How to Speed Up Mac for Graphic Design – Tips for Designers

Graphic designers need more from their machines, here are some quick tips on how to speed up your Mac for graphic design.

How to Speed Up Mac for Graphic Design

Are you experiencing performance frustrations with the speed of your Mac?

A slow Mac can be a headache to any graphic designer as it slows your productivity. You want your Mac running up to speed to get your projects done with much of a hassle. Thus, it would be best to learn how to tweak your Mac for more performance and keep it running smoothly!

This article covers some simple tips that you can use to speed up your Mac for graphic design. 

1. Clean your Mac

Cleaning your Mac system and hardware is by far the best solution to your speed issues. For instance, cache data takes so much storage space, which slows your Mac. Clearing the cache data in your Mac will thus speed it up.

Moreover, go through your hardware and clear out the junk like unnecessary apps and large and old files, logs, and hidden trash. All the junk could be the reason your Mac is running slow.

2. Disable the resource hungry applications

Resource hungry applications use a significant percentage of your CPU and can slow down your Mac. You can identify these applications through the Activity Monitor. Close such an application by highlighting it with your mouse then clicking on ‘X’ in your Activity Monitor at the left-hand corner.

Where is the Activity Monitor on a Mac?

To find Activity Monitor on a Mac, go to:

Applications folder > Utilities folder, and then double-click Activity Monitor. There you’ll see a simple app with five tabs, and a list of entries that changes every few seconds.

mac activity monitor

3. Update your Mac & Software Tools

Is your macOS up to date?

Well, ensure that your Mac OS is always updated with the latest version, like new macOS Big Sur.  Here is the detailed manual to clean install macOS Big Sur to improve the performance.

Updated OS and software bring under-the-hood improvements, some of which boost your Mac’s speed and performance. If you still have speed troubles after updating your software and cleaning your hardware, you will need to update your hardware. That said, you might be limited in terms of updates depending on the Mac device you are using. 

4. Manage the startup items

Do you have unnecessary apps that launch every time you start your Mac?

If so, they could be the reason why your Mac is running slow. Please take a look at them by clicking on the System Preferences, Click on the Users and Groups, Username, and then Login Items.

mac startup items

Select the apps that you do not require once your Mac starts up and tap the Minus button to remove them from the startup items list. 

5. Limit your Mac’s Visual

Macs are very great for visuals, but a little limit on the visuals can boost your computer’s performance.

Make sure that whatever changes you make, they don’t affect your design work.

Open the System Preferences and untick Animate opening applications, Magnification, and Automatically hide and show the dock. Then, click on ‘Minimize Windows Using’ and change the Genie effect to Scale effect. Moreover, you can also reduce the Transparency effects.

Click on Settings, Accessibility, Display, and then Reduce Transparency.

6. Declutter your Desktop

Decluttering your Mac’s Desktop will make it run faster.

Every icon on your desktop takes up RAM space. The fewer icons you have on your desktop, the faster it will be. Declutter your desktop by deleting the unnecessary desktop icons, keep your files and folders organized in Desktop Stacks or save your files in cloud storage other than on the desktop.

7. Delete the add-ons and extensions on your browser

Add-ons and extensions are useful tools, but they can overload your browsers hence reducing your browsing speed. Reduce any browser add-ons and extensions that you do not need. Moreover, close the tabs that you do not need when you are browsing. 

8. Pro Tip: Add More Ram to Your Mac

If you find yourself really sucking down resources, add more Ram to speed up your Mac!

When you buy a new iMac from Apple, it can be costly to upgrade the RAM. For example, upgrading a new iMac from 8GB of RAM to 32GB will cost you an extra $600 through Apple’s website. However, you have a much more wallet-friendly way to add RAM to an iMac: Do it yourself. Third-party sites like Other World Computing, aka OWC, and Crucial sell the same amount of RAM for around $150. That’s a savings of $450. All you need to do is install it, which Apple has made relatively easy.

Even if you aren’t buying a new iMac, upgrading the RAM on your old computer is a quick and affordable way to give your computer more multitasking juice to handle all of those open tabs in your Chrome browser. Check out this post for a complete tutorial as well as the video below:

Wrap up.

As a graphic designer, a slow Mac can lead to production issues, plus it could crash leading to a costly loss. So, make sure you do not let your Mac frustrate you anymore. Do regular maintenance to the device and use some simple tricks and hacks to keep it running smoothly!