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Why is the 2014 2.6 GHz so slow?

Naimfan

Naimfan

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Original poster
Jan 15, 2003
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I have a 2014 2.6 GHz/8GB/1 TB SSHD.

The UI is painfully slow - an old Mac Pro leaves it for dead.

The drive is a Seagate 1 TB SSHD, with 8 GB of flash, and is brand new. I've done a clean install of Sierra, allowed it to index for days, and I still get the rainbow beachball.

Does the 2014 really suck that badly? I have a 2012 2.3 i7 that is MUCH more responsive, with no beachballing (also has 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB 5400 RPM drive).
 
With only 8GB of SSD, I would say it is the spinning drives.

My bother gave me his 17" 2011 MBP with a 1TB HDD. He had the logic board replace a few times, and the GPU just kept failing eventually. He got tired of dealing with it and he got a new MBP.

I did a clean install of 10.13, and the UI is sluggish compare to my much older Mac Pro1,1. I am replacing the HDD for a SSD this weekend, hopefully it fixes the sluggishness. If not, I am probably going to install 10.11 on it.
 
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General responsiveness is typically fixed with sufficient RAM (which you have) and an SSD.

Your situation seems atypical though, since your 2012 has a spinner and you report that it is snappy in comparison.

At this point I can only speculate that something is wrong with the 2014. Is all of the RAM good and recognized by the OS? Is the SSHD's SMART report clean?
 
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I'll check the sshd smart status - thank you, a good suggestion.

I'll also look at activity monitor more . . .

It is just dog slow.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"It is just dog slow."

Boot up with a REAL SSD (not with a "hybrid").

Then... it will become considerably faster.

Guaranteed!
Click to expand...

Ha - sure. $180+ for a 1 TB SSD to make a $300 desktop work tolerably . . .

;)
 
Well, I still didn't upgrade El Capitan to neither Sierra, nor High Sierra. I swapped the HDD for an standard 2.5" SSD and it feels much more responsive now.

One option for the OP would be, if he is using High Sierra, to try out an external GPU in Thunderbolt case, but that is already out of budget anyway and to expensive for a bit more responsive UI.

Than it is better to sell the Mac mini and buy something newer, faster, stronger (and much more expensive) from Apple.
 
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opeter said:
Well, I still didn't upgrade El Capitan to neither Sierra, nor High Sierra. I swapped the HDD for an standard 2.5" SSD and it feels much more responsive now.

One option for the OP would be, if he is using High Sierra, to try out an external GPU in Thunderbolt case, but that is already out of budget anyway and to expensive for a bit more responsive UI.

Than it is better to sell the Mac mini and buy something newer, faster, stronger (and much more expensive) from Apple.
Click to expand...

I like your idea, but the Mini I have (well, one of the 2) is a current model. It's not a work machine - just for fun - but the performance differential is remarkable.
 
I just assume something is wrong. A brand new SSHD shouldn't be significantly slower than an HDD, especially stock Apple HDDs which are 5400rpm.

What did the Mini have for storage before the SSHD, and how was it in comparison?
 
ActionableMango said:
I just assume something is wrong. A brand new SSHD shouldn't be significantly slower than an HDD, especially stock Apple HDDs which are 5400rpm.

What did the Mini have for storage before the SSHD, and how was it in comparison?
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that it was after changing the OS that lead to the poor performance. I have since looked back over the first post, and I am not sure what has actually changed.

To the OP: What changed that lead to a change of performance? I guess I just assumed it was a change of OS, which new Mac OS versions have been know to not run well on spinning disks.
 
Put an SSD in it.

I put one in my friend's 2010 13" MBP and my sister's 2009 13" MBP, they both perform faster than they ever did new, and are still quite capable little machines aside from tasks that modern CPUs have hardware acceleration for.
 
vertical smile said:
I guess I just assumed it was a change of OS, which new Mac OS versions have been know to not run well on spinning disks.
Click to expand...

Well he said in the first post that the SSHD is brand new, so I assumed that would be the change. It is possible he also upgraded to a new OS, so there could be more than one change.
 
The only change was from the Apple 5400 RPM drive to a new Seagate SSHD drive. It has passed SMART verification.
 
Update: No idea why, but a restart seems to have corrected whatever the problem was. VERY curious because I'd done a clean install, which did not cure it.

Now, at least, it is running as I *believe* it should. Thanks to all for your help!

:)
 
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Naimfan said:
I have a 2014 2.6 GHz/8GB/1 TB SSHD.

The UI is painfully slow - an old Mac Pro leaves it for dead.

The drive is a Seagate 1 TB SSHD, with 8 GB of flash, and is brand new. I've done a clean install of Sierra, allowed it to index for days, and I still get the rainbow beachball.

Does the 2014 really suck that badly? I have a 2012 2.3 i7 that is MUCH more responsive, with no beachballing (also has 8 GB RAM and a 1 TB 5400 RPM drive).
Click to expand...
Modern Operating System like do cache. The main culprit was Spotlight. And also icloud keep sync. The only way to avoid is changed to SSD or external SSD.

Maybe at first time, spotlight doing some cache so your new mac mini a bit slow. After rebuilding index cache must a little faster but still i hate icloud and spotlight.. good concept bad idea
 
alien3dx said:
Modern Operating System like do cache. The main culprit was Spotlight. And also icloud keep sync. The only way to avoid is changed to SSD or external SSD.

Maybe at first time, spotlight doing some cache so your new mac mini a bit slow. After rebuilding index cache must a little faster but still i hate icloud and spotlight.. good concept bad idea
Click to expand...

Yep, I never use iCloud.
 
That’s the model I have, and it has been upgraded to high Sierra with no performance issues- it’s actually pretty snappy! Perhaps yours has a hard drive issue?
 
Get rid of that HDD. If you don't want want to buy a big SSD, get a cheap small one (e.g., Kingston UV500 120 GB for under $50), and a USB3-SATA enclosure to run the original hard drive.

Check the CPU heat sink for dust. Perhaps the CPU is throttled because of high temperatures.
[doublepost=1534705040][/doublepost]
Naimfan said:
Ha - sure. $180+ for a 1 TB SSD to make a $300 desktop work tolerably . . .

;)
Click to expand...
<$50 for a cheap 120 GB SSD (or $50 for 240 GB), and $10 for a USB3-SATA enclosure to use the original HDD.
 
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