mac pro desktop 2.66ghz slow performance

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just got the desktop few days ago...is this normal?

straight from the store...no upgrades yet!

just surfing, i tune...thats about it open...yet...everything the computer does is slow...is this normal?...i need more ram right?

help

thanks
 
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Mac Studio, M1 Max, 32 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
Tell us a bit more about your system - how much RAM, how much HDD, what OS version? Trust me, this isn't normal. All of the 2.66's I have played with just "snap" when you ask them to do something - really responsive. Very impressive actually.

Can you define "slow" for us? For example, how long does the machine take to boot? How long does Safari take to launch? How long does iTunes take to launch?

I am guessing you have a Rosetta issue - you are running a non Universal binary for your web browser (i.e. not using Safari but some other) perhaps?
 
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its all default came straight from the store..no upgrades
bought it from nebraska furniture mart.
http://www.nfm.com/DetailsPage.ASPX...All&lvl4=Desktop+Computers&ProductID=25460189

to start up it takes maybe 20 seconds..the compusa mac started up about 10secs..

yes, i use safari..it slow but maybe that is from the at&t dsl connection?

itunes is fine...little slower then my windows but ok...maybe 10/15secs slow to navigate around
 
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The computer you posted only come with 1gb of RAM. 2 is almost required to have OS X run smooth with no real hangups or glitches, regardless of what processor you're currently running.

Also, is your internet connection wired or wireless? It could be a setting in the router or something other that's causing slow internet access.
 
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ok, i will save up to buy more ram..its wired...straight from the router to my mac.
 
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ok, i will save up to buy more ram..its wired...straight from the router to my mac.

Does your router have a firewall up? How slow is slow? I've never used DSL, but it should load pages reasonably fast.

Also, go to www.crucial.com and look up the memory you need and look up prices there and at www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com . You can probably find a 1gb stick for about $40
 
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i don't know about the firewall...i turned it on for the mac though

slow is surfacing takes minutes and minutes to load...usually it should take seconds
 
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i don't know about the firewall...i turned it on for the mac though

slow is surfacing takes minutes and minutes to load...usually it should take seconds

There's so many problems it could be...

Try the connection on another computer. It could be a configuration in the router that's not meshing with OS X like it should, it could be the site, it could be AT&T's fault.
 
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20s startup sounds pretty good to me - I think that this part is probably OK, and your browser problems could be your DSL of course.

Other than that however, I think I will have to turn this over to folks who have an Intel Mac. I have a PPC G5 and so we can't really compare ...ahem... apples and apples here.

On my G5, iTunes was/is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than on my 3.0 GHz PIV PC. I am surprised that it is slower on your new Mac. A 2.66 GHz Xeon ought to be faster than a 2.3 GHz PPC G5. Interesting...

Have you tried looking at Activity Monitor, to see if something is eating up spare cycles on your machine? Type CMD+U to bring up your Utilities and select Activity Monitor. Poke around and make sure things look normal. If you see something eating lots of CPU when you think the machine should be idle, you may have found your culprit.

Also, I would try disconnecting your machine from the DSL, powering off and then powering back up still disconnected. How does the machine feel when it is completely off the net? This is a test for a bad network card or a bad DSL router. It is a long shot, but worth the try...
 
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24" iMac 3.06GHz 8GB of RAM 2TB HDD, 13" Aluminum MacBook 2.0GHz 4GB of RAM 500GB HDD
I would have to say it is almost certainly the lack of ram that is slowing you down. I would recommend at least 1 more gig of ram. Even more than that if you can afford it. This looks to be the best deal in RAM for the Mac Pro. I use four of th 2GB sticks myself and have not had any problems out of it. Just remember that RAM has to be installed in matched pairs on the Mac Pro so buy 2. Good luck.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208199
 
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babarnette, I am not sure RAM is the answer. More RAM is always a good thing of course, but remember that until very, very recently, Apple sold new Macs with a default of 1 GB of RAM. I played with many of them in the Apple store and they performed well. 1 GB seems a reasonable amount of RAM in which to get reasonable performance on a machine you are using for routine stuff. mrdihn is doing routine stuff - web browsing, iTunes and so on.

I smell something else wrong here, which is why I was asking about Activity Monitor. I sure would hate to see mrdihn spend the money to get more RAM only to discover that something else was behind it all along.

OK gentle readers, anyone out there who has an Intel Mac with 1 GB of RAM? Can you comment please? Even better - someone with a 1 GB Mac Pro? Since the Mac Pro uses Xeons and the iMacs use Core 2 parts, perhaps there is a difference here in memory needs? I certainly hope not...
 

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All I can say is I still have not had the extra $$$ to upgrade my Intel Core Duo Mini past 512 Megs and Safari FLYS. Pages load in seconds and as fast as my VERY FAST AMD 64 Machine right next door with 2GB Dual Channel, 10K SATA drives and $500 PCIe Video. If pages are loading that slow in Safari, it's something else, maybe network related. NO way is the machine slow unless I open a lot of Apps at the same time and even then considering 512 Megs RAM it's not that bad unless I open something that uses Rosetta. That slows the whole machine down and needs as much RAM as you can feed it. My iMac has 1GB and it's very fast.

By the way the 1.66 Core Duo mini boots to a useable desktop in 10 seconds or so. 20 is not bad at all for the typical machine though. The mini tears up the AMD 64 rig in boot time due to the Bios on the AMD taking a while to go through all it's POST tests while Mini's EFI is so fast it's amazing.
 
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babarnette, I am not sure RAM is the answer. More RAM is always a good thing of course, but remember that until very, very recently, Apple sold new Macs with a default of 1 GB of RAM. I played with many of them in the Apple store and they performed well. 1 GB seems a reasonable amount of RAM in which to get reasonable performance on a machine you are using for routine stuff. mrdihn is doing routine stuff - web browsing, iTunes and so on.

I smell something else wrong here, which is why I was asking about Activity Monitor. I sure would hate to see mrdihn spend the money to get more RAM only to discover that something else was behind it all along.

OK gentle readers, anyone out there who has an Intel Mac with 1 GB of RAM? Can you comment please? Even better - someone with a 1 GB Mac Pro? Since the Mac Pro uses Xeons and the iMacs use Core 2 parts, perhaps there is a difference here in memory needs? I certainly hope not...

I agree that it may be something else, the ram just seems the most likely to me. When I get home in the morning I am going to put the factory 1GB of RAM in my machine to see if I can duplicate his problems. It may be that the Mac Pro is bottlenecked by the 1GB of RAM. There is an article on Anadtech that talks about this I think, I will see if i can find it and link to it.
 
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The iTunes issue could be RAM. Depends what he's doing and how bug his library is. 1gb was lagging on occasion with certain apps on my MBP. 2gb runs fine. more than that is probably overkill unless you have something that's really going to use it.

As far as safari running pages, that's not a RAM issue. That's network. When I'm uploading anything, it takes forever for things to load.
 
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Ok with just the stock ram my machine feels like it just crawls. There is a very noticeable difference with even 1 more gig.
 

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