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OS X Mavericks - Awful Performance

Well, here we go again...


Apple releases an updated OS and it turns my Mac which is less than a year old into an underperforming little box of frustration for no apparent reason. I installed Mavericks last night and the overall performance of my system has taken an absolute nosedive. Seemingly every operation (booting up, launching apps, playing video/audio, browsing the filesystem, etc) is noticably slower. I really don't feel like this should be the case considering the hardware I am running on which is listed below:


Mac mini (late 2012):

2.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7

8GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB

1TB Fusion Drive


I literally got this thing (maxed out on specs and $$$) less than a year ago and already Apple's awesome OS update has already devalued it. Is this the strategy these days? Release OS updates that run like crap on hardware that isn't even a year old in order to force people to keep purchasing newer hardware? All of a sudden a system that left nothing to be desired in terms of performance is now exhibiting early-2000s behavior that includes stuttering video/audio, spinning beach balls galore, and apps that sit and bounce in the dock 15 times before it even launches and becomes useable.


Is anyone else seeing this stuff? The memory and CPU useage on my system looks fine to me so it's tough for me to just blame a bad install for all of this. I can't see any reason why it's performing so badly now given all of the features Apple bragged about that are supposed to speed up your system (App Nap, Compressed Memory, OpenCL, etc). This is worse than going from Snow Leopard to Lion, IMHO.


Apple - You can keep your Maps app, tabbed Finder, and the annoying notifications flashing in my face every two seconds if it means that my system will be able to perform well again. I want my system back.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 9:49 AM

Reply
277 replies

Nov 29, 2013 12:22 PM in response to markr010001

I find it faster. On all my Macs. Others have it show up all the third party rubbish they have carried over from older OSXs. If you are running an older OSX you will need to post in the appropriat forum. You an also use Google if you wish. Or search these threads. Your question has been answered over many times before. Also stop thread jumping and open your own thread as you have gone off topic.


Cheers


Pete

Nov 29, 2013 12:28 PM in response to petermac87

Everyone should understand that petermac87 can't stand that many of us are experiencing much slower Macs with OS 10.9. If doing nothing but upgrading to Mavericks caused our Macs to run much slower, than something is different in Mavericks from OS 10.8 and 10.7 that is causing it.


I removed every app that a few people on this thread suggested might be causing the slowdown, and nothing changed.

Nov 29, 2013 1:15 PM in response to Joe Seidler

Joe, the point is that many people have old software that is causing these issues. Did you use EtreCheck or System Profiler or something else to see what was installed & actively running on your system?


It's likly that the combination of installed software is specific to your Mac, so following the recommendations may not get everything that can be slowing your Mac. Post a new thread with a system report if you want to be sure nothing is actually left running. It also helps if you describe the symptoms.

Nov 29, 2013 1:34 PM in response to Drew Reece

Yes, I used EtreCheck and removed all of the Apps some of you thought might be a problem (I really spent some time doing this). I did not see any difference. I did post my final EtreCheck on a separate thread, but I don't think I got any replies.


The combination of installed software may be specific to my Mac, but it is quite clear to me that under OS 10.7 and 10.8, my Mac ran faster than it does now after upgrading to 10.9. So something in 10.9 is different than the previous OS's. If Apple made Mavericks much more sensitive than 10.7 and 10.8 to something(s), it sure would be helpful if they gave us a general list.


My symptoms are at startup; startup of the computer and of any app. That is, when I start my Mac Pro (2008), after the screen finishes displaying everything, it "freezes" with a lot of disc thrashing. Under 10.7 and 10.8, this happened and lasted perhaps a 5 seconds. With 10.9, it lasts about 30-60 seconds. This "disc thrashing and computer freezing" also happens when I launch any app. For example, under 10.7 and 10.8, when I launched iPhoto, after it displays the photos, it would take about 5 seconds before it would respond to anything (I always thought it was Faces doing its thing). With 10.9, it now takes about 30+ seconds before iPhoto will respond to any mouse directions. Once an app is running, it seems to run about the same as always.


This "disc thrashing and freezing" happens when launching any app (e.g., Word, iMovie, etc.) This has slowed down my efficiency a lot since I am starting and quitting apps often.

Nov 29, 2013 2:19 PM in response to petermac87

I did check you profile eariler Joe & I couldn't see a report which is what compelled me to ask. That might explain why you got no replies!

https://discussions.apple.com/profile/Joe%20Seidler


Your symptoms need to go in a new thread if you want to troubleshoot it.

Obviously it would be a good idea to verify & repair the boot disk in recovery mode (back up first) because disk thrashing could be a sign of a disk in distress.

Jan 23, 2014 5:08 PM in response to Drew Reece

I have two macs, upgraded both, and one was noticably faster while the other was significantly slower. I've tried several things to try and resolve it, without much luck. Or rather, doing anything that requires a reboot seems to resolve it until enough time passes and/or the computer has been asleep and reawakened, and the performance problem came back. It seemed pretty clearly related to memory, as I could get a temporary performance boost back by exiting memory-hog applications.



Finally, I disabled Speech and Dictation support which was only enabled on the slow mac. That seems to have solved the problem.

Jan 23, 2014 6:38 PM in response to simonotto

Instead of ranting, raving and whining, why don't you start a new thread discussion and post your Mavericks performance issues, so more experienced contributors can help you sort out your Mac issues.

Most problems with Mavericks start with users installing needless antivirus software, crap "cleaning" and "tune-up" style software that isn't needed and can cause performance issues, Mavericks incompatible, non-updated third party hardware drivers and third party software.

OS X Mavericks - Awful Performance

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