Retina MBP UI performance - with video

[thefunkymunky]

Something is definitely fishy about this video. Yes, it shows in the System Prefs that the MBP is operating in 'Best for Retina Display' mode and not scaled however, I can't imagine Apple ever releasing a new flagship notebook with a UI that choppy.

Notice how comments have been disabled and for a 720p HD YT video, it's very blurry and choppy with sudden camera movements.

Hmm! :roll eyes:

 

[WilliamG]

I was just in an Apple store today and noticed the same type of thing when scrolling in a web site that had a lot of images. It seemed jerky and jumpy. Almost like it would stop scrolling until it could render the entire image, then caught up with where it should have been.

Just to check myself, I went over to a regular MBP and didn't notice this same behavior, so it's definitely something with retina.

Unfortunately, I also tried switching to the discrete graphics and noticed no difference.

I think I'll be holding off...

Most of the problem is SAFARI, which, as I've stated several times before, has been broken ever since Lion was released.

Once again, here's the proof:

http://au.gamespot.com/news/miyamoto-says-ps-vita-needs-games-6375146

Scrolling up and down that page in Safari is a disaster, in ANY Mac, whereas this site in Chrome runs flawlessly.

 

[Nautilus007]

I'm sure the fixes were not applied or it's an isolated issue or apple is working on a fix

 

[PeopleTheseDays]

Also want to confirm that they aren't all like that.

The model I played around with today was silky smooth and I was opening up multiple apps, messing with Aperture and at one point loaded up a 1080p video to see if there was any lag (there wasn't).

Whether or not the discrete graphics were being used or not I'm not sure. But it seems unlikely that Apple would overlook such a huge flaw in their new flagship notebook

If aperture was open, the 650M graphics were probably switched on.

 

[pnyc]

Saw the same thing on the MBPR I played with running at 1440 x 900(Retina Best). Frustrating and disappointing for a $2000+ computer. That said I don't see this "issue" really affecting your "productivity" it just looks bad. Didn't see any other "performance" issues but I think it has to be pointed out that the applications not optimized for the retina display look horrible, I'm sure this will be fixed soon.

 

[stevedusa]

Don't forget, Spotlight indexing can take a LOT out of the processor time, and these demo machines are fairly new to the store.

First thing I'll do when I get my RMBP is reinstall the OS X and turn off the Spotlight.

Habit I carried over from working with Windows machines.

 

[theSeb]

I'll reserve judgement until I see it myself.

 

[Marconelly]

I don't see any lag in the video?

Look at the windows sliding behind the application exiting the full screen mode. They seem to move at about 5FPS, instead of 60 that they should.

Full screen entry/exit is perhaps the most UI intensive operation that OSX does. I've noticed it causes hickups on weaker machines. This is probably the worst I've seen yet, though.

Something is definitely fishy about this video. Yes, it shows in the System Prefs that the MBP is operating in 'Best for Retina Display' mode and not scaled however, I can't imagine Apple ever releasing a new flagship notebook with a UI that choppy

Have you been around when first MBA was launched?

 

[icek]

I've played quite a lot with the scaling as it was the thing I was most curious about and I've not seen this happen!

 

[Marconelly]

I've played quite a lot with the scaling as it was the thing I was most curious about and I've not seen this happen!

Did you try full screen entry/exit with some apps?

 

[CausticPuppy]

Wow, really? That's bad :\

You're saying this test is made in the "Best for Retina" mode? Or is it in simulated 1680x1050 mode?

You really should have tried repeating this test with the discrete GPU enabled (I think you just go to Energy Saver panel to do so)

This is in the "best for retina" mode. It's hard to see in the video, but the video preferences pane is open.

It was actually worse in the simulated 1900x1200 mode, which is why I reset it to the default value for comparison.

 

[FredT2]

The funny stuff (tearing?) that shows up when doing animations switching in and out of full screen mode has nothing to do with the retina display. It may be the intel 4000 graphics processing, but whatever is causing it is there in identical form on both the retina and non-retina models. I spent a good bit of time with each in an Apple store today, and both were quite jerky on those animations. Everything else I tried was just fine. I didn't know how to make them switch to the GT 650, so can't comment on whether that would have made a difference.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Notice how comments have been disabled and for a 720p HD YT video, it's very blurry and choppy with sudden camera movements.

Hmm! :roll eyes:

Yes, let me go enable comments, because the comments on youtube are always sensible and of very high calibre.

I did notice the blur too-- I think the screen is still glossy enough to confuse the autofocus on my iPhone 4S, although the glare is definitely not nearly as bad as the previous gen.

As for choppy movements-- come on, I was holding my iPhone with one hand and driving with the other one! MUST EVERYTHING BE A CONSPIRACY?

I can go enable the stabilization on youtube if that will help...

 

[icek]

Did you try full screen entry/exit with some apps?

I used Expose and while admittedly I only had Safari and Finder open it's wasn't jarry like it shows on the vid. Same with minimizing windows.

Now because I didn't experience this I didn't repeat the same process for every scale so I wouldn't be able to tell you at what res I've used Expose...

 

[Marconelly]

This is in the "best for retina" mode. It's hard to see in the video, but the video preferences pane is open.

It was actually worse in the simulated 1900x1200 mode, which is why I reset it to the default value for comparison.

Yeah, I could see it when I switched YT video to 720p, definitely native mode. There's another thread with someone saying problems like this were there but disappeared after the system update he installed. I guess that should be checked, as well as seeing what it's like in discrete GPU mode :\

As it stands I really have bad flashbacks of original MBA, which started with having smaller UI hitches like this, and progressively got completely unusable with newer and never OS revisions.

The funny stuff (tearing?) that shows up when doing animations switching in and out of full screen mode has nothing to do with the retina display. It may be the intel 4000 graphics processing, but whatever is causing it is there in identical form on both the retina and non-retina models.

Sorry to ask, but you mean models as in two different physical machines (retina and non-retina MBP) or just screen modes on the same retina MBP?

Things move far smoother than this when going in and out of fullscreen mode even on my two years old 2010 MBA btw.

 

[CausticPuppy]

OK, I enabled image stabilization on youtube; still processing ATM but I always find that the YT image stabilization gives a freaky "floating" effect.

 

[jlblodgett]

I don't see any lag in the video?

When the screen transitions from the App to Expose and so forth, it seemed to stutter. You could see the transition was clunky.

 

[wankey]

This is inherent problem in all Macbook Pro display devices at Apple store. I'm not sure why they haven't fixed this yet, but my Macbook Pro never did this, but the same model at the store stuttered like crazy.

 

[surjavarman]

Well I don't even use Mission control... don't really care , if I can get more code on the screen and the fonts render better is a win/win for me.

If you dont use MC then how do you switch between windows?

 

[FredT2]

This is inherent problem in all Macbook Pro display devices at Apple store. I'm not sure why they haven't fixed this yet, but my Macbook Pro never did this, but the same model at the store stuttered like crazy.

On previous models as well as the current ones? I pointed it out to one of the Apple people, and he said he'd not seen it before.

----------

Sorry to ask, but you mean models as in two different physical machines (retina and non-retina MBP) or just screen modes on the same retina MBP?

It was two different machines: one the new retina model and the other the "new" non-retina model.

 

[C4FF]

I love the woman in the background "So what does it mean when it says 2.6 gee haych zee?"

 

[Exio]

Something is definitely fishy about this video. Yes, it shows in the System Prefs that the MBP is operating in 'Best for Retina Display' mode and not scaled however, I can't imagine Apple ever releasing a new flagship notebook with a UI that choppy.

Notice how comments have been disabled and for a 720p HD YT video, it's very blurry and choppy with sudden camera movements.

Hmm! :roll eyes:

You do realize that it's so choppy and blurry because it's an external video recorder, recording a computer screen in a store? Also, Apple was probably okay with it because they knew it could run fine on the dGPU but they also allow you the option to run it on the iGPU just so they can claim the longer battery life.

 

[Zorn]

This is pretty interesting considering that Engadget (The review is out) has not mentioned this issue.

Their review was definitely pretty rushed to get it out first. They also made no mention at all of the inclusion of an HDMI port (lack of which was a topic of debate during the unibody redesign), and they didn't finish battery testing the 2.3Ghz model.

 

[Marconelly]

It was two different machines: one the new retina model and the other the "new" non-retina model.

Thanks. That hopefully means it could be just a software bug then.

 

[Eriksrocks]

Guys, just went to the Apple Store and I can confirm that this IS a problem. I saw pretty much exactly what is posted in the video - same sort of stuttering and tearing. The good news is that many parts of the UI feel fine, but some of them are very bad like this. When it's bad, it's bad. (Although this was the worst example I could find.) Unless the OP went to the exact same Apple Store and used the exact same unit that I did, I'm pretty sure this is a problem across all of them.

And just to confirm:

• Yes, it was in "best for Retina" mode.
• I had just shutdown and restarted it 5 minutes prior to see how fast it would startup.
• Yes, I also ran software update and it had all the software updates installed (except for a Java update)
• I tried a non-Retina new MBP right behind me and it was not doing this. The difference was clear as night and day.
• This was in automatic graphics switching mode. I forgot to try forcing discrete.

I guess it's up in the air as to the cause of this problem or whether it exists on all units but I can confirm that it's not isolated.

This has put me on the fence about purchasing one of these. If it can't be fixed Apple is going to have a problem on their hands.