|
Apple does a pretty good job of making sure your Mac’s performance is well tuned right out of the box. So there aren’t many single things you can do to make your Mac dramatically faster. But like a mechanic tightening this and loosening that, you can do lots of little things that will speed up your Mac just a bit. Add these tweaks all together, and your system will indeed feel snappier.
Start with the software. There’s only so much you can do to make OS X itself faster. (For a few suggestions about what you can do, see “Top OS X Tips”.) But you can tweak individual applications to make them—and your system as a whole—feel more responsive. See “34 Software Speedups” to find out how to speed up Apple Safari, iTunes, and iPhoto; Mozilla Firefox; Microsoft Office; and more.
Then there’s hardware. Conventional wisdom says you can never have enough RAM. Well, as it turns out, you can: according to our lab tests (see “Bang for Your RAM Buck”, going from 256MB to 512MB will give most users a substantial speed boost, but going from 512MB to 1GB won’t do as much. To find out how much memory you really need, and for tips on how to perform a RAM upgrade right (and what to do if things go wrong), see “RAM FAQs” and “Is Your Memory Bad?”.
Like we say, none of these things on its own will make your Mac a new machine. But take enough little steps, and pretty soon they’ll add up to one big leap forward.
- The ultimate Mac tune-up
-
Mac tune-up: 34 software speedups
While OS X may be pretty well tuned for performance, individual applications aren’t. You can tweak your apps in plenty of ways to make sure they’re operating at top speed. Here are a few of our favorite tricks.
-
Upgrading RAM: FAQs
When it comes to upgrading your Mac, RAM is the easy choice. It’s inexpensive, it’s relatively easy to install, and it can make a noticeable difference. But as a quick visit to just about any Mac forum will tell you, RAM upgrades can also be horrifically frustrating. Here’s how to do it right.
-
Is your memory bad?
Congratulations. You just installed a new memory module in your Mac. Your computer’s RAM is now double what it was yesterday and it’s running faster than ever. The only problem is that it also crashes periodically and documents get mysteriously corrupted. You suspect a defective module is the culprit. But how can you be certain?
-
Graphics cards give gamers a boost
For most Mac users, adding more RAM is the best hardware upgrade option. But there is an exception: If you’re a gamer and you own a Power Mac, adding a new graphics card could make a huge difference in your system’s speed.
-
Top OS X tips
Want more speed from OS X? The operating system is pretty good at keeping itself in good shape, so there isn’t actually a whole lot you can do to improve OS performance. You can, however, give it a few little boosts.
Tweaks here and there can add up to a big performance boost
