Master26A

Q: Does Yosemite Improve or Reduce Performance?

Hi there,

 

I'm a user of a Macbook Pro 15 Retina from 2013, and I'm considering upgrading to Yosemite. Although I do want to upgrade for the new look and features, I do have one major reservation. If Yosemite is going to make my computer less responsive, laggy ect. then I'm going to hugely regret the decision. For me Mavericks is a great OS, and so a performance hit would seriously put me off. Can anyone share some experience they've had with the full version please?

 

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!

MacBook Pro with Retina display

Posted on Oct 17, 2014 5:48 AM

Close

Q: Does Yosemite Improve or Reduce Performance?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 12 of 19 last Next
  • by Zoe Gagnon,

    Zoe Gagnon Zoe Gagnon Nov 12, 2014 9:00 PM in response to Master26A
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 12, 2014 9:00 PM in response to Master26A

    I'm running Yosemite on a mid-2010 white 13'' Macbook which came with 2.4 Ghz Core2Duo processor and 2 GB RAM. It works great! I must say I'm puzzled by all the owners of much better machines out there who report lags and slowdowns on Yosemite, when upgrading from Snow Leopard to Yosemite only made my computer feel snappier and more responsive.

     

    I read several negative reviews before upgrading to Yosemite. I was sure that if owners of recent Macbook Pros had trouble with the latest OS X, my puny Macbook would surely struggle with it too.


    I felt I had to risk the upgrade. Worse come to worse I could always re-install Snow Leopard from the DVD or from Time Machine. But I did take a few steps to insure the best possible install, and in the end it was a success!

     

    So here's what I did to prep my old Macbook:

     

    1. I upgraded from 2 to 8 GB of 1066 RAM, which cost me about 100$ (Canadian). That's quite slow for RAM nowadays, but my computer wouldn't go faster anyway. Even without Yosemite, I was due to upgrade the RAM as I had constant lagging problems when using Safari for more than a couple hours on Snow Leopard.

    2. I did a thorough cleanup of all unwanted media files and useless files and apps on my computer, freeing up roughly half of my small 250GB HDD. A lot of free apps are available to help with such a task. I like Onyx and Sponge (the latter being abandoned and not updated for Yosemite though). Clean my Mac is good too, but perhaps too agressive (you have to double-check what it proposes to toss) and it's not free.

    3. I emptied the trash can which had grown to humongous proportions (seems obvious but nevertheless deserves mention if only not to forget to do it...)

    4. I updated all the apps that I could update and downloaded the OS X Yosemite installer from the App store.

     

    5. I performed overnight a full defragmentation using the app iDefrag. I already owned a licence. Unfortunately it's not free, it runs about 30$. I don't know of any good, free defrag app for OS X, but perhaps there is one out there. Defragmentation is somewhat of a debate among Mac users; some say it's supposed to be useless. I admit I can't go into a really technical argument, but I can and do notice positive results on performance after using iDefrag. I'll say this : unlike PCs, Mac can very well live their entire life without the user performing defragmentation. Macs perform some defragmentation on their own, but I feel iDefrag achieves a more comprehensive result. It better do, when it monopolizes my Mac for hours on end!

    (Notice I downloaded the Yosemite installer first, then did the defragmentation afterwards. This achieved the result of defragmenting the installer, which was separated in 108 pieces beforehand. (The app iDefrag lets you check such details). I don't think this helped with the quality of the install, which should be the same regardless, but it must have helped with the install time. It took my Macbook 52 minutes from start to finish to install Yosemite.)

     

    6. I ran all the maintenance tasks common on a Mac : I repaired the permissions using Disk Utility, I reset the RAM parameters with a reboot, I checked and repaired the disk (it was fine). I even uninstalled Onyx just in case the custom parameters it forced on my Mac could wreak havoc somehow during the install. (I've re-installed it after seeing that Yosemite was running fine and it runs great. In hindsight it was probably useless to uninstall it in the first place).

     

    7. I did a full backup with Time Machine on an external hard drive. (Not a direct help of course but always wise).

     

    8. I enjoyed my prepped Mac for a couple of days, noticing the small improvements here and there. Then I took the plunge and installed Yosemite.

     

    Result : I like Yosemite's performance. It takes longer to boot, but that's not an issue for me and the tradeoff is very appealing : every app I use loads faster and is snappier. It's noticeably better than old Snow Leopard in that regard, even better than when I was running SL on my upgraded, cleaned, fully prepped-for-Yosemite machine. iTunes used to take literally ten times more time to load. Safari never lags anymore, even after I've spent hours streaming videos. I've been obsessively checking Activity Monitor and while I was aghast at the sheer increase in the number of processes on my mac and the RAM they take up, I must say it works. All those little processes are taking up RAM, but they are helping performance and so far my 8 GB have been more than enough to run Safari, iTunes, Scrivener, LibreOffice and a couple of small apps concurrently for a while and without any lagging. To be sure, I'm not a power user. But if my mac can do this, a better mac can do even better.

     

    (Disclosure : I did, as a preventative measure, turn off the transparency effect immediately after the install completed, since so many people had reviewed that their macs had slowed down with Yosemite, but that ticking the Reduce Transparency in System Preferences/Accessibility had helped a lot. I've recently been curious to see if my old Macbook could take on the cool active window transparency that Yosemite features and still be fast and responsive, so I've turned the transparency back on. So far, so good, but I haven't done much more than browsing since trying it.)

     

    Whew! I wrote a lot more than intended. But the essence of what I'm saying is : if you own a computer that's better than a 2010 white 13'' Macbook (it's not even a Macbook Pro!)--and most of you probably do--there must be a way for you to successfully run Yosemite. I could do it and so can you!

     

    Cheers,

    Z

  • by phl0w,

    phl0w phl0w Nov 13, 2014 3:43 AM in response to Zoe Gagnon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 13, 2014 3:43 AM in response to Zoe Gagnon

    Hi there, just wanted to report back after having installed Yosemite on a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro yesterday. My experience concurs with Zoe Gagnon's (and I pretty much prepped my machine the same way - not that it's a panacea of any kind, but a well maintained computer does make sense).

    The installation process took forever, maybe 3 hours, and I was really worried how Yosemite would bottleneck my machine. However, I was pleasantly surprised after it booted onto my desktop. I cannot notice a performance loss compared to Mavericks. On the contrary, it feels snappier. System Preferences for instance is opened nearly instantaneously, what took usually 5-10secs under Mavericks. I also reduced transparency first thing after Yosemite booted, and have 8GB RAM. Booting does take longer, but it wasn't fast on Mavericks to begin with, and I shut down OSX maybe once a month, so that's a non-issue.

    Sure, I didn't do any tests or tried to put load on the machine on purpose, like opening all Apps from dock one after the other and use a stopwatch. Why would I? So, all I can say is that the load my usual daily workflow creates (Safari, Mail, Pages, Messages) seems to be handled better by Yosemite than under Mavericks. The new Safari is a speed demon, really. As soon as my budget allows it, I am going to switch to an SSD, and expect even better performance.

    Thanks again for encouraging me to take the plunge.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Nov 13, 2014 4:23 AM in response to Rescue_2003
    Level 9 (50,392 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 13, 2014 4:23 AM in response to Rescue_2003

    Rescue_2003 wrote:

     

    Yosemite appears to be really slow.

    It's actually very fast.

    Rescue_2003 wrote:

     

    It should not take 10-30 seconds to update a Finder window. 

     

    It doesn't, on my machines running Yosemite opening a Finder window is virtually instantaneous.

     

    Your installation is borked, updates won't fix it, but you can.

  • by Pete Coventry,

    Pete Coventry Pete Coventry Nov 15, 2014 12:21 AM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 12:21 AM in response to Csound1

    I admit I am not a Mac expert. I bought 2 for business after getting annoyed at the way Windows has become and I have a old 2007 Mac Mini which maxed out at 10.7.5 despite being upgraded so I wanted to keep with Apple as this little machine is still going strong as is.


    My machine came with Mavericks and I did the upgrade to Yosemite. My memory went through the floor and I had to keep restarting. Beachball was also more common than expected.

     

    I made a bootable - wiped the HD and did a clean install of Yosemite. This is a late 2013 standard 21.5 so i5 chip 8GB and 1TB. Lovely machine though.

     

    Anyway this was just as bad. So I (thank goodness) got Mavericks back via Internet recovery - but a few minutes a go I saw it hit 7.99 Use memory and it slowed up - It's at 6.87GB as I type this.

     

    I have 3 years Apple Care so I may call and ask what I do. I've like to go back to Yosemite but to be honest, and for me, none of the super features like handoff and making calls/texts through my Iphone 6 worked anyway - so am I best off staying where I am?

     

    My only problem this time is that .DS_Store files are everywhere (every folder and desktop) and when I delete them the just re appear

     

    Pete

  • by Pete Coventry,

    Pete Coventry Pete Coventry Nov 15, 2014 12:37 AM in response to Pete Coventry
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 12:37 AM in response to Pete Coventry

    I have sorted the DS-Store files out and normal service as resumed. I think i will stay with Mavericks for now - I don't see the point in breaking something which is working so well.

  • by Darklykoz,

    Darklykoz Darklykoz Nov 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to Pete Coventry
    Level 2 (215 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 1:03 AM in response to Pete Coventry

    I personally believe you have two very new machines...

     

    Would be an absolute pitty to have bought them in 2013, and run outdated software... Just my 2 cents...

    Its not a bad idea to wait for any bugs to be ironed out by 3rd party apps and update later..

     

    However I think you shouldnt run from the problem.

    Use your apple care... Use the forum...

    If its for bussiness it may even be worth your while to get a professional in.

     

    But essentially you should update at some point and make it work.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Nov 15, 2014 4:25 AM in response to Pete Coventry
    Level 9 (50,392 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 15, 2014 4:25 AM in response to Pete Coventry

    Pete Coventry wrote:

     

    Anyway this was just as bad. So I (thank goodness) got Mavericks back via Internet recovery - but a few minutes a go I saw it hit 7.99 Use memory and it slowed up - It's at 6.87GB as I type this.

    Yosemite and Mavericks manage Ram in a different manner from previous versions of OSX. It is perfectly normal for them to use all the Ram, all the time. (Ram that is unused might as well not be in the Mac)

     

    Ram use is not the cause of your problem.

  • by Pete Coventry,

    Pete Coventry Pete Coventry Nov 15, 2014 2:21 PM in response to Darklykoz
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 2:21 PM in response to Darklykoz

    I bought these both first week of November. I will use the Apple Care to see if it is as good as they claim it to be. I won't run from it and I will upgrade or clean install again soon but right now mavericks is doing a cracking job sat on 4.09GB used with everthing I need open.

     

    Thanks for the advice and tips I will take them on board.

  • by Pete Coventry,

    Pete Coventry Pete Coventry Nov 15, 2014 2:25 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 2:25 PM in response to Csound1

    Okay well when I see I have 10MB Ram left I get the spinning beach ball and the only way to get out of it is to reboot if it's not Ram then god knows.

     

    I will speak to Apple but it's working fine right now. The other machine does have Yosemite on and from what I can tell it does not have the same problem.

     

    Currently with everything open this is what I am on.. and it's working fantastically

     

    http://prntscr.com/56r5un

  • by ZD.C.,

    ZD.C. ZD.C. Nov 15, 2014 2:53 PM in response to Master26A
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 15, 2014 2:53 PM in response to Master26A

    Hi my battery life shrank signficantly after the upgrade, any similar experiences. Have the latest 13inch macbook air

  • by Walry,

    Walry Walry Nov 16, 2014 6:02 PM in response to ZD.C.
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 16, 2014 6:02 PM in response to ZD.C.

    I also had issues with the battery draining much quicker. I went back to Mavericks and all is fine again.

  • by Joe805,

    Joe805 Joe805 Nov 17, 2014 10:14 AM in response to Master26A
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 17, 2014 10:14 AM in response to Master26A

    I have a new iMac 27", my gf has a "core 2 duo" 20"

     

    No problems with OS 10.10 for me- but a real sh•t storm of slow for her. She's got 3 gigs of ram, which may be part of the problem, but I want to find out the easiest way to go back to her old OS without doing a clean reinstall overwrite? Or is there a better fix?

    Thanks for any help

    Joe

  • by Zanaelf,

    Zanaelf Zanaelf Nov 17, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Joe805
    Level 1 (28 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 17, 2014 12:18 PM in response to Joe805

    A reinstall is the only way back unfortunately.... but if you have a time machine backup before the upgrade to that ridiculous two dimensional memory hog atrocity of an operating system, It would help you a lot of effort., But files and things you saved and done after the time machine restore, need to be backed normally on a thumb drive, or separate partition on your portable HDD, or SD Card.

     

    To restore your system to Factory restore or latest large Time Machine backup, reboot your computer, after the tone is played on your mac , hold down the alt key  this would give a selection of boot devices , such as your mac OSX or Bootcamp windows, etc... select the restore , and from there you choose time machine backup restore or factory restore. If your mac came with the flat 2D  windows 8,10 like atrocity known as Yosemite installed when yu ordered your mac. You would then have to make a bootable install drive from mountain lion or Mavericks , erase your hard drive and start afresh. Thats if you do not wish to have Yosemite.

  • by Pete Coventry,

    Pete Coventry Pete Coventry Nov 18, 2014 2:25 PM in response to Zanaelf
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 18, 2014 2:25 PM in response to Zanaelf

    I was lucky as I bought it with Mavericks I could do an internet recovery. I'm staying on Mavericks are 90% of the features like handoff and stuff didn't work for me anyway .

  • by Rescue_2003,

    Rescue_2003 Rescue_2003 Nov 18, 2014 2:44 PM in response to Master26A
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Nov 18, 2014 2:44 PM in response to Master26A

    I did a clean install after erasing, as recommended by others here, and performance improved. No more slow Finder, etc.  Too bad that takes hours to do (1.5 hr to zero drive, 2 hr to install 10.10, and 3 hr to restore from a Time Machine backup).  It would have been better if the original upgrade from Mavericks had resulted in good performance, without having to do a complete clean install.

first Previous Page 12 of 19 last Next