Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

My iMac is 8 years old, manufactured in 2014, purchased used, and I'm to a point now that working with it for photo editing at times boarders on maddening due to its slowness. I use this machine almost exclusively for PS and LR, and while on some days it seems fine, on others it seems that every adjustment I make triggers the spinning wheel that sits for well over a minute. I've spoken with Adobe support, and even after they assisted in making some settings adjustments to optimize speed, I'm still facing the same issue. I've also spoken to someone at AppleCare who was not able to offer any new informations. So, here's what I've done so far...

- Reinstalled LR and PS
- Created a new catalog in LR
- Optimized LR catalog
- Cleared cache in LR and PS
- Reduced the time when both LR and PS are open simultaneously
- Watched the Activity Monitor for CPU usage and Memory Pressure - this does show excessive memory pressure (yellow and red on graph) from time to time
- Scanned for Viruses and Malware

And here are the particulars of my machine...

iMac (Retina 5K, 27", Late 2014)
Processor: 4 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
Memory: 32 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: AMD Radeon R9 M290X 2 GB
Storage: 1.12TB (320 GB available)

As you can imagine, I'd prefer to not buy a new machine, but at this point, I'm willing to bight the bullet if it will finally mean I no longer have to sit and watch that ball just spin and spin!

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide, which will be greatly appreciated.

User ID

Any wussie can buy a new PC. It’s really heroic to continue battling your olde one.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

You should never have to wait for the computer as you are doing. Mine is 4 years older than yours and I don't.

Frayud Loc: Bethesda,MD

Are you sure you have 32 gigs of memory? I have the identical machine except I have 16 Gigs 8 of which were installed at my local Apple Store. I thought there wasn't room to instal anymore.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

Yes, I'm sure I have 32 gigs, and I purchased the machine from a photographer who added the extra memory.

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

You might consider a solid state hard drive.

hpucker99 Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

It looks like you have done all you can with your iMac except possibly storage. Is that HD a SSD or spinner? That might be able to be upgraded.

I have a late 2013 iMac with similar specs. It works fast enough for me, but I shoot time lapses and the export from Lightroom is slow. I just leave the computer and come back hours later. I recently bought a 14" M1 Macbook Pro (base model) and it is much faster than the iMac; export times are about 1/3 of that as the iMac.

I am looking into replacing this model with an updated 27" iMac/Mini/Mac Pro later this year. If I do this, I can't use the older iMac as a second display. I would have to buy an Intel iMac that supports this (2017 or older?). I'll probably buy a new machine later this year and use the older iMac to run some older 32 bit programs compiles for an Intel CPU for a while. Resell value is minimal.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Run Clean My Mac.

If only 28% of your drive is “free” space, your system has NO ROOM TO BREATHE. It needs room for virtual memory storage. So:

Get a large external drive, in addition to a larger external backup drive, and copy all your files to both of them (use Time Machine for backups!). Then erase all the files you don’t need daily from the iMac internal drive.

Consider an SSD internal drive upgrade from OWC. If all you have is a 5400 RPM internal drive, that’s also a HUGE bottleneck. The latest MacOS systems assume use of SSD storage devices for the system and applications.

If you want a NEW iMac, WAIT for the Apple Silicon models to be released. Intel Macs will be obsolete soon, as Apple is transitioning to their own systems on chips. They are worth the wait!

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

HI Pat. Just thought I'd pass along this website for you to look at. It may, or may not interest you, but I have bought several items from them, (laptop, phone, TV), and I highly recommend them. Great prices and 12 month warranty. Definitely at least worth a look.
The site is called "Backmarket". (not black market), hope you find it useful!
Ray.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

Thanks, I'll take a look.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

Thanks, this is very helpful information. I currently have a 1.12 TB fusion drive, but I don't know what that is. Is that the 5400 RPM drive you mentioned?

I have several external drives, so I'll get to work freeing up some space to see if that helps.

Pat F 4119 Loc: Branford, CT

I have a 1.12 TB Fusion Drive, but I'm not sure what that is, I'll have to look it up.

johnec Loc: Lancaster county, PA

Fusion drive is hybrid: some solid state memory and mostly spinning hhd. We have one in the sound booth at church. Don't like it much. I think it's supposed to boot from ssd part but then store most files on spinning drive. It doesn't perform nearly as well as any of the MacBook pro's we have. My current system is MacBook Pro M1 Max. Loving it. Lr, LrC and PS all work well on it.

User ID

Often, to maximize your ram you discard the original and install two all new bigger ones. You only *added* ram in the empty slot ? That would limit you, but acoarst is less expensive.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Unfortunately 8 years is old for a computer. Software bloat and changes over time make the older machines struggle. My 2013 MacBook Pro was slow but not in the manner you describe.
Bert is correct that low hard drive space will slow things down but you have 320 GB so I wouldn't expect that to be the issue. Is that a spinning rust hard drive?

Q: are you by chance using virus software? If so that may be slowing things down.