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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 3, 2013 10:35 AM in response to John Galt

Yo John. Do you know if there was some upgrade on the most common performance issues we're getting from Mavericks? I'm talking about ocasional (HUGE! Up to 5 seconds) typing lag and slow system responses on relatively new Mac computers.


Mavericks is such a nice system but its disheartening to watch my computer slowing into a crawl.

Nov 3, 2013 10:47 AM in response to ulzeraj

We need more info about your iMac other than "My iMac is running slow."


What year, screen size, CPU speed and amount of RAM installed?

To find out info about your system, click on the Apple symbol in the upper left of the OS X main menu bar. A drop down menu appears. Click About this Mac. A smaller popup window appears. This gives you basic info like what version of OS X your iMac is running, the speed of your iMac's CPU and how much RAM is installed. Click on the button that says More Info. A larger window appears giving you a complete overview of your iMac's hardware specs. Highlight all of this info and copy/paste all of this into another reply to this post, editing out your iMac's serial number before actually posting the reply. This will tell us everything about your iMac so we may begin to help with your iMac issues.


How full is your Mac's hard drive?

Locate your iMac's hard drive icon on the OS X desktop. Click the icon once, then use the keyboard key combination Command-I. This will give you additonal info about your iMac's internal hard drive.


How many applications do you run simultaneously in the background while working in another application?

Do you run any antivirus software on your Mac? Antivirus software can slow down the normal operation of OS X.

Do you run any "crapware" like Mackeeper or any other type of "crapware" like so called hard drive "cleaning" apps?


Another her possibilty is that some of your iMac's hardware, like your iMac's hard drive, could be failing.

Nov 3, 2013 1:14 PM in response to Swift1113

I wonder if you're seeing errors in system.log relating to 'unable to bring application xxx to foreground'.


This seems to cause beachballing in OSX.


I'm come to conclusion that Mavericks and Server 3 is a beyond a joke; a format and reinstall is the only answer, before heading down to the Windows store.


At which point the 1990s have called and we're back to Windows.


Amazingly, Apple have dragged Unix into a Windows-class mess. Apple did this crap with ML and SL, they don't learn.

Nov 3, 2013 1:50 PM in response to Swift1113

Hi,


my 2011 MacBook Pro is also very unresponsive. No excessive CPU usage, no excessive disk activity (yes, spotlight's finished indexing), but even clicking on the menu bar results in a lag of a second or so, which is absurd. Even opening Contacts takes about 5 to 7 seconds (with about 100 contacts, it's not as though it's loading a huge database). Disk Utility finds no errors (fixed some minor permissions issues without effect). It was an upgrade (not erase and install), from Snow Leopard. Standard 2011 15", 4GB RAM.


It worked perfectly in Snow Leopard, and at this stage, I regret "updating".

Nov 3, 2013 2:12 PM in response to Barney-15E

for free? you're funny or...


As for complaing, suck it up, Apple have screwed up with this release, and wasted a lot of my time, which is not free or really for wasting on here going in circles with people who can't do anything useful as they're not 'paid' or in position to influence.


The people who can do something about this, eg. the engineers need to hear that they've made a mess of Mavericks, heck all the Beta versions of Mavericks (I'm a dev so that suck that too) worked better than the GM.


I don't have the time to raise a RADAR, I don't get paid to fix Apple's software problems. Apple's employees do.

.

Nov 3, 2013 2:14 PM in response to Drew Reece

Users such as Coffeebreath do not seem to wish to fix their issues, regardless of the fact that millions and millions of Maverick users are having no issues. They wish only to go on anti-Apple rants and yet refuse to post details they are asked for out of the fear and embarrasment of finding out that it is most likely caused by their own third party installs. Others have been asked also and dissapear quickly from the forums. Other post what is asked and solve their issues almost immediately.


Cheers


pete

OS X Mavericks - Awful Performance

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