The Dock and the CPU...

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
OK, so for the first time in months, I decided to change my Dock orientation. Since October I've been using a vertical dock (left side of the screen) that takes up about half the vertical space on a 1600x1200 screen. Also used Transparent Dock script to kill the white background, etc. And for the most part, it worked well. Most apps seemed pretty responsive, etc.



Well, last night I get to tinkering around with the Dock and decide I want to try it -- completely extended -- on the bottom of the screen, still no white background. Now, everything from Illustrator to GoLive to Entourage seems to have a slower boot time. I tried re-binding everything under the terminal but that had no effect really. But in general, I'm noticing a 3 to 4 second slow-down in launch times and the like.



Could the simple fact that the CPU has to draw all these big shiny Dock icons on teh screen the whole time, really slow things down that much on a G4/500 with GB RAM??



The only way I'd ever consdering using the DOck on the bottom of the screen is to have it fully extended - thus giving it the appearance and behavior of being "pinned" to both sides. SO the trash stays put at bottom right, Finder and bottom left and everything in the middle scales / adjusts depending on what's open / collapsed, etc.



Ideas on this? It's taking over 10 seconds (I know that sounds retarded) for all of my Adobe apps to launch - some more like 15. That's BAD. If anyone knows some Terminal settings or shareware I can use to rememdy this, I'd appreciate it. I thought about the Process Manager shareware thing but the last time I installed it, it behaved really oddly. Sometimes when Iclicked on the icon nothing would happen. I'd have to keep re-launching the companion file that it came with to get the menu to work....



I agree with what was said in the other thread - Apple needs to get off their arse and design a simple process manager that allows you to use sliders or something similar to move processing power between the Finder, Dock, apps, etc.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    Drop the Dock and go for the FruitMenu <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12974&db=mac"; target="_blank">http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12974&db=mac</a>; and whilst you are there, pick up WindowShade X from unsanity.com



    You know it makes sense



    - T.I.
  • Reply 2 of 4
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Already Got WSX. Great utility. Truthfully I probably should use FruitMenu (I used to access all my apps from teh Apple Menu folder I set up) but I've grown accustomed to all the shiny 3D icons on my desktop. Pitiful but true.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    I've noticed responsiveness in the system increase when the icons in the dock are smaller. I run at 1600x1024, so I have a goodly amount of horizontal space. If I shrink the dock icons, I definitely notice a speed increase. Same thing happens by putting the thing on the left or right side of the screen, because since I have a lot less vertical space, the icons are forced to shrink. An observation...
  • Reply 4 of 4
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Interesting. These are the kinds of things that hopefully are being corrected in 10.2 - there is still some polishing to do obviously. Technically if you have the correct system requirements, it shouldn't make any difference whether your dock icons are 2" tall or 2mm tall....
Sign In or Register to comment.