2010 mini performance enhancement questions

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Level 2

249 points

2010 mini performance enhancement questions

Hello!

I just wanted to see if anyone had any particular tips in terms of speeding up a 2010 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo mini.

I'm running 10.8.5. I have maxxed out the RAM (12GB 1067 MHz DDR3) and put in an OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD 240 GB. I have a Newer Tech 4GB FW 800 external drive. I'm using and older 20" Mac Cinema Display.

I use Photoshop a lot (right now I'm running version CC) and it works fine but I thought with the 16GB RAM it would be speedier. I'm wondering if it isn't an issue with RAM or if it is the video card (NVIDIA GeForce 320M) and the amount of VRAM (256) it has? If this is someting that will slow down Photoshop's performance, is there anything else I can do to help speed it up (other than buy a new mini? Would my older display cause performance issues? I like this old display, its closer to what my printer gives me than the shiny new displays.

I've searched around on the web but mostly I've found adding more RAM and adding a speedier HD and also cleaning out caches and stuff.

Thanks for any thoughts!

Posted on Apr 16, 2014 5:42 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

benwiggy

Level 4

1,473 points

Apr 16, 2014 5:49 AM in response to jhw1

Cleaning caches does not make things faster: if anything, it makes things slower while the caches repopulate. The age of your monitor has no bearing on speed.

What sort of Photoshop work are you doing? Generally Photoshop work should not cause any modern Mac much bother -- RAM and SSD speed is the main factor.

I used CS6 on a 2009 MacBook (6GB RAM, also SSD) with no problems at all. I haven't tried Creative Cash (and won't).

It's possible that the cause is software. Look through Activity Monitor to see what processes are running high CPU or RAM. Get rid of any unecessary third-party stuff that launches in the background, too.

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Answer 2

jhw1 Author

Level 2

249 points

Apr 16, 2014 5:53 AM in response to benwiggy

Thanks benwiggy, will do!

I do a lot of photomerging and then masking + and often have a lot of layers when making big collages out of said photomerged and maked photos. I dunno, I've just noticed it seeming slower lately when I have more than one file open.

CC actually isn't a terrible thing - I teach photography and for students who can't afford to buy the software for their home computer $10 a month is kind of a lifesaver. I think for professionals though they should give an option to buy the collection outright like they used to.

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