Really poor performance on iMac - swap is out of control

Question

I&#x27;ve got a Late 2015 iMac (4GHz i7, 16GB RAM), which I expected to be really powerful. Actually, in benchmark tests, it did slightly better than my old 2009 Mac Pro! However, I&#x27;m really disappointed with the performance I&#x27;m getting out of it. I&#x27;m trying to figure out if it&#x27;s the computer itself, or Adobe Creative Cloud.So, the pattern I&#x27;ve noticed is that swap RAM tends to go way up even before the system has come close to exhausting the 16GB of hardware RAM. I&#x27;ll run the htop command to watch the memory stats, and after a clean reboot, swap is at 0 or close to it. Working in Photoshop for a while, the swap starts to go up and eventually goes as high as 12GB, even though—like I mentioned before—the hardware RAM is still significantly below 16GB.I put Photoshop in low-res mode (so it doesn&#x27;t run in retina), and this helps quite a bit. The iMac can run maybe 3-4 days longer before swap is up at 10-12GB and everything on the computer starts running more slowly.This is extremely frustrating, and I&#x27;m not sure what to do about it. I don&#x27;t know i

cdhw · Answer

OS X uses a sophisticated memory management strategy that a lot of traditional unix utilities don&#x27;t quite understand. In particular, it compresses inactive memory pages and fills up unused RAM with performance-enhancing caches. My guess is that the RAM that is reported as unused by htop is really being used but for one of these &#x27;unconventional&#x27; purposes. What does Activity Monitor say about the utilisation of memory?Adobe software has always been a memory hog. There seems to be law that that has existed from the earliest days of Photoshop that says that, regardless of how much RAM you have, Adobe&#x27;s software will fill it and start the system swapping. Try the Adobe forums for advice on tuning.C.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

Activity Monitor reports the same amount of swap being used as htop. The thing is, on my Mac Pro (64GB RAM), swap is almost always close to zero (currently it&#x27;s at only 284MB, and my machine hasn&#x27;t been rebooted for 2 weeks). I could bump the iMac up to 32GB RAM, but I&#x27;m not sure if that would solve it. The Memory Pressure meter in Activity Monitor looks totally fine, so the machine isn&#x27;t stressed about RAM. It&#x27;s just strange that the swap would go so high up even though physical memory is not exhausted.

cdhw · Answer

Please run EtreCheck:     https://etrecheck.com/#aboutand post the report here.El Capitan is lazy (in the technical sense) when it comes to reducing swap space that is no longer needed. I think that the rationale is that if it&#x27;s not being used and the disk space is not needed there is no point in copying it all back up to RAM only to be deleted soon after.If the memory pressure is low then there is probably nothing to worry about. Presumably it was high (orange or red) when the swap space was increasing. You can leave Activity monitor running to keep an eye on things.Unfortunately, you may have just discovered why serious Photoshoppers tend to buy Mac Pros with a lot of RAM in them. 😟C.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

If the memory pressure is low then there is probably nothing to worry about. Presumably it was high (orange or red) when the swap space was increasing. You can leave Activity monitor running to keep an eye on things.That&#x27;s the thing though, memory pressure was fine, but overall performance of the system was still poor. There&#x27;s no correlation between the memory pressure and how this iMac runs.I&#x27;ll run the EtreCheck twice.. once when the machine is running ok, and again when it&#x27;s not. Will post the results soon. Thanks for the tip!

notcloudy · Answer

Have you checked your Photoshop settings?   I have CS3 and forgot  then remembered it does have an option to adjust default of size of what is loaded into RAM and what is loaded into VM.    Never had a problem and still don&#x27;t because what I regularly used resided in RAM - so never adjusted it.Your system performance may be helped by shutting down to clear RAM of orphaned modules.Yosemite and above changes the way both RAM and VM are used.   If you are used to having open a certain number of applications on your desk top in earlier releases with no problem - loading the same applications with Yosemite may cause Memory pressure.Yosemite and above puts your entire application into RAM - unlike earlier releases where it put some in VM (pages in) if you see pages out swapping is occurring.In order to keep active applications in RAM (those that have activity) Yosemite may compress parts of memory -- if its still not enough for active processes it Kills processes that have had no activity in a certain amount of time, only as a last resort will it swap active processes to VM.I see 2 downsides to Yosemite &amp; above: First  Killing processes: Some applications may crash because the caller of a process opens it with initialization of some  field then tries to call the same application after it has been killed - but is assuming it is running.    Second: Compress of Memory - compression of information has one quick - very rare - the data compresses into an instruction that signifies end of data when it really isn&#x27;t.    Both problems would not occur if you have enough ram to run everything you have open.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

Here&#x27;s the EtreCheck result.EtreCheck version: 2.9.12 (265)Report generated 2016-07-01 11:04:39Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.comRuntime 2:08Performance: ExcellentClick the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.Click the [Check files] link for help with unknown files.Problem: BeachballingHardware Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/hardware&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/hardware&gt;    iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015)     [Technical Specifications] &lt;http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/index?page&#x3D;cpuspec&amp;cc&#x3D;H3HF&amp;lang&#x3D;en&gt; - [User Guide] &lt;http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/index?page&#x3D;cpuuserguides&amp;cc&#x3D;H3HF&amp;lang&#x3D;en&gt; - [Warranty &amp; Service] &lt;https://support.apple.com/kb/index?page&#x3D;servicefaq&amp;geo&#x3D;United_States&amp;product&#x3D;Mac desktops&gt;    iMac - model: iMac17,1    1 4 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core    16 GB RAM Upgradeable - [Instructions] &lt;http://support-sp.apple.com/sp/index?page&#x3D;cpumemory&amp;cc&#x3D;H3HF&amp;lang&#x3D;en&gt;        BANK 0/DIMM0            8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok        BANK 0/DIMM1            Empty           BANK 1/DIMM0            8 GB DDR3 1867 MHz ok        BANK 1/DIMM1            Empty       Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported    Wireless:  en1: 802.11 a/b/g/n/acVideo Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/video&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/video&gt;    AMD Radeon R9 M390 - VRAM: 2048 MB        iMac 5120 x 2880System Software: &lt;etrecheck://help/systemsoftware&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/systemsoftware&gt;    OS X El Capitan 10.11.4 (15E65) - Time since boot: about 2 days Disk Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/disk&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/disk&gt;    APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 disk0 : (1 TB) (Rotational)        EFI (disk0s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 210 MB         Recovery HD (disk0s3) &lt;not mounted&gt;  [Recovery]: 650 MB         Macintosh HD (disk2) / : 1.02 TB (805.20 GB free)            Core Storage: disk1s2 23.55 GB Online            Core Storage: disk0s2 999.35 GB Online    APPLE SSD AP0032H disk1 : (24 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)        EFI (disk1s1) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 315 MB         Boot OS X (disk1s3) &lt;not mounted&gt; : 134 MB         Macintosh HD (disk2) / : 1.02 TB (805.20 GB free)            Core Storage: disk1s2 23.55 GB Online            Core Storage: disk0s2 999.35 GB OnlineUSB Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/usb&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/usb&gt;    VIA Labs, Inc.          USB3.0 Hub              8.07 GB        VIA Labs, Inc.          USB3.0 Hub                      Genesys USB Reader 8.07 GB        EOS_DIGITAL (disk3s1) /Volumes/EOS_DIGITAL : 8.07 GB (4.07 GB free)    VIA Labs, Inc.          USB2.0 Hub              250.06 GB        VIA Labs, Inc.          USB2.0 Hub                      Western Digital  External HDD     250.06 GB        My Passport (disk4s1) /Volumes/My Passport : 250.06 GB (128.27 GB free)    Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller     Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)     Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub         Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard Thunderbolt Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/thunderbolt&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/thunderbolt&gt;    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_busConfiguration files: &lt;etrecheck://help/configurationfiles&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/configurationfiles&gt;    /etc/sudoers, File size 2308 but expected 2299Gatekeeper: &lt;etrecheck://help/gatekeeper&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/gatekeeper&gt;    Mac App Store and identified developersUnknown Files: &lt;etrecheck://help/unknownfiles&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/unknownfiles&gt;    /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.wacom.TabletHelper.plist        /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.wacom.TabletHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/com.wa com.TabletHelper    One unknown file found. [Check files] &lt;etrecheck://unknownfiles/check&gt;Kernel Extensions: &lt;etrecheck://help/kernelextensions&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/kernelextensions&gt;        /Library/Extensions    [not loaded]    com.FTDI.driver.D2XXHelper (1.0 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-06-17) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;D2xxHelper+support+site:FTDI.com&gt;        /System/Library/Extensions    [not loaded]    com.wacom.kext.wacomtablet (Wacom Tablet 6.3.16-12 - SDK 10.11 - 2016-06-17) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;support+site:wacom.com&gt;    [loaded]    zoom.us.ZoomAudioDevice (1.2 - SDK 10.9 - 2016-06-17) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;ZoomAudioDevice+support+site:us.zoom&gt;System Launch Agents: &lt;etrecheck://help/systemlaunchagents&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/systemlaunchagents&gt;    [not loaded]    7 Apple tasks    [loaded]    149 Apple tasks    [running]    82 Apple tasksSystem Launch Daemons: &lt;etrecheck://help/systemlaunchdaemons&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/systemlaunchdaemons&gt; 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ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/loginitems&gt;    iTunesHelper    Application  (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)    Dropbox    Application  (/Applications/Dropbox.app)    AdobeResourceSynchronizer    Application Hidden (/Applications/Adobe Acrobat DC/Adobe Acrobat.app/Contents/Helpers/AdobeResourceSynchronizer.app)    Google Drive    Application  (/Applications/Google Drive.app)    CleanMyMac 3 Menu    Application  (/Applications/CleanMyMac 3.app/Contents/MacOS/CleanMyMac 3 Menu.app)    Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper    Application  (/Applications/Fitbit Connect.app/Contents/MacOS/Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper.app)    SMARTReporter    Application  (/Applications/SMARTReporter.app)Other Apps: &lt;etrecheck://help/hiddenapps&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/hiddenapps&gt;    [running]    2BUA8C4S2C.com.agilebits.onepassword-osx-helper    [running]    com.adobe.CCLibrary.88992    [running]    com.adobe.CCXProcess.146272    [loaded]    com.adobe.Photoshop.160672    [running]    com.adobe.Photoshop.160672.2095552F-660C-4394-AA0A-B448BE8EE385    [running]    com.adobe.acc.AdobeDesktopService.154272.5D215FFF-721C-4D98-8477-1B96D97DCE97    [running]    com.adobe.accmac.110752    [running]    com.brother.utility.NETserver.159712    [running]    com.brother.utility.USBserver.158432    [running]    com.corecode.SMARTReporter.59552    [running]    com.etresoft.EtreCheck.176672    [running]    com.fitbit.GalileoMenubar.129312    [running]    com.getdropbox.dropbox.58912    [running]    com.google.Chrome.65632    [running]    com.google.GoogleDrive.1952    [running]    com.macpaw.CleanMyMac3.Menu.50272    [running]    jp.co.canon.cijscannerregister.54752    [loaded]    392 Apple tasks    [running]    240 Apple tasksInternet Plug-ins: &lt;etrecheck://help/internetplugins&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/internetplugins&gt;    AdobeAAMDetect: 3.0.0.0 - SDK 10.9 (2016-06-16) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;support+site:AdobeAAMDetectLib.com&gt;    FlashPlayer-10.6: 22.0.0.192 - SDK 10.9 (2016-06-16) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;FlashPlayer-10.6+support+site:macromedia.com&gt;    QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-03-23)    AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: 15.016.20045 - SDK 10.11 (2016-06-20) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;AdobePDFViewerNPAPI+support+site:adobe.com&gt;    AdobePDFViewer: 15.016.20045 - SDK 10.11 (2016-06-20) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;AdobePDFViewer+support+site:adobe.com&gt;    Flash Player: 22.0.0.192 - SDK 10.9 (2016-06-16) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;Flash%20Player+support+site:macromedia.com&gt;    Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-06-16)    WacomTabletPlugin: WacomTabletPlugin 2.1.0.6 - SDK 10.9 (2016-05-25) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;support+site:WacomTabletPluginLib.com&gt;User internet Plug-ins: &lt;etrecheck://help/userinternetplugins&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/userinternetplugins&gt;    ZoomUsPlugIn: 3.5.44581.0318 - SDK 10.11 (2016-03-19) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;ZoomUsPlugIn+support+site:zoom.us&gt;Safari Extensions: &lt;etrecheck://help/safariextensions&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/safariextensions&gt;    1Password - AgileBits - https://agilebits.com/onepassword (2016-06-05)    LastPass - LastPass - https://lastpass.com (2016-03-09)3rd Party Preference Panes: &lt;etrecheck://help/preferencepanes&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/preferencepanes&gt;    Flash Player (2016-06-13) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;Flash%20Player+support+site:adobe.com&gt;    WacomTablet (2016-05-25) [Support] &lt;https://www.google.com/search?q&#x3D;WacomTablet+support+site:wacom.com&gt;Time Machine: &lt;etrecheck://help/timemachine&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/timemachine&gt;    Time Machine not configured!Top Processes by CPU: &lt;etrecheck://help/cpu&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/cpu&gt;         8%    kernel_task         2%    CEPHtmlEngine Helper(6)         1%    Activity Monitor         1%    Fitbit Connect Menubar Helper         1%    com.apple.WebKit.NetworkingTop Processes by Memory: &lt;etrecheck://help/memory&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/memory&gt;    3.07 GB    Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5    2.93 GB    Google Chrome Helper(12)    2.50 GB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(10)    1.46 GB    kernel_task    508 MB    CEPHtmlEngine Helper(6)Virtual Memory Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/vm&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/vm&gt;    516 MB    Free RAM     15.00 GB    Used RAM (2.25 GB Cached)    9.26 GB    Swap Used Diagnostics Information: &lt;etrecheck://help/diagnostics&gt; ⓘ &lt;etrecheck://help/diagnostics&gt;    Jul 1, 2016, 10:15:55 AM    ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/dynamiclinkmanager_2016-07-01-101555_[redacted ].crash        com.adobe.dynamiclinkmanager.application - /Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5/Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5.app/Contents/Required/DynamicLinkMediaServer/dynamiclinkmanager.app/Cont ents/MacOS/dynamiclinkmanager    Jun 29, 2016, 12:23:42 PM    ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/garcon_2016-06-29-122342_[redacted].crash        /Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/PlugIns/garcon.appex/Contents/MacOS/garcon    Jun 29, 2016, 12:20:27 PM    Self test - passed    Jun 29, 2016, 12:17:52 PM    ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Atom_2016-06-29-121752_[redacted].crash        com.github.atom - /Users/USER/Downloads/Atom.app/Contents/MacOS/Atom

Esquared · Answer

Uninstall CleanMyMac3 and see if it helps.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

The computer was misbehaving before I installed CleanMyMac. In fact, I had installed CleanMyMac to try to help by clearing out cache files.

Esquared · Answer

You don&#x27;t need CleanMyMac to remove cache files. And as long as it&#x27;s installed most people here will tell you to remove it. 🙂Dropbox can be problematic too sometimes. Is that the latest version you are running?

JimmyCMPIT · Answer

there have been sporadic report of the Wacom drivers being an issue at this time.you may wish to verify your divers are the correct version, and if you have updated recently that you updated as recommend by Wacom (uninstall the old drivers, reboot, then install the new drivers) or contact Wacom&#x27;s support team on Facebook because they are incapable of answering emails or phone calls these days.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

Well, not JUST cache files 🙂 What&#x27;s wrong with CleanMyMac? Obviously my Mac isn&#x27;t doing a good job of cleaning up old log files &amp; caches, because CMM will often find 5GB+ or more of said files.Dropbox is up to date, yeah.

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

This performance issue existed before I installed the Wacom drivers. So that&#x27;s not it either.

notcloudy · Answer

From the report - you seem to have many applications opened at once - --along with being connected to the internet -- so all of your applications may be connected to help text on a web site --   As you open more applications - parts of an application that are active are swapped out to disk(VM) the part itself may not be active - but if it is required you will get the beach-ball when it is reloaded - as the system has to readjust everything.Since the early days of Windows - pc users have made the mistake of trying to keep applications open just in case - then wondered why they had crashes -- its just because you can do it doesn&#x27;t mean you should.

Esquared · Answer

And those 5GB+ files will be recreated within a day... It&#x27;s a pointless exercise, and it serves no purpose at all (other than fill the pockets of the sellers of this snake oil).

CaptSaltyJack · Answer

The thing is, I&#x27;ve put the same amount of workload on my 5-year-old MacBook Air, and it runs better than a 2015 iMac under the same conditions (even less RAM on the MacBook Air, too - 8GB). This is why this is so befuddling. But I&#x27;m guessing because the iMac is 5K retina with such a higher pixel density, that everything I run on it is more demanding than it would be on an older MacBook Air.So if I up the RAM from 16GB to 64GB, I&#x27;m guessing that will solve these issues?