How to make mu iMac faster?

[hvale]

Hi. I have a late 2013 iMac that is starting to get really slow. Work a lot with Photoshop and Illustrator and its really slow at times. I am not a tech guy, so I need help The RAM is 16GB. Will it help upgrading RAM? What to buy? I read that a extrenal SSD can help. Is that an option?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Welcome to the forums..

Click on the Apple icon on the top-left and choose About This Mac, take a screenshot and paste it here.

Next, what version of macOS are you running? how much free space do you have? How many apps do you normally run at the same time? Open up Activity Monitor, click on the CPU tab on top and then click on the % CPU column to sort by the apps using the most CPU. Make note of this or take a screenshot. Then switch to the Memory tab, and click on the Memory column and do the same.

Is it slow after a reboot or after some time?

 

[hvale]

Welcome to the forums..

Click on the Apple icon on the top-left and choose About This Mac, take a screenshot and paste it here.

Next, what version of macOS are you running? how much free space do you have? How many apps do you normally run at the same time? Open up Activity Monitor, click on the CPU tab on top and then click on the % CPU column to sort by the apps using the most CPU. Make note of this or take a screenshot. Then switch to the Memory tab, and click on the Memory column and do the same.

Is it slow after a reboot or after some time?

Thanks for reply See screenshots (sorry about norwegian language). I have 100 of 500GB free. I run maybe 4-7 apps at the same time. Its better after reboot. But as soon as I start with heavier tasks in Photoshop or Illustrator the struggle is on again.

 

[ferrarr]

Yes ram will assist in some things, but not all. How large (file size not dimensions) are the files you work on, and how many levels of undo do you use?

These forums use either Crucial or OWC for compatibility with Macs.

 

[harryb2448]

If you are using a slow old platter drive, yes an external SSD will make a huge difference. As suggested Crucial or OWC of say 1TB, connect via USB3, format the drive and run GUID, and then use either SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the contents of the current drive to the SSD. Make sure you check 'make bootable'.

Into System Preferences > Startup Disk and select the SSD, reboot. Did this with a 2011 model and it was a great speed increase.