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Level 2

209 points

Macbook Pro Core i5 Memory Issues

The nitty gritty:

My i5 with 4GB of memory is using more memory to perform the same tasks as my Core Duo. They are the same clock speed.

In general, my laptop is constantly setting at nearly zero free memory, in spite of no major memory consuming applications running.

My wired and active memory add up to more than the real memory being used according to Activity Monitor! I just added up all the real memory usage and got about 1800MB, but Activity Monitor reports 2480MB as wired or active.

3.67GB of 4GB is currently used.

I know that OS X and other Unix systems always have a lot of inactive memory, but my old Core Duo did not do this.

Now, there's all the numbers, and here's the rest:

My laptop feels SLOW. In spite of low CPU usage, it is grinding way too much, and I think it's from having to free memory constantly, because I never have any free memory.

The i5 feels slower than my Core Duo, and that's insane because it benches nearly 20% faster.

I've ran all sorts of hardware tests, repairs and maintenance tools.. to no effect. Have also done SMC/PMU and RPAM resets.

Is anyone else experiencing this?

MacbookPro6,2, Mac OS X (10.6.3), HR Glossy Display

Posted on Jun 14, 2010 8:53 AM

57 replies

digijoel

Level 1

0 points

Mar 16, 2011 10:37 AM in response to iRuney

Hey... where's Apple technical service answering all of our questions???
It seems like we are completely alone on this one!
Come on Apple! I buy you a premium product and when the issues appear it seems like I'm talking with myself here... WE WANT AN ANSWER... and more importantly... A SOLUTION.

brfcjon

Level 1

1 points

Mar 22, 2011 3:07 PM in response to iRuney

Found this thread as I have had the same experience. Really annoyed. This macjine is slower than a bad dell on Vista 3 years ago

Unacceptable!!

Tried to check for malware - nothing, rebooting - no help, etc. etc. etc.

Cant run Powerpoint, CS5 or even webbrowsers without spinning wheels. I safari my screen is often scrambled in all sorts of colors and when I close the window the scrambles are still on the desktop and I have to reboot.

digijoel

Level 1

0 points

Mar 28, 2011 5:18 AM in response to iRuney

I've found a small enhancement to the constant spinning wheel... I've deactivated the "Automatic Graphic Switching" in the Pref Panel... that way I only force the GeForce GT 330m when my laptop is plugged in.
Apparently the 'intelligent mode' wasn't that much intelligent, and sometimes it made the switch constantly, so I guess this could be an answer for the ULTRA LO PERFORMANCE of this MBP.

I also downloaded gfxCardStatus plug in, so I can choose which graphic card to use (In case I wanted to use it without the AC cord).
You can download it here: http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Mar 28, 2011 7:18 AM in response to digijoel

These are user-to-user forums; Apple does not participate in them. We are all just other Mac users volunteering our time. This is explained in the Terms of Use you agreed to when you signed up to post here. Apple provides other channels for direct technical support by Apple employees.

Mar 31, 2011 5:25 PM in response to eww

I have a macbook pro i5 2.53ghz with a 7200rpm hard drive, bought in Jan 2011 and I have to say I am hugely disappointed. My mid 2008 white macbook was half the price and seems twice as fast as this beast I have replaced it with. I've been to the apple store and had them do a reboot, reinstalled osx, but I just get the spinning wheel of death when switching between tabs on safari (which i switched to from Firefox/Chrome thinking that might be the problem). Youtube graphics rendering is a problem, and every time I click between tabs there's a glitch in sound. I've updated flash in case that was a problem but still the problem persists; I have the performance of a £300 windows PC in a £1600 shell with an apple logo on it and I'm baffled as to what's wrong?
Any suggestions?

Apr 1, 2011 12:47 PM in response to iRuney

When I first got my 2011 13" MBP I wasn't totally impressed.. The next day I ordered 2 4GB sticks of memory from Crucial.com... have been happy ever since. Tons of memory to spare. They should just put 8GB as the standard.

Rotorbug

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2011 10:26 AM in response to Rotorbug

Ok, I have switched off automatic graphics switching under Energy Preferences in bth laptop and powered modes. Remember to lock the changes.

This has made the laptop feel a lot crisper, and got rid of the sluggish feel.

Jun 23, 2011 4:45 PM in response to iRuney

I'm still encountering the same issues.

I also believe it is not ram or hdd related as I've swapped both of these out 3 times with different hardware, Clean installs and still having issues.

I've logged 3 calls with Apple so far regarding it where I get told to " restart your machine and clear the PR RAM " All of which we know won't do anything.

I had seen some stuff about the battery indicator light causing issues for people with SSDs and needing to be sheilded. Unsure if it would effect our machines too but could be worth looking into.

http://blog.macsales.com/9754-owc-offers-fix-for-2011-17-mbp-sata-problems

Ideally most of us would like replacement machine that work eh.

Jul 12, 2011 8:26 AM in response to iRuney

Here's what worked for me:

I switched off the Automatic Graphics switching in the Energy Saver section of the System Preferences. Don't forget to hit the 'lock' button or it will reset back to the system defaults.

I then reset the pram.

It looked like Safari uses a great deal of memory in the Activity Monitor. So I switched to Chrome. Similar Webkit browser without the memory hogging.

My Core i5 Powerbook with 4 GB of RAM now moves faster than I thought it could. Haven't seen the spinning beachball in a week.

Hope this helps.

Jul 12, 2011 9:03 AM in response to iRuney

Oops. Replying to my post above this. Zap the PRAM first. Then reset teh Energy Saver settings.

taxipalm

Level 1

4 points

Jul 13, 2011 3:33 PM in response to davidinDenver

How do you zap the PRAM? I turned off the automatic graphics and there seems to be a little improvement. Does anyones 15' i5 make these weird noises sounding like a needle against metal internally intermittently?