Do I need to upgrade ram? Apps taking too long to open/close

If memory pressure is green, then RAM is not the problem.

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

If you have a long list of user login/startup items that launch at startup/login, you need to reduce the amount of these to around 6 or so items or less, if possible.

Do you have any unnecessary antivirus installed on your iMac?

Have you updated all of your installed software and updated all connected third party device software and drivers?

Have you updated all of the various web browser plugins you that have installed within your web browser?

Do you use Google apps, like Chrome and Drive?

Ditch ALL Googlewares. They are ALL a serious resource hog on the OS X system.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95319?hl=en

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375081?hl=en

If you do not like Apple's Safari web browser, download, install and try Mozilla FireFox, instead.

The current, up-to-date version of FireFox is fully compatible with OS X and is regularly updated by the great developers of the Mozilla group.

I have, also, stopped using the Google search engine, regularly and use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine.

gnmck wrote:

have early 2009 iMac with 4gb memory, 3.7gb used. running osx 10.9.5. opening and closing apps started taking waaaaay too long today and safari froze up this morning. A simple shut down and re-boot didn't work. Unplugged - didn't work either. Had to reboot holding down alt, command, r, p. Now things are just really slow. macintosh HD has plenty of space, memory pressure is green. Ram is the only thing I have read about that may be the problem.

Do you keep it connected to the internet all the time when powered on - & do you keep Safari open? If so - if you do not use TOP SITES - or even if you do - go through them and remove any sites you don't use or were one shots -- TOPS SITES caused issues with my safari including refreshing RSS feeds I had only gone into twice. Removing all top sites (they do refresh) as the cure for my Safari locking in up --

Please review the article below, and post back with test results.

Using EtreCheck

Is your child using the Google Search Engine or really Google Drive?

Google Drive is Google's cloud data storage service and, yes, it is problematic and an OS X resource hog.

If your child is really using Google Drive, it is best to disable it when it is NOT being regularly used.

Plus, ALL Google softwares mine your usage and personal data on a regular basis when you use any of their apps.

Try using another search engine like from Yahoo OR as I already mentioned, try using the DuckDuckGo web search engine.

You'll end Google's behind the scenes personal data mining.