: SSD or CPU? iMac Late 2012 Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I just installed 32 GB of ram on an old iMac late 2012 with a standard HD, 2.9 GHz i5 processor and a GeForce

@Hamaas979

It's the HDD. Get the fastest SSD you can reasonably afford. Just starting your computer will be 3x faster, at least, if you jump to a good SSD.

One other thing, Illustrator runs like a dehydrated donkey. It's so poorly coded as to be a joke. Single threaded, mostly, too. Doesn't matter how powerful your GPU/CPU combo, it dawdles. Never above about 15fps, often much lower.

Try Affinity Designer to see how fast scrolling, panning and zooming can operate on your Mac.

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