New iMac slow as molasses

MichelPM wrote:

Philly_Phan

You’re a level 6 contributor here and you do not know why a baseline iMac that you purchased is slow?

I have posted here many times, MANY TIMES why the most of the baseline 21 inch iMac models are dog slow.

Here I go posting this info, once again, for your benefit.

For staters, you gotta already know that the newest macOS versions, from like Yosemite and newer need a full 8 GBs of RAM, just for the OS.

So, you are already in the hole with NOT having enough available RAM for other running applications.

Next.

In order to speed that iMac up, you are going to have to spend some extra cash to get this basic, baseline iMac up to par.

You, at least purchase one of the two models that have independent GPUs. So, that was good.

Fortunately, starting with these new 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models, Apple has returned to being able to upgrade the RAM in the 21 inch screen model iMacs.

The bad news is that, in order to retain any AppleCare warranties, you will have to pay Apple prices to install the extra 8 GBs of RAM in these 21 inch screen iMacs as the RAM is not “user installable” in any of the new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models.

Only Apple Stores are ONLY allowed install the additional RAM into these new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMac models.

Next.

The Apple is STILL using hard drives and fusion drives in these 21 inch screen iMacs that are 33% slower 5400 RPM laptop hard drives instead of the “normal” and “ desktop standard” 7200 RPM mechanical spinning hard drives.

This means 33% slower read/writes to these drives and slower seek times!

And the SSD attached to these 5400 spinning laptop hard drives is a measly 28 GBs of SSD storage!

The ONLY viable and speedy storage drive options in these new, 2017, 21 inch screen iMacs IS THE SSD drive option!

The fix?

Forget the internal hard drive (use it strictly as a backup storage and emergency boot drive) and purchase an external USB 3.0/3.1 connected 256, 500 GBs or 1.0 TB pure all SSD drive.

Install a Mac OS (or purchase and use data cloning software, like CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to clone your current internal system setup) to this external SSD drive and make the external SSD drive your permanent boot drive!

Your iMac will run A WHOLE LOT FASTER than it does now from an external USB 3.0/3.1 SSD drive!

A WHOLE LOT FASTER from an external SSD drive!

That is all I can recommend in, sort of, a nutshell.

These added purchased improvements will make a fairly HUGE performance in your current iMac model.

OR

Sell this iMac and purchase one with 16 GBs of RAM and a pure internal SSD.

I have major problems with your statements and I'm not sure where to begin. Let me try to put this is somewhat of a logical sequence.

1. We're taking about MS Word and you're alleging that it needs 16GB RAM plus SSD drive to operate properly. Word is certainly not a heavyweight compared with Photoshop and Lightroom. Carrying your logic further, I would have to conclude that the heavyweights need 128G RAM and the not-yet-invented hyperdrive.

2. I'm experiencing a problem with the applications in the MS suite, specifically Word and Excel (don't know about the others) AND it's an issue only for the first startup after logon. After that, there are no issues at all. Had I realized that yesterday, I probably would not have started this thread.

3. The real heavyweights, Photoshop and Lightroom, run like scalded dogs. In fact, Adobe (what do they know?) states that only 2G RAM is required although 8G is recommended. Adobe does not recommend SSD. Additional RAM and/or SSD drive will accomplish zero, nada, zip, diddly-squat, nothing, zilch, bupkus.

4. You've fallen into the trap of "When in doubt, throw RAM at the problem."

PeterBreis0807 wrote:

You simply have a Fusion Drive.

It learns what your typical usage is and saves the repeated processes and saves to the SSD drive instead of the Hard Drive.

The initial Hard Drive is same speed as on your older Macs because that hasn't changed.

After you have done your initial open and save with Word, it then uses the SSD for that. which is fast.

Peter

And apparently Photoshop wipes all that out and a subsequent Word startup has to start all over again. Your explanation makes a lot of sense but...

One thing that's bothering me is that this first startup is so exceptionally long. Another thing is that I would expect that the old iMac would have had the same (or longer) startup time, not only for the first startup but for all startups snd I know that that's not true.

I think that a very significant fact in this analysis is that the initial startup delay was so extremely noticeable to me. If it was about the same as the old iMac, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

I didn't read your post until after the edit.

I did some more testing and, on one hand, the results support your theory and, on the other hand, they shoot it down.

I tested only with the new iMac. I no longer have the old iMac and the MBP is downstairs (I don't do stairs well).

I opened a reasonably complex document with Photoshop. It was a snappy five seconds the first time AND ALL SUBSEQUENT TIMES. I believe that the same document took 30-40 seconds with the old iMac and maybe ten seconds with the MBP.

Then things really got weird. I opened the test Word document and, like before, it was 25 seconds then 5, 5, 5, etc. HOWEVER I then opened the Photoshop doc (five seconds) and went back to Word AND IT TOOK 25 SECONDS (followed by 5, 5, 5). If I alternated between Word and Photoshop, the Word doc always took 25 seconds while the Photoshop doc opened quickly.

Does it make any sense that Word stores something in RAM the first opening that it uses for subsequent openings BUT Photoshop grabs all the RAM that exists (wiping out the Word storage)? I do know that Photoshop is a RAM hog.