2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac feels slow

I'm two weeks into owning a new 20" iMac 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. It's the base model with 1GB of RAM. When I got the machine I reformatted the HDD and installed the OS without the extra junk I didn't want on it. I then updated it with all the latest on Software Update.

I've noticed that the machine feels slow to repsond at times. I get pinwheels while modding file names, changing m4a metadata, etc. - simple stuff. It feels only slightly swifter than my 1.5GHz G4 12" PowerBook with 1.25GB of RAM. It's nothing drastic, but it's a bit disappointing for a brand new machine.

I've decided that I should have gotten the 2GB RAM upgrade from the start as at this point it's going to cost me $300 just to double my current RAM. But can expect a real improvement if I do so now? Am I just asking too much of my 1GBs?

More RAM will not make a machine faster. More RAM will only affect and improve applications that demand it.

D3v1L80Y said:

More RAM will not make a machine faster. More RAM will only affect and improve applications that demand it.

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It really won't help stop my machine from bogging down? Per my understanding the odd systems process combined with a few running apps is enough to use up a lot of my available RAM.

What are you running? A load of Rosetta programs open can make things sluggish.

Here's a Rosetta compatability list:

http://www.macintouch.com/imacintel/rosettacompat.html

I have the base 20in iMac c2d with 1gb ram. The only time I get such sluggishness is when I run Office 2004 applications (which are run using Rosetta). Otherwise its very quick and responsive.

$300 for 1gb of ram? are you serious? where are you shopping?

have you tried newegg?

No, he said it'd cost $300 to double his ram - he's currently got 1gb with is made up of 2x512mb modules in the iMac, so he'd have to replace that with 2x1gb modules.

Check activity monitor first to see how much RAM you're actually using.

If it's constantly got little or no RAM left, then the additional memory probably will help speed things up a bit.

Alexis said:

What are you running? A load of Rosetta programs open can make things sluggish.

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I checked and sure enough I was running the PPC version of VLC! Many thanks. Still probably going to buy 2GB from Crucial for good measure.

is there any way to know for sure if any of the programs I run are PPC or not? Opera seems much much slower then Safari to me and I was curiour if it was, also curious about ventrillo and WoW and some others.

Sure: Either open activity monitor and check under the 'Kind' column (it's on the far right normally).

Alternatively select the application and hit apple+i to 'get info'. There check the 'Kind' field.

If it's PowerPC it will say "Kind: Application (PowerPC)", otherwise apps can be 'Universal' or 'Intel'.

Opera's a universal binary. Been that since version 9 I think.

What kind of applications are you running? As already mentioned earlier, Intel based mac's use Rosetta, which like all emulators, will slow down your computer.

I have the same computer as you do, and as far as I'm concerned, this computer really flies. I use a lot of native applications, but even with applications that use Rosetta, i'm getting decent performance (contrary to what all the reviews say). But I haven't installed PhotoShop yet, I'm sure that wouldn't perform too well, but so far everything else works great for me.

Most of my slowdown went away when I upgraded my ram to 2 gigs. Now the only issues I have with my imac are wireless related. It often makes me turn the airport off then back on to get an IP especially after a sleep.