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2015 Macbook Pro's Intel Iris 6100 is so choppy in Yosemite

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cookies!

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 3, 2011
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So today I bought a new 2015 13" Macbook Pro after finally giving up on waiting out Apple for a retina display on my aging Macbook Air. I am experiencing extremely poor GUI performance.

I know that retina displays are taxing on GPUs, but the Intel 6000 series seems incapable of driving this display without extreme choppiness in Yosemite for a number of actions— mission control, switching between windows, opening new windows, etc. This is the most significant lag I've experienced on any laptop on Yosemite. My old 2010 Macbook Pro 13" doesn't lag this bad on Yosemite.

Is this the experience of others here? The performance is so bad that I'm going to return the laptop if it doesn't improve because it severely impedes on the usability of the system. Also it is BRAND NEW!

UPDATE: Resetting the PRAM may fix this issue for you— it fixed it for me.

Double update: So yeah, apparently this is a widespread problem. I figured I'd provide a final update: The PRAM reset fixed the problem for a few hours and then it promptly returned, even on a fresh install of both the 10.3 beta and the 10.2 stock with no 3rd party programs running well after the housekeeping processes completed. When using an external 1080p monitor, I experienced display lag so bad on mission control and spaces that it prevented me from using the laptop efficiently, which is unacceptable IMO for a brand new laptop. I eventually returned the Macbook Pro to Apple, and I'm going to wait until the next revision of the laptop to upgrade. My Macbook Air from 2013 continues to have fantastic performance— silky smooth with tons of 3rd party programs installed :(
 
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Not sure it would have anything to do with it, but a new Mac will be occupied with some internal "housekeeping" for the first few days, so it could be temporary while files are indexed.
 
Yup, I did the same, 'upgrading' my 2013 MacBook Air for the new 13" Pro, having given up any hope of there ever being a Retina MBA.

It does indeed clearly struggle with switching Spaces, Mission Control, etc.

Actually, switching between full-screen app Spaces is fine, but sliding from the desktop to the Space next to it is really choppy. And Mission Control is just painful to watch.

And no, it's nothing to do with 'housekeeping'. I've had mine for a week now and it's not improved at all
 
SBruv said:
Yup, I did the same, 'upgrading' my 2013 MacBook Air for the new 13" Pro, having given up any hope of there ever being a Retina MBA.

It does indeed clearly struggle with switching Spaces, Mission Control, etc.

Actually, switching between full-screen app Spaces is fine, but sliding from the desktop to the Space next to it is really choppy. And Mission Control is just painful to watch.

And no, it's nothing to do with 'housekeeping'. I've had mine for a week now and it's not improved at all
Click to expand...

Eesh. I think I might return mine.
 
No problems on my 2015 rMBP. If you restored from a backup you might have brought some "issues" over. Before returning try a OS X reinstall and install apps manually instead of restoring from a backup
 
It was choppy for me out of the box and on 10.10.3, but then I did a PRAM reset and it has fixed everything instantly!

This laptop is absolutely blazing fast now. It booted in mere seconds instead of minutes like it did out of the box. The scrolling is no longer choppy and the trackpad responds properly.

Who knows?

So I'm comparing the average memory usage on the Iris 6100, and it looks like before the PRAM reset, the GPU was under nearly 3x the average memory load. Weird. Some sort of bug? I dunno. Just glad it is fixed!
 
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2015 Macbook Pro's Intel Iris 6100 is so choppy in Yosemite

Why would this have to be done on a brand new MBP? I just bought one the other day and it seems ok to me.

If needed, are these the correct steps on how to do a PRAM reset?

Step 01. Shut down your MacBook.
Step 02. Connect the MagSafe power adapter into your MacBook. If it’s already connected, leave as is.
Step 03. Press Shift + Control + Option + Power keys at the same time.
Step 04. Release all the keys from the keyboard.
Step 05. Press the power button to start your MacBook.
 
I agree, I think it is ridiculous that on a fresh install and brand new MBP, the PRAM needs to be reset to get the advertised performance. Bad quality control I guess. I might still bring it back to the store just because I'm a little spooked about this performance. Just to exchange it

PRAM for me was shutting down, restarting while holding down cmd+alt+p+r and holding until the second chime
 
Hieveryone said:
Get on that Mavericks. Yosemite is a flop. Not too mention ugly.
Click to expand...

I'd really hate to lose a number of features on Yosemite— SMS, MS Office beta, better Exchange support, Photos app...

I'd rather just exchange the laptop just in case this is an omen of thing to come and then keep Yosemite. But I agree, I wish it wasn't so buggy.
 
cookies! said:
Eesh. I think I might return mine.
Click to expand...

cookies! said:
It was choppy for me out of the box and on 10.10.3, but then I did a PRAM reset and it has fixed everything instantly!

This laptop is absolutely blazing fast now. It booted in mere seconds instead of minutes like it did out of the box. The scrolling is no longer choppy and the trackpad responds properly.

Who knows?

So I'm comparing the average memory usage on the Iris 6100, and it looks like before the PRAM reset, the GPU was under nearly 3x the average memory load. Weird. Some sort of bug? I dunno. Just glad it is fixed!
Click to expand...

It could be a bug. These gpus at a hardware level are quite capable of refreshing a desktop and typical applications. Bugs are another matter. If your system is constantly swapping memory or something like that, it will slow down no matter what. I actually think a lot of people on here over-estimate their requirements for a gpu. Some of the older intel ones were terrible. They weren't much more than transistor receptacles. The current generation works for most things. It might slow down if it was really bottlenecked on memory.
 
cookies! said:
I'd really hate to lose a number of features on Yosemite— SMS, MS Office beta, better Exchange support, Photos app...

I'd rather just exchange the laptop just in case this is an omen of thing to come and then keep Yosemite. But I agree, I wish it wasn't so buggy.
Click to expand...

All right, that sounds like a plan. Take it back and tell em to give you a new one. They ought to throw in a $20 itunes gift card for your troubles.
 
Glad yours worked out. Mine's been almost butter-smooth on an out-of-the-box install (no backup restore) at 1680x1050, even with Spotlight and Time Machine doing their things in the background.

If you're otherwise happy with yours, and resetting PRAM worked, I wouldn't exchange. You might end up with a crappier screen or something.
 
Hieveryone said:
All right, that sounds like a plan. Take it back and tell em to give you a new one. They ought to throw in a $20 itunes gift card for your troubles.
Click to expand...

If you noticed, the issue was already resolved with a PRAM reset.

----------
Hieveryone said:
Get on that Mavericks. Yosemite is a flop. Not too mention ugly.
Click to expand...

You can't run Mavericks on the Broadwell Macs.

And the vast majority begs to differ on 'Yosemite is a flop'.
 
got mine delivered the other day and noticed the above, so much that i had it on the smallest resolution turned it on and my fans went mental. had to restart it to shut them up.

I've performed the reset thing above by holding the alt + cmd + p + r keys while it turns on and will let you know if it changes anything.

not sure how to see the memory usage is there an easy way other than installing istat?

been away for a few years and forgotten it all!
 
Could you change the name of the thread to make it more clear that the problem has been resolved? As a prevention agains the trolls and mindless haters ;)
 
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