This video will show you how to check why your Mac is slow. It includes the following:


  1. Activity Monitor
  2. High memory usage

Why is your Mac slow?

In this guide we look at your Mac’s performance. Some Mac’s tend to slow down just like Windows-based computers. This can be due to background and startup items. These take up memory and processing power and slow it down. If your Mac is sluggish you can optimize and clean it up. Tools like OnyX and Titanium can help with this procedure. Furthermore, checking your activity monitor can help diagnose the problem. Apps that use high CPU or memory usage are the culprits. These need to be cleaned out and reconfigured. In addition, it’s good practice to make sure there is no junk on it.

Another reason your Mac is slow may be due to the hard drive. If you use an older hard drive things will inevitably slow down. It’s recommended to upgrade to an SSD in this case. However, you can declutter and ensure it has enough free space. This should help speed things up quite a bit.

View memory usage in Activity Monitor

Your Mac uses a small amount of it’s available memory when in idle. When you use intensive apps, it uses more of it’s available memory. This, in turn, slows down your Mac experience. You can track memory activity in the Activity Monitor window. It’s best to locate and kill the app that is hogging up your available memory. The alternate solution is to upgrade your maximum RAM. Follow the steps below to ensure your memory usage is rectified:

  1. Open the Activity Monitor app. It should be located in Utilities.
  2. To view processor activity, click on Memory. Results will be displayed along with active processes.
  3. You can display more columns by choosing View > Columns. Then choose the columns you want to add.
  4. Locate the misbehaving application and end the process.
  5. If you need, reinstall the misbehaving application to see if that helps.

We hope this guide has helped you to fix your high memory usage. We can also help you speed up your slow Mac. For any further assistance contact us via the website.