Older MacBook Pro EtreCheck Report - Poor Performance / Very Slow

I believe your hardware problem is not RAM but the factory under-spec mech hard drive. I have the same model and had the same issues. We have two 2012s in the immediate family and I maintain two others for friends and relatives. So I have a bit of time in the saddle with that model.

Removing your scamware may improve drive speeds but that drive model is topped out at about 80MB/sec on its best day ever. And that is still glacially slow with modern macOS versions.

I replaced the mech HD in my 2012 13"Macbook Pro with an inexpensive solid-state drive several years ago and EtreCheck now reports its drive speed as:

Performance:

    System Load: 1.61 (1 min ago) 1.60 (5 min ago) 2.94 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O speed: 0.15 MB/s

    File system: 28.20 seconds

    Write speed: 487 MB/s

    Read speed: 482 MB/s

That is nearly 10X what you current drive is producing and 7-8 times what yours could do at its max possible speed.

The performance data? In my Macbook Pro I tracked launch speeds for two slow-to-open apps as I first doubled the RAM and then replaced the slow HD with an SSD. Timed results:

—Base system as shipped:

4GB RAM and slow SATA 3GBps 5400rpm hard drive: Office 2008 and Photoshop Elements 12 took 15-18 seconds to be ready to use.

—First upgrade, double the RAM:

8GB RAM and slow SATA 3GBps 5400rpm hard drive: Office and Photoshop Elements took 15-18 seconds to be ready to use.

—Second upgrade, inexpensive solid-state drive (SSD)

8GB RAM and fast SATA 6GBps SSD: Office and Photoshop Elements take under 4 seconds to be ready to use.

Also, with 8GB RAM, my Macbook Pro now running OS 10.14 Mojave has never demonstrated being starved for RAM using either Activity Monitor or EtreCheck to look at RAM status. See:

View memory usage in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

"Memory Ued" has not the the operative metric for judging Mac RAM usage since Apple overhauled memory management in 2013. The current metrics are "Pressure" and "Swap Used." Green pressure and Swap under about 100MB single you have enough RAM. At the time of the EtreCheck test, your Swap was zero.

You can add RAM if you want but I would first deal with the the pokey HDD and then see if you still need more RAM.

NOTE: best practice in that model is to replace the hard drive CABLE whenever you replace the HDD. The cable is about the only weak link in an otherwise nearly bulletproof model. Cables are available, cheap, and easy for a home use to install while you have the computer open for drive service.

Another NOTE: Before doing ANYTHING after removing the back plate, disconnect the battery cable.

If you are considering the HD-to-SSD conversion, post back and I can give you some advise and models to consider or avoid based on my unexciting SSD install experience in my 2012 Macbook Pro about 2017.

Your drive speed is dismal. This can be caused by either drive failure or has also been the result of software conflicts.

• Paste ~/Library/LaunchAgents at Finder > Go > Go to Folder. Don't forget the "~" in the front. Remove the file named "com.zeobit.MacKeeper.Helper.plist". Also remove the app from your Applications folder if there. More information on removal is here:

https://mackeeper.com/help/uninstall-mackeeper/

• MegaSync is using quite a bit of resources as seen in Network Use, Memory Use, and Energy Use. May be worth removing just to test if you get your performance back.

You may be able to get some performance back, but you are just attempting to buy a little more time. It is a 12 year old Mac running on 8GB RAM that I'm sure has served you well for many years. A clean install may give you a fresh start by removing old files that have been carried through many software updates. Currently there are some very old files, such as adobe, that was installed in 2013 and has been updated to newer versions of the same files without removing the previous older versions that are running on startup.

Mostly, you have an underpowered computer. Only 8 GB of RAM, which is really only good for someone who doesn't do much more than surf the web, emails and text messages. And you have a dirt slow, 5400 rpm mechanical hard drive.

But, you also have some major garbage installed. Absolutely, without so much as a second thought, remove:

MacKeeper (the worst)

LogMeIn (remote access software should never be installed without a purpose)

Chrome (without question, the worst browser you could possibly use)