My iMac running on High Sierra 10.13.6, is extremely slow. I read the advice from this post, however I wanted to post a picture of my results from Etrecheck, and get feedback. Please tell me what I can do, I'll delete whatever I need to! Things that stick out that I definitely don't need but don't know the proper way to terminate and delete: inkjet, soundflower, snap camera, promethean, flash?! Thanks for any help!
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.13
Time since boot: About 34 days
Try restarting it. Although it is not necessary to routinely shut down or reboot a Mac, it's simple enough and justified if things are not working as expected.
Out of RAM - This computer is running short on RAM and has a mechanical hard drive, reducing the speed of the virtual memory system.
Those comments are correct. You can install more memory and replace its hard disk drive with a solid state drive if you decide they are worth the expense. If you want to explore those opportunities start by shopping for them at OWC / MacSales. With those improvements the Mac will perform better than it did when it was new. However, no matter what you do it will never be able to cope with recent security requirements for nearly all websites, most email services, the Mac App Store or the iTunes Store... if such things matter to you.
Get rid of Google. That should just go without saying. It's a notorious resource hog on any Mac, let alone an aging one. If you really are required to use Google products be prepared to replace your Mac every three or four years at least, so that it can continue to harvest and upload your personal information to it.
If you want to keep that Mac as a platform for running old 32-bit applications (like games) that won't run on modern Macs, I could see putting a little bit of time and money into speeding it up. (You can get a 16 GB (8 GB x 2) RAM kit from Other World Computing that would bring your total memory up from 4 GB to 20 GB. OWC also sells SSDs that are designed to get the best performance out of that Mac's slow SATA-II bay, and FireWire + USB enclosures which would give you the best performance (though not barn blazing performance) for external drives).
If you are not tied to 32-bit software, and want to run current applications, it's time to retire that old Mac and move on. Very little current software is available for High Sierra, even compared to a couple of years ago.
Vendors like Microsoft & Adobe have a policy of supporting only the "most recent three" – which are now (Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe). Even when it comes to applications whose vendors support older versions of macOS, you need
MacTracker does not have CPU benchmarks for your iMac, but it has these:
That's a speedup of more than 5x in terms of raw CPU power. The M4 iMac and M4 Mac mini also come with 16 GB of RAM or more, and have SSDs that are much faster than the mechanical hard drive in your 2010 iMac.
If you upgrade to a M4-family Mac that has at least 16 GB of RAM and at least 512 GB of internal SSD space, I think you will be very pleasantly surprised at what a difference 14 years of technological improvements have made.
it only have 4gb that is not very much it got 2 more memory slots
suppose one could also attempt switch the internal slow magnetic harddisk with a ssd
an external ssd would not really work because the 2010 do not have thunderbolt ports
personally I would view both as a waste of money really, it do not support newer macOS versions and few browsers would still support 10.13.x and few apps from app store or elsewhere would run.
+1 on Kilted Tim's advice. Time to replace the old girl, it has served you well but is extremely obsolete and could fail at any point. Trying to improve a 15+ year old computer is just a bad decision, it's throwing good money after bad!
I don't mean to be ( or sound) insulting, we are trying to help you not make a big mistake.
I too had a Mid-2010 iMac that I loved and held on to for a long time but it is WAY over-due for replacement as the others have recommended. I eventually upgraded to one of the last 27" models and am now faced with the fact that it is fast becoming obsolete too. Time (and technology) marches on. The Mac Mini and a separate monitor is a cost effective way to upgrade. I expect I will eventually go this route unless a new 27" iMac is introduced soon (not likely).
Your 15 year old Mac is obsolete. It had a good life. It's time to let it go.
Improve performance on aging iMac (21.5 mid 2010)
