Underwhelmed By Performance

After using my iMac for awhile, I think I'm not going to call the purchase a slam-dunk. My wife complained the other day about sluggishness and readily rattles off the price of the machine.

I looked up something about benchmarking the system to see if there's a bottleneck somewhere and heard about Speedmark 9 but cannot find anything on this site about it nor anywhere to get it.
How we test: Speedmark 9 Mac benchmarks | Macworld

I just read about a utility called Maintenance, but I figured that my machine shouldn't need it, being so new. I'll try it but....

Thoughts?

After using my iMac for awhile, I think I'm not going to call the purchase a slam-dunk. My wife complained the other day about sluggishness and readily rattles off the price of the machine.

Click to expand...

Be sure to buy her a nice gift for Mother's Day.... ;D

How about defining what you mean by "sluggishness" and what you deem is wrong. Don't worry about benchmarks as that is not important unless you're a gamer running graphic intensive games. Your new iMac should run very well but we need to know exactly how you're using it and what types of programs you're running.

Don't expect to see the spinning color wheel upon login, nor click-n-wait on launch of apps like Safari.

We were expecting snappier response. I'm okay using it when I get going, but I understand her concerns.

chscag said:

Be sure to buy her a nice gift for Mother's Day.... ;D

Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind reminder.

Don't expect to see the spinning color wheel upon login, nor click-n-wait on launch of apps like Safari.

We were expecting snappier response. I'm okay using it when I get going, but I understand her concerns.

Click to expand...

You shouldn't be seeing the spinning color wheel (icon for waiting) upon logging on to your new iMac. Or waiting for Safari to launch.... Your machine has enough memory ( 8 GB) and with a 1 TB hard drive that's new, I'm fairly certain you have plenty of free space on the drive.

Can you tell us what, if any programs are starting automatically when you boot the machine? Look in System Preferences, Users & Groups, Login Items.

Jaybird180 said:

After using my iMac for awhile, I think I'm not going to call the purchase a slam-dunk. My wife complained the other day about sluggishness and readily rattles off the price of the machine.

Click to expand...

You should remind us what you upgraded from. And I'm assuming what's in your profile is the new unit.

As far as benchmarking software…I use Geekbench and Cinebench.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

You should remind us what you upgraded from. And I'm assuming what's in your profile is the new unit.

As far as benchmarking software…I use Geekbench and Cinebench.

- Nick

Click to expand...

This is my first Mac. I attached a couple screenshots of a benchmark software I found on the app store. Not sure if I have the correct reference selected (Late 2014), I purchased the machine in Feb 2015 (refurb) from Apple.

chscag said:

You shouldn't be seeing the spinning color wheel (icon for waiting) upon logging on to your new iMac. Or waiting for Safari to launch.... Your machine has enough memory ( 8 GB) and with a 1 TB hard drive that's new, I'm fairly certain you have plenty of free space on the drive.

Can you tell us what, if any programs are starting automatically when you boot the machine? Look in System Preferences, Users & Groups, Login Items.

Click to expand...

No much.

chscag said:

You shouldn't be seeing the spinning color wheel (icon for waiting) upon logging on to your new iMac. Or waiting for Safari to launch.... Your machine has enough memory ( 8 GB) and with a 1 TB hard drive that's new, I'm fairly certain you have plenty of free space on the drive.

Can you tell us what, if any programs are starting automatically when you boot the machine? Look in System Preferences, Users & Groups, Login Items.

Click to expand...

Well, lookey here....I don't wanna go mucking around with default security settings (yet).

The app youre talking about "Maintainence" is a simplified version of Onyx from Titanium software. It is free and this forum actively recommends Onyx. So it does exactly what the name suggests. The reason you cant open it is because Security and Privacy settings do not allow software that is not downloaded from the App Store by default. You can easily change that to Mac App Store and trusted developers in System Preferences > Security and privacy. Or just right click on open for a one off exception. Titanium is a trustworthy source.
There will be no harm running either app but there may also be no improvement.
Try having a look through this article; 9 Reasons Why a Mac is Running Slow and What to Do About It | OSXDaily

Rod, his setting are already "Mac App Store and identified developers." What the OP needs to do is to right-click on the app, click on "Open" and then allow the application to run. What that sequence does is tell the operating system that you trust Maintenance and your source for it and that you think it is safe to run. Once it runs, you won't see that warning again, as you have trusted it. BTW, for jaybird180, if you got that from the developer site, it's trustworthy, but if you got it from anywhere else, you may want to remove it and get it from the developer website at Titanium Software - Home. make sure you get the version for your version of the operation system.

I've never heard of iQuickMark before, and those numbers don't mean much in context, but it does seem pretty obvious that the hard drive is not performing as it should compared to the "reference" (iMac) numbers for that model.

Some more information on the hard drive and how full it is might prove insightful. You should also gather some information about the specifics of your machine to determine if you're using the right comparison model for the test.

chas_m said:

I've never heard of iQuickMark before, and those numbers don't mean much in context, but it does seem pretty obvious that the hard drive is not performing as it should compared to the "reference" (iMac) numbers for that model.

Some more information on the hard drive and how full it is might prove insightful. You should also gather some information about the specifics of your machine to determine if you're using the right comparison model for the test.

Click to expand...

+1.

Whatever it's testing for "Disk" performance and comparison, it sure looks like something is wrong and far from ideal!!

Agree with Chas, that Disk Benchmark screams that there is some issue with the hard drive. Since you just got the machine even refurb, there should be apple care, have them check it.

But before you drag it into Apple, how much space is free on that drive? Over-full drives have really lousy performance.

MacInWin said:

Rod, his setting are already "Mac App Store and identified developers." What the OP needs to do is to right-click on the app, click on "Open" and then allow the application to run. What that sequence does is tell the operating system that you trust Maintenance and your source for it and that you think it is safe to run. Once it runs, you won't see that warning again, as you have trusted it. BTW, for jaybird180, if you got that from the developer site, it's trustworthy, but if you got it from anywhere else, you may want to remove it and get it from the developer website at Titanium Software - Home. make sure you get the version for your version of the operation system.

Click to expand...

You're right Jake and I notice now that if the system refuses to open an app for that reason and you go to the Security and Privacy settings it will have a note saying that it refused permission to open the app in question and why, and gives you the option to override the settings, without changing them for that exception. I'm guessing that once this is done it adds the developer to the "trusted" list.
By the way I would not open the version from MacUpdate or wish to add them to my "trusted" list. (see the OP's attached image)

No, because the next app from that developer will have the same security issue. I think it adds the app to the "trusted" list, not the developer. But in either case, you don't have to change security settings to open the application.

Just want to add that MacUpdate is a TOTALLY trustworthy source for downloads, nothing like those CNET scum who deliberately spread malware for money. However, I agree with the advice given that the developer's own site is the best source for a given piece of software, particularly if it is one that trips Gatekeeper's protections.

chas_m said:

Just want to add that MacUpdate is a TOTALLY trustworthy source for downloads, nothing like those CNET scum who deliberately spread malware for money. However, I agree with the advice given that the developer's own site is the best source for a given piece of software, particularly if it is one that trips Gatekeeper's protections.

Click to expand...

Thanks chas, that's good news I had no personal reasons for being suspicious of MacUpdate just don't like to advise anyone to use a third party source for software downloads when the developers site is available. I have heard that someone tried to attach malware to Adware Medic in an attempt to sabotage this free app for removing adware. So only the developers site is currently considered a safe source (The Safe Mac).

MacUpdate usually also supplies a direct link to the developer as well for those who want to check or use it.

MacInWin said:

But before you drag it into Apple, how much space is free on that drive? Over-full drives have really lousy performance.

Click to expand...

Even then, it should not be that much slower on what is generally a random read test.