Considering new iMac purchase

I have a 'Late 2012' iMac 21.5"
2.7GHz Intel Core i5 (Total No. of Cores 4, L2 Cache per core 256kb, L3 Cache 6MB)
8GB 1600MHz DDR3 memory
1TB hard drive Sata Disc (Of this 1TB I am currently using: iTunes 91.50GB, Documents 20.64GB, Photos 20.64GB and System 14.16GB) So only 192.18GB used at the moment.
Nvidia Ge Force GT 640M 512MB Graphics
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (1080p FHD - Full High Definition)
UI Looks like: 1920 x 1080
OS Mojave 10.14.3

My current iMac is starting to run a little slower (appears even more slower since updating from Hi Sierra to Mojave last week). Latency? Beach Ball appears, annoying. I don't use iCloud for storage, and as you can see above, I'm currently using 192.18GB of my 1TB Sata Disc. I'd like an SSD for storage (it will help with speed) and I think the 512GB would be sufficient for my needs. I use the iMac for surfing the web, email, storing photos, producing and storing Pages and Numbers documents and for my iTunes music. Quite simple really, nothing too demanding! I am in the U.K. and the current spec iMac 2017 model 21.5" is offered here in 3 variations. The 1st one is only upgradeable to a 250GB SSD so I'm considering the middle one of the three as follows.

3.0GHz quad-core 7th generation Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.5GHz
16GB memory (upgrade from 8GB + £180)
512GB SSD Drive (upgrade from 1TB Fusion Drive + £360)
Radeon Pro 555 with 2GB video memory
Two Thunderbolt 3 ports
Retina 4K 4096 x 2304 P3 display
Magic Mouse 2 (Happy with this, don't need trackpad)
Total price here in U.K. £1249+£180+£360 = £1789 (12 months interest free offer via Apple/Barclays = £149 per month)

Or I could for the next model up which would give me 3.4GHZ quad-core 7th generation Intel Core i5 Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz and Radeon Pro 560 4GB with video memory (everything else the same). Total price £1899 (£158 month)

I'd really like opinions from you knowledgeable folk about how much better (faster) the new one will be for me? Also should i just spend the £1789 or go for the extras of the £1899 one? Many thanks in anticipation.

JeffL said:

My current iMac is starting to run a little slower (appears even more slower since updating from Hi Sierra to Mojave last week). Latency? Beach Ball appears, annoying. I don't use iCloud for storage, and as you can see above, I'm currently using 192.18GB of my 1TB Sata Disc.

Click to expand...

Being the frugile person that I am...my first question would be. If you could get your 2012 iMac to run faster...would that be satisfactory...or are you itching for a newer iMac big-time that nothing but a new iMac will do?

As far as speed. CPU benchmarks have the 2012 iMac with a score of 9000 and the 2017 iMac at about 13,000...thus about 44-45% faster. The GPU in the 2017 will probably be much better as well...and an SSD will make feel faster.

- Nick

Hi Nick, thanks for your reply. Like you I don't like spending money if I don't have to. Do you have some suggestions on how I might make my existing iMac faster? Thanks

Hey Jeff. It doesn't sound like you're doing anything too super-demanding on your iMac...and the iMac's hard drive is certainly not very full (two quick things I usually consider when someone says their computer is running slow).

Here's the first thing I would try. Download & install the free maintenance app called "Onyx". Once installed...launch it & run it with its default settings. Just click on the "automation" or "execute" button...and let it do its thing (may take a little while. Then reboot the iMac...and see if that helps.

Here's the link to Onyx. Be sure to download the Onyx version for the macOS version you have installed:

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

- Nick

Also, a member here (Randy B Singer) has multiple web pages, Macintosh OS X Beachballs!, Macintosh OS X Slowdown Solutions, to deal with these issues. I hope they help.

pigoo3 and ferrarr. Thanks to both of you for the suggestions which I am going look into as soon as I can. However when I was perusing the Beachballs and Slowdown Solutions links above, there was mention of anti-virus slowing down a Mac. I haven't any anti-virus as such, but I did have Malwarebytes (free version), Adblock Plus and Trusteer End Point protection and I've uninstalled all three today. I've noticed a big difference already when opening Pages and Numbers documents. I also went onto the Lexus website looking at used cars for sale, which I've been doing a lot lately and it has been very clunky with the page jumping about while it was loading more and more text and photos, but today it was very smooth and seemed to load everything immediately!. I'll keep trying those specifics over the next week to see if they remain improved, fingers crossed. I will still look at your other suggestions to make sure my iMac is running as fast as it can. I love this site and the very helpful knowledgeable people on here! I don't know a lot about computers and it's great to be able to get free help in this way. I'll let you know how I get on. Thank you.

Pop an SSD into it for a renewed lease of life. If reluctant to crack the glued screen, consider hooking up an external SSD to run from USB3 or Thunderbolt.

If you go the new iMac line, get a 27" model which can have memory upgraded by the user.

JeffL said:

I haven't any anti-virus as such, but I did have Malwarebytes (free version), Adblock Plus and Trusteer End Point protection and I've uninstalled all three today.

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I wouldn't have thought Malwarebytes & Ad Block would have been sources of a slow down...I'm not familiar with End Point Protection (but the word "protection" would give me cause to investigate further if I was having an issue). But if your iMac feels faster after uninstalling them...then that may be proof enough.

After you ran "Onyx" (suggested above)...if that hadn't helped...what you did with these apps would have been the next step I would have suggested in this investigation.

- Nick

Update: Another week gone by and speed has improved a lot. I think the End Point Protection was the culprit (now removed). Reinstalled Malwarebytes but not reinstalling Ad Block Plus yet. I am subject to a lot of adverts now when on certain websites but I'm learning to live with it as I'd rather have the speed of use and no beachballs. I've updated my monthly maintenance regime which is now as follows. Empty Safari Caches (via Develop in Safari menu), Remove all Cookies, Clear History, OnyX maintenance, delete all unwanted Downloads, Run Malwarebytes scan, Back-Up onto my plug-in drive. I've also allocated various Dock items to different Desktops and I believe that that might have helped speed (?). During the last week I've been watching the activity in Activity Monitor and my CPU usage is extremely low and varies between 1 and 5% at the times I've looked at it. I do have a question about Memory though. I have 8GB of memory (and there's no way I'd attempt removing the screen to add more) but I've noticed that memory use is often around 5GB and occasionally about 6.25GB. Is that amount of Memory use a potential problem against the 8GB available? Should I have more of a buffer, if that's the right word? At the moment that's the only thing that concerns me and makes me wonder if I should still go for a new iMac with say 16GB Memory. Having said that there is a massive improvement and I want to thank all those who helped me. Thank you!

JeffL said:

...wonder if I should still go for a new iMac with say 16GB Memory. Having said that there is a massive improvement and I want to thank all those who helped me. Thank you!

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Thanks for the update Jeff...and great to hear there was a massive improvement!

If there was a "massive improvement" in speed...why still the question about a new computer? Is your 2012 iMac still too slow for your liking...even with the massive improvement? Or...if your iMac is comfortably fast now (compared to before)...is an increase in speed worth the cost of a new computer?

Just trying to help you think through things. If your iMac is still slow...then you gotta do what ya gotta do.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

I wouldn't have thought Malwarebytes & Ad Block would have been sources of a slow down...

- Nick

Click to expand...

Nick, just a heads up what happened here. On my Quad i7 2010 27" iMac was all of a sudden really slow and jerky especially running Safari. Pages were lagging and bogging down and the RAM usage for that page in Activity Monitor was taking 1-2 GB Ram and climbing! I knew there was a pretty recent update to Safari but then thought a bit and realized there was also one just the other day when the issue started for Ad Block Pro. I googled and others were having my issue and said it was ABP! I went into Extensions manager and disabled it and quess what? Safari Screaming fast again with Low ram usage per page!

Never had issues with Malwarebytes free though.

Also to the OP. I have a 21.5" late 2012 iMac with 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD like you have. Also running latest Mojave. My ram usage depending on what I am doing can hit 5-6GB. It's normal for sure with Mojave. As soon as I save up the $$$ I am going to get the tools to take the screen off and put in a 16GB RAM and SSD. That will give it new life, but as it is it's not bad now.

Nick and Dennis. Thanks for your replies. Nick, yes you're right, no need for a new iMac and especially now I've seen Dennis's comment about the 8GB RAM. So, Dennis, you've got both a 21.5" and a 27"? At least you won't be without a computer if you decide to do an upgrade on your 21.5". If/when you decide to do it, it would be great to have some details on how easy/difficult it was and how long it took. Thanks guys.

Jeff, the 27" I own is a 2010 with 32 GB RAM, i7 with 8 threads and 4 cores. Only issue which is not really an issue is it's stuck on High Sierra. Otherwise it flies. I will soon be upgrading the late 2012 21.5" and will post how it all went.

Hey Jeff...I wanted to add something about RAM use. Probably a whole bunch of macOS versions ago (at least 3-4 versions ago)...Apple changed the way RAM is used. Basically the more installed RAM you have...the more the system will use. In the past I think only what was needed was kept in RAM...and anything not necessarily needed right now...was dumped from RAM. Now more items or processes are kept in RAM (cached)...which then can make everything a little bit faster.

Another concept that was introduced with this change in how RAM is used by the system is called "Memory Pressure". If you go to Activity Monitor & click on the "Memory" tab...you will see how RAM is allocated...and you will see a little "Memory Pressure" graph. This Memory Pressure graph can display green, orange, and red levels of memory presssure...with orange & red being a higher level of "memory pressure".

As an example...I have 16gig of RAM in my MacBook Pro. Right now Activity Monitor shows 13.83gig is being used...and all I'm doing is internet (Safari) and email. Below is a screenshot of my computers Memory Pressure at the moment...and a 2nd screenshot that I grabbed off the internet of what a much higher Memory Pressure looks like:

My computer:



From Internet:



Check things out on your computer (Activity Monitor)...and please let us know what you see.

- Nick

Hi Nick. Physical Memory 8.00GB, Memory Used 5.70GB, Cached Files 1.76GB, Swap Used 0 bytes. The coloured bar is green. Jeff.

Hi Nick. Physical Memory 8.00GB, Memory Used 5.70GB, Cached Files 1.76GB, Swap Used 0 bytes. The coloured Memory Pressure Bar is green. Jeff.

"Green" memory pressure sounds good. As far as a new iMac purchase. If the memory pressure on your current 2012 iMac is "green" (and green most of the time when you randomly check)...I would say more RAM could be crossed off the list of reasons to get a new iMac.

And if your 2012 iMac seems acceptably faster after the tweaks you made...this 2012 iMac would seem to have some life left in it...and not exactly ready for the "Old Computer Home" quite yet!

- Nick

Hi JeffL,

Glad you are "running" faster. Onyx is an excellent product, and has been around for a number of years. And yes, an SSD would also boost your speed. I have found that Samsung SSDs are the best, and I have 4 of them: one inside my late 2012 Mac Mini, and 3 external ones.

As for adware/malware/virus detection, while Malwarebyes is good, I actually have no reason to have it installed on either of my Macs all the time. I just download and run it occasionally. But an excellent program is ClamXAV, available from here:

https://www.clamxav.com/

There have been times where ClamXAV finds nefarious things that are missed by Malwarebytes. I have subsequently purchased it.

just a quick caveat

I was running a late 2012 iMac and experiencing slow downs. It already had 16GB of RAM and I regularly ran Onyx. I moved everything over to an external SSD which did improve things - for a while.

But at the end of the day the CPU was throttling performance so I bought a new iMac.

It now runs infinitely faster (the new processors are I believe a major step-up) and I couldn't be happier.

I reckon I got an extra 6 months out of my old iMac. You might be luckier, it depends what you use it for. I mostly run Photoshop, Lightroom and iMovie and these are much quicker (particularly rendering times in iMovie).

Nick