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Swift1113 Author

Level 1

0 points

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

277 replies

Oct 25, 2013 3:44 PM in response to Swift1113

I'm having similiar problems, seeing weaker performance compared to ML. I am getting the beach ball for a split second every 15 mins or so. It is quick but I can see it.

Performance is generally just bad.

John Galt

Level 10

146,576 points

Oct 25, 2013 3:53 PM in response to NNeeiiLLL

Hi NNeeiiLLL

Please start a new Discussion and include your system details. Thanks!

Oct 26, 2013 8:48 AM in response to Brian Campbell3

Tank you after i check the console i saw that a software call "contr. alt delete" was

the problem so i delete it and now after 24 hr everything seem ok.

Oct 26, 2013 9:10 AM in response to yvondelavalqc

how yo figure out that this is the problem? it show errors? what a name of the program? can you please just copy past it.

had you previously long booting time?

thanks in advance.

Oct 27, 2013 12:31 PM in response to Swift1113

i have the same problem on my macbook air, had you tried MacKeeper or CleanMyMac2?

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,800 points

Oct 27, 2013 12:32 PM in response to ElectroMac74

If you are using them, they are likely the problem.

Oct 27, 2013 12:32 PM in response to ElectroMac74

Either one of those will only make the performance worst.

Allan

Oct 27, 2013 12:39 PM in response to Allan Eckert

NO they are expensive, they may help, my macbook air boot in 50s which is a lot for an SSD, may something is broken. if your mac is slow at start up too, the solution may be in "slow boot forum" independant from OS X version

Barney-15E

Level 10

116,800 points

Oct 27, 2013 12:43 PM in response to ElectroMac74

They are expensive, but they will not help.

Oct 27, 2013 1:30 PM in response to Barney-15E

you're right, CleanMyMac offer 500MB of files removing, it was enough for me, it doesn't help.

i think we should look for "slow boot time" on the forum, it may help

John Galt

Level 10

146,576 points

Oct 27, 2013 3:52 PM in response to ElectroMac74

ElectroMac74 wrote:

you're right, CleanMyMac offer 500MB of files removing, it was enough for me, it doesn't help.

I am not certain if you understand the comments others made about CleanMyMac.

Using CleanMyMac is likely to result in system corruption and may explain the problems you described in this post: Mavericks too slow

I recommend you erase your system and rebuild it. Replacing a PRAM battery won't fix the problems that may have resulted from using CleanMyMac to perform amateur brain surgery on your Mac.

Oct 27, 2013 3:54 PM in response to John Galt

thanks

i have to stop believing the ads and wait for my battery.

Oct 28, 2013 1:09 AM in response to Swift1113

Yep. Mountain Lion was blazing on my late 2012 iMac i5 27 incher and after Mavs... slow.

I open up my hard drive on the desktop, and the window is blank and in the lower right corner its doing that little spin thing icon... as if I'm loading a server I'm like what the???

Saving a document to a location is also a waiting game.

I'm in the Finder and I create multiple fresh untitled new folders with command-shift-n and there's a lag, I mean c'mon!

I'm seriously thinking of reverting to Mountain Lion.

This is my home mac and I have my other iMac at work, NO WAY am I going to install Mavericks on my workhorse 2010 iMac 27 i3... NO WAY.

sjordi

Level 1

128 points

Oct 28, 2013 1:16 AM in response to Swift1113

Well,

awful for me too.

Macbook Air 2012 4Gb RAM..

Clean install result:

Startup time to login screen with ML: 9s then 2 sec to be able to work

Startup time to login screen w Maverick: 67s then 17 sec to be able to work

Memory management? Disaster.

I use VMWare Fusion 6 to run a Windows 8 machine, using 2.5Gb RAM

ML: Can use it most of the time. Memory always available.

Mav: Can use it only if I run it first. If I open Macmail or Safari, exit them, then run the terminal, send the "purge" command, I can't use VMWare Fusion anymore. It tells me that only 1.9Gb of RAM is available.

What about the gloat that 4Gb "feel like" 6Gb thanks to memory compression algorithms? Should I enable it somewhere or is it native?

Anyway, answers are just for the beauty of the science, I reverted my two mac to Mountain Lion wihtout hesitations.

Oct 28, 2013 1:45 AM in response to sjordi

i saved novabench results of my old macbook air 2010:

Air 2010 Core2duo Mountain lion 288

Air 2011 i5 Mavericks 225

thanks Cupertino!

i hear the start up sound 8seconds after releasing the power button! had you experienced the same?

OS X Mavericks - Awful Performance