rMBP 2013 owners — seeing any lags?

[cypherpunks01]

So the one thing that really bothered me with old generation of MBPr is lagging.

It was very annoying to see 20fps animations all over the place. (also I don't care about games).

So, a quick question to owners of the latest retina: do you see any lags? Do you think MBPr is ready?

I guess that discrete nvidia GPU will also have much better avg FPS count. Any owners of MBPr with iris pro integrated GPU here?

 

[toneLA]

So the one thing that really bothered me with old generation of MBPr is lagging.

It was very annoying to see 20fps animations all over the place. (also I don't care about games).

So, a quick question to owners of the latest retina: do you see any lags? Do you think MBPr is ready?

I guess that discrete nvidia GPU will also have much better avg FPS count. Any owners of MBPr with iris pro integrated GPU here?

I have the 750M + Iris Pro and at scaled resolutions (more real estate), my screen saver (Arabesque) lags. Also, when I open disk utility, the blow-up animation lags too.

For the screen saver, if I disable dynamic switching in OSX (under energy saver) and force the computer to use the 750M only, it's fine. I believe it's more of an OS issue - I don't see why Iris Pro wouldn't be able to drive my screen saver properly.

That's why I use it with the native scale resolution - best for retina. Mostly no lag.

Anyone else with similar experience?

 

[Macshroomer]

+1 on disk utility blow-up lag, but I think it is a Mavericks thing, I get the same thing on my MacPro with a GTX680 GPU, not a lazy card by any means...

 

[toneLA]

+1 on disk utility blow-up lag, but I think it is a Mavericks thing, I get the same thing on my MacPro with a GTX680 GPU, not a lazy card by any means...

You're right. I really think that lag was always an OS thing too. People who complained about lag on the 13-inch gen 1 using safari are reporting no lag anymore under Mavericks. It's just a bit upsetting that totally randomly on certain apps or animations the OS isn't more responsive. It's not like they had 1.5 years to fix it. Ugh.

 

[Valkyre]

Folks the UI lag thing with retina macbook pros has been really bugging me for a long time now...

I updated to mavericks. Yes it is better, but no, it is not gone.

And it is not just my machine.

I went to an Apple Store.

I checked every single retina macbook pro and compared it with cmbp of all kinds.

Simply put, all retinas lagged compared to the classic macbook pros.

Open a lot of windows and try mission control. Sometimes its perfect smooth on rmbp but after a couple of consecutive swipes for mission control it will lag. Same with launchpad, same with window resizing, same with notification center, same with swiping back and forth from one desktop to the other.

All retinas will eventually lag under this situation.

The classic macbook pro will NEVER EVER present such lag.


I Honestly believe it is software related, but the truth is its been 1 year and we have so many OS revisions including the biggest one now with Mavericks, and yet... the problem is still there. It is surely better, but it is not as smooth and consistent as with the classic macbook pros, which is really quite a bit of a turn off, because the user experience is indeed somewhat not as "perfect" as you are used to.

 

[Omnirai]

On scaled resolution 1440 x 900 on a 13" rmbp i5 2.4/8gig/128ssd I notice some till sometimes more severe UI lag.. Its not as horrible compared to 2012 model with OS X ML, but its still there..

Im still in my 14 day return policy, going to test out the MBA from a friend tomorrow. If I think the screen is still good enough, Im probably making the switch.

 

[Blue Sun]

I have the 750M + Iris Pro and at scaled resolutions (more real estate), my screen saver (Arabesque) lags. Also, when I open disk utility, the blow-up animation lags too.

For the screen saver, if I disable dynamic switching in OSX (under energy saver) and force the computer to use the 750M only, it's fine. I believe it's more of an OS issue - I don't see why Iris Pro wouldn't be able to drive my screen saver properly.

That's why I use it with the native scale resolution - best for retina. Mostly no lag.

Anyone else with similar experience?

I'm seeing the same thing (especially with the Disk Utility blow-up - very laggy).

What is strange, is that I tested the base 15" rMBP with the Iris Pro graphics at the Apple store and saw consistently better frame rates than the top-end model which has both the Iris Pro and GT 750m. Mission control was much smoother on the base rMBP when compared to the top-end model with the Iris Pro activated. Is it possible that the top-end model is in a down-clocked state most of the time and hence is lagging? Or is it more likely a hardware problem and an issue with my personal machine?

Hopefully I can get back to the Apple store soon to properly test other top-end rMBPs.

 

[chrizzz09]

This has to be software issues, the CPU and GPU's are powerfull enough to handle those resolutions.
Even windows 8.1 runs smoother in boot camp compared to mavericks

 

[walkie]

I wonder if some people make money swiping back and forth from one desktop to the other all day on Mavericks to see if it lags a little on rMBP

 

[Valkyre]

I wonder if some people make money swiping back and forth from one desktop to the other all day on Mavericks to see if it lags a little on rMBP

No but people who spent up to 3,000 bucks for a computer that does not perform as good as a 800$ laptop actually feel that they wasted their money a bit.

But hey lets all be sarcastic here, as if you have to switch desktops all day to see that your 3,000 dollar laptop is choppy. Or check your notifications, or use mission control or or or

Hey... why SHOUDLNT there be any UI lag on a 3,000 $ laptop right??



See? Everyone can be a smartass on the internet...

 

[AirThis]

I wonder if some people make money swiping back and forth from one desktop to the other all day on Mavericks to see if it lags a little on rMBP

The whole purpose of having an mbp with OSX is to use this feature. And it's not a question of "lagging a little" but of having your screen freeze on the spot. I wasn't complaining at all with ML, despite some occasional stutters, but with Mavericks the UI lag and trackpad freezes are really annoying. So it feels like I'm using a Windows machine again. Give me back the UI/trackpad performance of ML and I will be a happy man again. I'm not asking for cmbp smoothness, just something reasonable. When I can count to 3 during a desktop switch, something isn't right. A reinstall did not help.

 

[Macshroomer]

OK, so I just opened Disk Utility a couple of times and all it does is hesitate for a fraction of a second. I have been running this machine on "Best for Display" since day one, not sure why I would use the other settings, not familiar enough with them to make a sound decision otherwise.

I am running the 13" 2.8/16/512 ( 1TB replacement on order ) and can't seem to encounter any real lag, not sure how to induce it. I go Mission Control with a a bunch of stuff open, 100MB photoshop files, maps, etc. and get no lag. So the only lag I get is slight hesitation with opening Disk Utility and a little stutter when going to full screen on a high res image using preview.

What else can I do to induce this?

 

[walkie]

No but people who spent up to 3,000 bucks for a computer that does not perform as good as a 800$ laptop actually feel that they wasted their money a bit.

But hey lets all be sarcastic here, as if you have to switch desktops all day to see that your 3,000 dollar laptop is choppy. Or check your notifications, or use mission control or or or

Hey... why SHOUDLNT there be any UI lag on a 3,000 $ laptop right??



See? Everyone can be a smartass on the internet...

Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of your experience, it was just the way you wrote it, I have seen the laggy animation when opening the Disk Utility if I use a higher res (scaled mode) and yes the desktop switching becomes a little choppy even on the discrete GPU, since I use best-for-retina it doesn't bother me at all, but this reminds me back in 2007 when I bought a new HP laptop with Windows Vista and even though the machine came with a decent nvidia GPU and an Intel Core2 duo CPU it had trouble playing a 1080p videos smoothly and playing flash on the browser, I was really disappointed about it.

In best-for-retina res everything is buttery, I think Mavericks needs some tweaks on higher res, I have the impression that software doesn't catch up with GPU, or maybe Apple make it like that so that you feel the need for upgrading to the next rMBP, you have a Mercedes Benz but your car computer is not capable to extract all the power from the engine.

 

[ckeck]

In scaled resolutions on my 15 rMBP I get some screen lag but the worst is the damn screen saver almost locking up and being stuck at 1-3 fps.

When this happens it takes me over 10 seconds to type in my 9 character password and for it to recognize the key press to submit it. I feel like punching through this damn thing every time that happens.

$2,699 well spent. Sad that this has not been worked out long before Mavericks. Didn't know we could take two steps backwards here. Running a scaled resolution shouldn't present these problems, at least in these scenarios.

Wouldn't be an issue if the default "best for retina" wasn't so low to begin with. There are higher resolution display options =\

 

[marvin4653]

I have been running this machine on "Best for Display" since day one, not sure why I would use the other settings, not familiar enough with them to make a sound decision otherwise.

What else can I do to induce this?

Switch to a scaled resolution and swipe to change desktops.

Wouldn't be an issue if the default "best for retina" wasn't so low to begin with. There are higher resolution display options =\

This. I'd much prefer a 1680x1050 native panel than a 2560x1600 panel rendering at 3360x2100 to achieve the same effect.

 

[teotuf]

Switch to a scaled resolution and swipe to change desktops.



This. I'd much prefer a 1680x1050 native panel than a 2560x1600 panel rendering at 3360x2100 to achieve the same effect.

You can with switchresx. It just wouldn't be HiDPI. Personally I use 2048x1280, rendered at 2048x1280

 

[Macshroomer]

Switch to a scaled resolution and swipe to change desktops.

Ok, I checked out the two highest settings and it did fine. Guess I'm set, time to get back to work.

 

[Blue Sun]

What is strange, is that I tested the base 15" rMBP with the Iris Pro graphics at the Apple store and saw consistently better frame rates than the top-end model which has both the Iris Pro and GT 750m. Mission control was much smoother on the base rMBP when compared to the top-end model with the Iris Pro activated. Is it possible that the top-end model is in a down-clocked state most of the time and hence is lagging? Or is it more likely a hardware problem and an issue with my personal machine?

I can confirm that the issue I described above is software related. I only see lag when the Dock is set to the left or right of the screen. No lag exists when the Dock is set to the bottom of the screen.

 

[ElderBrE]

I've got the 750M, running at scaled 1920x1200.

No lag under normal use. I use the trackpad motions heavily for Mission Control & Spaces, no lag. Under Iris Pro, maybe one or two dropped frames every now and then, but nothing that conditions the experience or my work.

Haven't tried stressing hundreds of times doing the same thing trying to get lag to show up, but then again, if I did that it wouldn't be normal use, it would be "I'm trying to be a paranoid".

 

[Alphabetize]

I didn't really notice any lag, but certain animations are just a little bit choppy on the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Mission control is where I saw it the worst, especially as more windows filled up the screen. The Launchpad animation was also pretty choppy too. I didn't really see scrolling choppiness in Safari. I compared this directly to the MacBook Air which had no choppy animations at all.

 

[jondunford]

you will notice frame lag more on a retina display because it would need to be 4 times as smooth because of the amount of pixels

 

[Fallingreason]

ate 2013 MBPr lagged in the UI more than my 2012 Air. Returned it and got a 2013 Air. Can't deal with feeling like I'm going backwards in performance, even if it just seems like it from animations and window resizing.

Retina display is overrated, especially if you have an iPad for reading.