My 4,1 is slow

[adam9c1]

I have a 2009 dual processor machine
48 GB RAM
GT 120 video

PCI card with SSD (crucial) as boot.

For a while the machine has been very slow.
I mainly use it as a web browser box, I do have several windows and bunch of tabs open (moved from chrome to safari).

I know trim is Not enabled.

I’m thinking of moving to a 5,1 single quad CPU box and loading newer OS.


Will newer OS support TRIM natively? I’m also thinking of perhaps buying a used Apple OEM Toshiba drive and sticking that into one of 4 sata2 ports and boot from that.

That would give me a working machine, while I tinker with cpu upgrade on the 4,1.

 

[leon771]

Use the trimforce enable command to enable trim on the current drive. You have to boot into recovery to do that though via a terminal command.
macOS won’t support trim automatically unless it is an Apple shipped drive.
How full is your SSD?

If you want 10.12 or 10.13 just flash your 4,1 to a 5,1 firmware.

 

[h9826790]

You may need a new GPU but not TRIM. TRIM can only increase the SSD/s writing performance, won't speed up anything else.

48GB RAM sure is enough for just browsing. I don't think your Mac is using any SWAP, so, TRIM should not make any difference.

On the other hand, almost all modern browsers are accelerated by GPU, your GT120 is really very old and under power now. You may simply plug in a RX560, that may give you much better experience.

Also, a faster CPU is much better than more cores in your case. If your dual processer is the 2x 2.26GHz model, flash it to 5,1, and install 2x X5677 (3.46GHz) will make most of the process ~50% faster (if CPU limiting).

In general, if you want a faster experience with the same hardware, stay at older OS is a better choice (e.g. 10.6.8). But if you want a new GPU, then yes, most likely you need a new OS as well. But I will only suggest up to 10.12.6 at this moment. 10.13.2 still has lots of bug that may affect general usage. e.g. TRIM on High Sierra may cause slow boot, Finder micro freeze, etc.

Since you mentioned you move from Chrome to Safari. So, it seems change browser doesn't help much in your case.

 

[adam9c1]

I do have a (PC) video adapter, I think nVidia 660 or something like that. I'll install that.

Back in the day I was using this machine for VMware Fusion, thus the amount of cores and RAM.
I did have a bug where Slack (app) would generate new logs constantly and filled up the drive. But that's all under control now and I have plenty of space.

 

[AidenShaw]

I do have a (PC) video adapter, I think nVidia 660 or something like that. I'll install that.

Back in the day I was using this machine for VMware Fusion, thus the amount of cores and RAM.
I did have a bug where Slack (app) would generate new logs constantly and filled up the drive. But that's all under control now and I have plenty of space.

Apple OSX may say that you have plenty of free space on the drive, but the SSD may still think that it's full (except for the builtin over-provisioning).

The SSD won't know about free space unless TRIM is in effect. Try that first. It's fast and free.

 

[pl1984]

There is no reason a 4,1 Mac Pro, even with a GT120 video card, cannot browse the web at an acceptable speed. If you're experiencing slow behavior from your system then I would investigate way. I have a 1,1 Mac Pro with the GeForce 7300 GT and I have no issues browsing the web on it (using WaterFox).

I would not recommend buying a 5,1 or upgrading your 4,1 unless you have other applications you run which would benefit.

 

[adam9c1]

I’ve HS the dual CPU 4,1 for several years now.

I got a single CPU 5,1 recently at a great price.

I’ll be moving my data over to the single processor unit soon and will use the 4,1 as a tinker machine.

 

[justin1911]

I have an almost identical setup. I wouldn't call mine slow. But slow is subjective, so you'll have to quantify that.

 

[adam9c1]

I do remember when the OS was brand new, the machine was very fast.

I have not loaded lots of crap programs or anything like that. I've used a few VMs for various things.

Maybe I'll try to rebuild the disk structure using disk warrior too.

At any rate, once I have the 6-core CPU, I'll transition my data to the new to me machine. I can move everything over manually so I'll start with a clean OS and clean user profile (no migration assistant).

 

[nigelbb]

Maybe I'll try to rebuild the disk structure using disk warrior too.

How large is your SSD & how full is it? Emptying the Trash should be your first task then enabling TRIM. Disk Warrior will not work magic & will only be useful if there are serious corruption issues on the disk.

 

[z970]

I do remember when the OS was brand new, the machine was very fast.

I have not loaded lots of crap programs or anything like that. I've used a few VMs for various things.

Maybe I'll try to rebuild the disk structure using disk warrior too.

At any rate, once I have the 6-core CPU, I'll transition my data to the new to me machine. I can move everything over manually so I'll start with a clean OS and clean user profile (no migration assistant).

Before you do that, here's an idea that has always helped me restore other people's slow Macs to their proper speeds. All of mine included.

Go here. www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Download and install the version of OnyX for your operating system. Pay attention and make sure you download the correct one because if you are running Lion and you get the Snow Leopard one, it will not work.

Execute these scripts in this tab.

Then, go to this tab, go on the first sub-tab, select all the options, and execute them.

Then this one, select all of them, and execute these.

Then continue on with the rest of the sub-tabs the same way you did these, so on so forth, until you get to the Trash sub-tab. After that, it is recommendable to run the permissions sub-tab back in the Maintenance tab. Reboot. There should be a noticeable difference in speed afterwards.

When you are done, go ahead and navigate to Font Book, select all fonts, go into the File menu, and select 'Validate Fonts'. Let it run, then select all fonts with a caution sign next to them, and delete them. Go back into the main Font Book window, select all fonts, then go to the Edit menu, and select 'Look For Enabled Duplicates'. If there are any found, select them and delete them. Reboot again.

One more thing. Make sure your desktop isn't cluttered, and that there are only a few files living on it. OS X treats idle files stored on the desktop as a full-fledged open window, so you can imagine how that can slow everything down, especially when relying solely on a GT 120.

If this does not amend your speed issue, then either there is something wrong with the hardware (very unlikely considering the product line), or your SSD almost definitely thinks it's too full. Whatever the guy above me said. But if all goes well, by the end of this, and depending on the version of OS X, your Mac Pro should run like greased lightning; as it should. They didn't price these suckers so highly for nothing, you know.

Hope I helped.

 

[h9826790]

Before you do that, here's an idea that has always helped me restore other people's slow Macs to their proper speeds. All of mine included.

Go here. www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

Download and install the version of OnyX for your operating system. Pay attention and make sure you download the correct one because if you are running Lion and you get the Snow Leopard one, it will not work.

Execute these scripts in this tab.

View attachment 741968

Then, go to this tab, go on the first sub-tab, select all the options, and execute them.

View attachment 741969

Then this one, select all of them, and execute these.

View attachment 741970

Then continue on with the rest of the sub-tabs the same way you did these, so on so forth, until you get to the Trash sub-tab. After that, it is recommendable to run the permissions sub-tab back in the Maintenance tab. Reboot. There should be a noticeable difference in speed afterwards.

When you are done, go ahead and navigate to Font Book, select all fonts, go into the File menu, and select 'Validate Fonts'. Let it run, then select all fonts with a caution sign next to them, and delete them. Go back into the main Font Book window, select all fonts, then go to the Edit menu, and select 'Look For Enabled Duplicates'. If there are any found, select them and delete them. Reboot again.

One more thing. Make sure your desktop isn't cluttered, and that there are only a few files living on it. OS X treats idle files stored on the desktop as a full-fledged open window, so you can imagine how that can slow everything down, especially when relying solely on a GT 120.

If this does not amend your speed issue, then either there is something wrong with the hardware (very unlikely considering the product line), or your SSD almost definitely thinks it's too full. Whatever the guy above me said. But if all goes well, by the end of this, and depending on the version of OS X, your Mac Pro should run like greased lightning; as it should. They didn't price these suckers so highly for nothing, you know.

Hope I helped.

Interesting, ONXY actually able to tell my SIP is OFF, but system report is wrongly reported it's ON.

 

[vworks]

I find also my 2009 slow sometimes when browsing with several tabs .
Firefox is laggy but I have lots of cache and tabs and history.
When I restart the browser it is better for some time then the same

 

[z970]

Interesting, ONXY actually able to tell my SIP is OFF, but system report is wrongly reported it's ON.
View attachment 741973

Perhaps that is because "ONXY" is real-time? I'm not sure. I recommend OnyX instead.

Either way, I wouldn't trust what 10.11 and up say anyway, considering they give you the sad sight of what used to be called Disk Utility and a mediocre replacement for iPhoto.
[doublepost=1513265597][/doublepost]

I find also my 2009 slow sometimes when browsing with several tabs .
Firefox is laggy but I have lots of cache and tabs and history.
When I restart the browser it is better for some time then the same

Usually, I find Safari laggier than Firefox, even with my beastly machine.

 

[kohlson]

I have a 4,1 single 2.93 QC with 8GB memory and GT120. The only real upgrade I've done at this point is a 256GB SSD. I feel it works better than original, though no objective measurements, and no doubt due to the SSD. It works well for light FCPX, and web browsing. Any unexpected measurements from Activity Monitor?