I hadn't used GB5 much as my workflow was enough to trigger it. Still waiting for my proper replacement to arrive now. I've been told by apple it will be from the 2020 batch so will check that.
My workflow as a web developer is coding in text editor, issuing commands to terminal to run localhost servers, run VirtualBox VMs of emulated devices to do cross browser testing, open creative software like Adobe for image editing and Final Cut Pro X/Resolve for editing video. This all gets done at once with all these apps open at the same time (except when rendering video) so I can get it all put together quite quickly.
On my dual-core 8gb ram entry model mbp 2016 13" no touch bar (10.15.4), the above is all smooth and yes I can run it all at the same time, no freezes, no restarts, walking to and from the machine as needed. No crashes during sleep. Months without a restart, and then it's me that did it anyway cause it needs a break.
I noticed the apps aren't as quick to open and switch between anymore, and wanted to not have to go to my desktop for heavier effects rendering when on the move.
So that's where my upgrade to the macbook pro 2019 16" came in to play.
The above mentioned workflow on that machine isn't possible. VMs freeze it, creative software freezes it, large text files opened in an array of text editors freezes it. Making apps in Unity freezes it. Even Xcode occasionally. To go from a machine that in comparison is extremely underpowered to this new one, but to face constant freezes almost hourly, and be crossing my fingers that I'm not about to lose 40mins of work with the next app open (and having to go back to all open apps before that and hit save just in case adds SO much more time)...is crazy.
When that's the behaviour of the new machine ON SALE then maybe that sale date should have been pushed back.
One behaviour I did spot on my original machine with 4 logicboard replacements was sometimes if it froze I could close the lid and open again to escape the freeze, except after doing that the machine appeared to be stuck using the amd gpu even with everything closed and it left to 'settle' a bit. I would have to manually make it switch back to integrated. With no freeze, it would switch back and forth until it froze.
Oh and the speaker popping issue with 10.15.1? The pop was very loud, but so were my speakers. Filled the room with bass, like a mini sound system. 10.15.2 onwards, speaker pop is supposedly gone. But put your ear right next to the speaker in the middle of the night and you can hear the 'pop' very faintly when starting/stopping apps playing audio or switching between them...and that room filling bass? Gone. So what's the bet the speakers have had less power routed to them to 'allievate a bad design issue'.
Another issue - macOS that is supposed to be 'one of the most secure' has
bypassed Windows 10 for most amount of zero day exploits since Catalina's release. The things you make viruses & malware with. You can probably blame your low GB5 intel CPU score on
this particular exploit. Up to a 20% loss in CPU performance for 9th gen and below since it has to be applied at the OS level, only 10th gen onward have a hardware fix for this.
Unsure why everyone keeps toting that each new OS version is going to fix this mess. People have been saying that since 10.15.1 and every 10.15.x has been the exact same clusterphuck as the first revision the machine shipped with.
Keep in mind this machine was released November 2019 and we're now approaching April 2020. Once that new 2020 macbook with mini-LED screen is released you can bet this issue will be swept under the rug. Just ask 2018 15" mbp owners who like to plug usb-c devices in their machines. Due to the certain configuration of hardware and particular T2 chip revision used in those machines, those users have had the 'bad magic' bug a lot worse than other machines.
For two years now.
And no:
This is not fine. Don't tell me to disable the gpu, or turn this off, or uninstall that. Tell apple to fix their **** up.
