Sanity check... Can I make my iMac faster or is this it?

[sausje]

I recently acquired a 21,5 inch late 2015 iMac, one without a fusion drive. I replaced the HDD with a Crucial MX500 250GB SSD and am running the latest version of Monterey.

It's a fun machine to work with but for some reason I feel it is just not enough. I have a M1 iMac downstairs which is way faster and snappier and I get that my perspective is super subjective and could literally be influenced by the weather forecast. But still, I am wondering, is it just me or is it actually not so snappy and even lagging a bit? And, it so... Is there anything I can do to make it feel snappier?

On average, the machine is using 6 out of 8GB of the available memory, which is not upgradeable. The SSD is mostly empty, though I'm wondering if upgrading to a 500GB or even 1TB would make a difference. Curious for your thoughts here.

 

[Amethyst1]

I have a M1 iMac downstairs which is way faster and snappier [...] But still, I am wondering, is it just me or is it actually not so snappy and even lagging a bit?

The problem with this particular iMac is the slow dual-core CPU. It's the same CPU that was used in the 2015 MacBook Air. And you can't replace it. The 1.6 GHz clock speed isn't telling the full story as it can "turbo" up to 2.7 GHz, but two cores only get you so far. An M1 has a higher clock speed, more cores and higher performance-per-clock, i.e. it is just significantly faster.

The SSD is mostly empty, though I'm wondering if upgrading to a 500GB or even 1TB would make a difference.

No. It's the CPU that's holding you back.

And, it so... Is there anything I can do to make it feel snappier?

One thing you can do is reduce transparency and motion in System Preferences > Accessibility > Display. You can also try an older version of macOS to see if it's substantially snappier on the machine.

 

[sausje]

Thanks Amethyst1! And those logic boards don't seem to float around either (if upgrading that one is possible at all...).

Motion was already off. Transparency is off now too. I'll test that for the days to come and might give it a try with an older version of MacOS if that doesn't work. Thanks!