Q: Too slow.

Your computer does not have "virtual memory." It has RAM and hard drive storage space.

If you want to know what is running on the computer then see:

Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder.  Select All Processes from the Processes dropdown menu.  Click on the Name column header to display in descending order. 

Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory & determine how much RAM is used

OS X Mavericks- About Activity Monitor

Understanding top output in the Terminal

The amount of available RAM for applications is the sum of Free RAM and Inactive RAM. This will change as applications are opened and closed or change from active to inactive status. The Swap figure represents an estimate of the total amount of swap space required for VM if used, but does not necessarily indicate the actual size of the existing swap file. If you are really in need of more RAM that would be indicated by how frequently the system uses VM. If you open the Terminal and run the top command at the prompt you will find information reported on Pageins () and Pageouts (). Pageouts () is the important figure. If the value in the parentheses is 0 (zero) then OS X is not making instantaneous use of VM which means you have adequate physical RAM for the system with the applications you have loaded. If the figure in parentheses is running positive and your hard drive is constantly being used (thrashing) then you need more physical RAM.

Adding RAM only makes it possible to run more programs concurrently.  It doesn't speed up the computer nor make games run faster.  What it can do is prevent the system from having to use disk-based VM when it runs out of RAM because you are trying to run too many applications concurrently or using applications that are extremely RAM dependent.  It will improve the performance of applications that run mostly in RAM or when loading programs.

OS X is based on a concept known as virtual memory.   Virtual memory is built on the combination of physical memory (RAM) for the active parts of the running application programs and also on using disk storage as an overflow area when there is not enough physical memory (RAM) to hold everything.   This is a trade-off, as processor cache memory is really fast and really expensive and small, and RAM is expensive and fast and not all that big, and disk is cheaper and slower and comparatively huge. 

When applications start hitting the disk excessively — that's a part of the implementation behind virtual memory that's called paging or swapping — when the contents of RAM are copied out to disk to make room in RAM for something else, and then when that data is copied back into RAM — then — as you're probably seeking here — offloading applications and freeing RAM, or adding more RAM are typical solutions.   (More technical details of virtual memory on OS X and iOS.)

Etrecheck is usually a good way to get an overview of what's been installed on the system, and then you can decide whether you want the package, and whether you want to have it running.  (Not sure if Etrecheck still works as far back as 10.6, though it's worth a try.)   Etrecheck will look around at the hardware and software and will generate a report with hopefully-obfuscated information, and usually suitable for posting here.  Do make sure there is nothing confidential before posting the data here.  Or whether you want and can afford to and physically can add more RAM — some configurations can add more RAM, some cannot — or if a newer Mac system is in your future.

Post the output from EtreCheck

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

It is very possible you have been running things that claim to help your Mac, and result in spending all your resources.

Also please tell us how you use your Mac, especially when you are noticing that it is running slow.

While it is possible you are having an issue with memory, chances are you are focusing on the wrong thing.  The EtreCheck output ALONG with a description of how you are using your Mac will help us help you figure out what is going on.

Post the output from EtreCheck

<https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6174>

It will give us useful information to help evaluate your system.

The memory usage information you have posted does not show anything unusual.

  1 GB RAM

Editing pictures locks up constantly

Image editing generally requires a lot of memory.  Having only 1GB pushes (exceeds) the limits of what 1GB of RAM can do these days.

You could really benefit from more RAM.  If you go to Crucial.com or MacSales.com, where you input the Mac and which generation, and they will tell you how much RAM you can add, and of course how much it will cost (generally adding RAM is not that expensive these days).  They will also provide pointers to instructions on doing the RAM install.

Get rid of TuneupMyMac:

• Never install any product that claims to "clean up", "speed up",  "optimize", "boost" or "accelerate" your Mac; to "wash" it, "tune" it, or to make it "shiny". Those claims are absurd.
  • Such products are very aggressively marketed. They are all scams.

Follow these instructions: http://www.tuneupmymac.com/uninstall/

BobHarris wrote:

You could really benefit from more RAM.

BobHarris has given you your answer.  Memory.

Virtual memory requires physical memory, and if there's not enough physical memory available, then OS X will be paging all of your programs in and out.  Paging heavily.   Reading in memory from disk storage, after writing out other memory to disk storage to make room, because there's not enough free memory to just keep the data around.  Effectively, your system memory will be running not that much faster than your disk can read and write data, and that's not very fast.

"Buy more memory", as the old saying goes.

If you're planning on keeping this Mac and can afford it (and if it'll fit), then I'd look to upgrade to at least four gigabytes here, and more if it'll fit and you can afford it.   If this Mac is supported by Mavericks and if you're eventually planning to upgrade, then the Mavericks minimum is 2 GB, and that's not really enough for any sort of image processing or related memory-intensive tasks.