AM in response to hands4

    Hi hands4,

     

    I'm finally getting around to upgrading my machine (I did the memory a little while ago), and I was looking at pure SSDs vs the Hybrid drives.  Which did you install and would you have any recommendations over which might work better?

     

    Thanks!

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