I'm planning to replace my 2019 iMac within the next month or two, but I was hoping to hand it down to one of my kids.
It's painfully slow, and Etrecheck agrees.
Anything you smart people can see that I can do to improve performance in the meantime?
Thanks!
iMac 21.5″, macOS 14.4
The fundamental problems are that it has only 8GB RAM and a slow 5400rpm Fusion drive. You can add RAM fairly easily but replacing the drive is very difficult. You might consider installing macOS on an external drive connected via one of the Thunderbolt/USB3 ports & migrating your system to the external drive; then boot from the external drive. and just use the internal drive for static file storage.
You are also using Google Chrome, which is a known resource hog. Firefox would be a better alternative. IMHO apps like Zoom, Slack, WhatApp, etc. are also not kind to resource usage. Rakuten Cash Back could be a risk also.
The fundamental problems are that it has only 8GB RAM and a slow 5400rpm Fusion drive. You can add RAM fairly easily but replacing the drive is very difficult. You might consider installing macOS on an external drive connected via one of the Thunderbolt/USB3 ports & migrating your system to the external drive; then boot from the external drive. and just use the internal drive for static file storage.
You are also using Google Chrome, which is a known resource hog. Firefox would be a better alternative. IMHO apps like Zoom, Slack, WhatApp, etc. are also not kind to resource usage. Rakuten Cash Back could be a risk also.
Drive speeds are poor even given that you have a 5400rpm Fusion Drive. This could be the drive itself failing or conditions caused by the software already outlined by MartinR. In addition the Express VPN and TunnelBear VPN processes installed to run on startup should be removed using any uninstaller they provide to test your your drive performance or computer speed improves.
Etrecheck report for painfully slow 2019 iMac
