Some 2015 13" MacBook Pro Users Complain About UI Lag

[MacRumors]

A limited but growing number of 2015 MacBook Pro users have turned to the MacRumors discussion forums with complaints about user interface lag on OS X Yosemite. The lag results in slow or choppy animations and graphics across multiple areas of OS X, including opening Mission Control or Launchpad, launching full-size applications, resizing windows and scrolling through web pages.

A pair of threads related to the issue have received close to 200 replies and 20,000 views within the discussion forums, with some users that previously experienced UI lag offering advice on how to resolve the problem. One potential solution involves resetting the Mac's PRAM, while temporary workarounds listed include increasing contrast and reducing transparency under the Accessibility menu in System Preferences.

Forum Discussion Threads

" 2015 Macbook Pro's Intel Iris 6100 is so choppy in Yosemite" posted by cookies!
"2015 rMBP problems: 5-6 hours of battery life & major UI lag" posted by Youhoney
It is worth noting that new Macs may experience slower performance after booting up for the first few times as the computer indexes. It is also recommended that affected users perform a clean installation of OS X Yosemite to ensure that the issues are not the result of restoring from a backup. But the issues persist for some, with MacRumors forum member "cookies!" claiming that his 2015 MacBook Pro has "the most significant lag" of "any laptop on Yosemite" he's ever used.

"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," reads a post in the MacRumors forums. "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."

While complaints of user interface lag have resurfaced following Apple's release of the 2015 MacBook Pro, similar issues have been reported in the Apple Support Communities, Reddit, Stack Exchange and MacRumors discussion forums by owners of 13" and 15" mid-2012 through mid-2014 Retina MacBook Pro models. The problems appear to be mainly limited to notebooks running OS X Yosemite.

Article Link: Some 2015 13" MacBook Pro Users Complain About UI Lag

 

[Serban]

i don't get it HD5100 is more capable than HD6100 ?

 

[elmateo487]

i don't get it HD5100 is more capable than HD6100 ?

More likely shoddy drivers. Or interaction with the drivers.

 

[MartinAppleGuy]

i don't get it HD5100 is more capable than HD6100 ?

Drivers appear to be the issue, maybe the build of Yosemite that ships with the new rMBP's is running on the old 5100 drivers?

 

[paul00]

Funny. My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro is still waiting for a miracle update that will finally make it work like it's supposed to. It's still laggy, safari falls apart all the time, using scaled resolution makes it really unresponsive and many apps are just way too slow. Lightroom on Yosemite vs Lightroom on Windows 8.1 (same computer via bootcamp) is light and day. I really can't imagine what using the new macbook is going to be like...

 

[Serban]

Funny. My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro is still waiting for a miracle update that will finally make it work like it's supposed to. It's still laggy, safari falls apart all the time, using scaled resolution makes it really unresponsive and many apps are just way too slow. Lightroom on Yosemite vs Lightroom on Windows 8.1 (same computer via bootcamp) is light and day. I really can't imagine what using the new macbook is going to be like...

in the first version of the 15" retina MBP the problem is HD4000, so there the problem will not be solved
Only starting with HD5100 and Iris pro was enough power for gpu to sustain fluid UI

 

[hexor]

My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro works like a charm under 10.10.

 

[nutmac]

Funny. My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro is still waiting for a miracle update that will finally make it work like it's supposed to. It's still laggy, safari falls apart all the time, using scaled resolution makes it really unresponsive and many apps are just way too slow.

I have early 2013 15" and reducing transparency and sticking with 1680 x 1050 or 1440 x 900 is the only way to maintain decent frame rate in Yosemite.

 

[magicMac]

The UI was ok for me....until I plugged in a 4k monitor! Seriously though, it's just mission control, launchpad and other 3D things - probably driver related, let's see what 10.10.4 brings.

 

[Yellowbean12]

So UI lag isn't a problem on, say, the 2014 version? Odd.

 

[QCassidy352]

I have early 2013 15" and reducing transparency and sticking with 1680 x 1050 or 1440 x 900 is the only way to maintain decent frame rate in Yosemite.

My late 2013 13" is staying on Mavericks precisely because of posts like this. Yosemite seems like Apple's buggiest release in a long time.

 

[Miguel Cunha]

Lightroom on Yosemite vs Lightroom on Windows 8.1 (same computer via bootcamp) is light and day.

You meant "night and day", right?

 

[paul00]

in the first version of the 15" retina MBP the problem is HD4000, so there the problem will not be solved
Only starting with HD5100 and Iris pro was enough power for gpu to sustain fluid UI

I haven't used Intel graphics in a really long time. I disabled the automatic graphics switching and been using Nvidia GPU only. Not much difference except for the dismal battery life.

----------

You meant "night and day", right?

Haha. Forgive me, it's been a long day (I'm in UK so it's kinda late here). I was thinking about the Light & Shade album by Mike Oldfield when I wrote that.

 

[ReddestDream]

The answer is to turn on Reduce Transparency under Accessibility.

After that, I've had no more lag on my rMBP 2012 . . .

 

[paul00]

The answer is to turn on Reduce Transparency under Accessibility.

After that, I've had no more lag on my rMBP 2012 . . .

Looks ugly though. One of the most important aspects of Yosemite's design was transparency and yet even the top laptops in Apple's range (i.e. quad i7 & dedicated GPU) can't handle it? That's ridiculous. It's like getting a ferrari and saying "just drive below 60mph otherwise it gets really unstable."

 

[CmdrLaForge]

People should always file a bugreport at bugreport.apple.com

 

[snorkelman]

Looks ugly though. One of the most important aspects of Yosemite's design was transparency and yet even the top laptops in Apple's range (i.e. quad i7 & dedicated GPU) can't handle it?"

Always found it laggy on 2012 rMBP regardless of those settings - opening folders on the desktop is one that's embarrassingly clunky

my current use of yosemite amounts to:

Open lid on late 2012 rMBP
download and install latest build
open a few folders on desktop
shake head
close lid
stick back in drawer till next build gets released

 

[SgtPepper12]

The answer is to turn on Reduce Transparency under Accessibility.

After that, I've had no more lag on my rMBP 2012 . . .

This is good advice. I'm using Reduce Transparency (and increased contrast ftm) and it makes a huge difference in responsiveness (and I'm writing this from a mid 2014 13" rmbp). Makes you wonder if the frosted glass effect is really worth the CPU time. Seems to be a huge waste considering I hardly noticed the difference visually (I mean, sure you see it if you look for it, but on a daily basis it makes no difference whatsoever). I do the same on my iPhone 5 as well (reduce motion + reduce transparency) and it really changes a lot, performance-wise.

 

[Avenged110]

UI lag? I thought it was called Yosemite...

 

[star-affinity]

Funny. My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro is still waiting for a miracle update that will finally make it work like it's supposed to. It's still laggy, safari falls apart all the time, using scaled resolution makes it really unresponsive and many apps are just way too slow. Lightroom on Yosemite vs Lightroom on Windows 8.1 (same computer via bootcamp) is light and day. I really can't imagine what using the new macbook is going to be like...

What is it that is better in Lightroom in Windows you mean? Graphics performance?

 

[jgdeschamps]

I have an Early 2008 iMac that handles the Yosemite UI extremely well, except for Mission Control animations (they are choppy when dealing with more than 2 windows of any app,) and also shows some lag when re-sizing windows with some graphics-intensive material in Safari. If I check the Reduce Transparency option, it runs almost as if it was Snow Leopard all over again.
I just hope that if this issue is solved for the notebooks mentioned in the article, my old iMac might benefit from it.

 

[avanpelt]

The price we pay for being on the "bleeding edge" with Apple...

 

[paul00]

What is it that is better in Lightroom in Windows you mean? Graphics performance?

Overall speed, responsiveness, UI (scrolling, switching collections,etc). New lightroom is coming out in 2 weeks though so I'm curious to see how its going to perform.

I also feel like windows has simply less overhead when running at native resolution even with its wonky scaling enabled. OS X renders everything at higher res and then downscales it which seems to hit the overall performance hard across the board. Kinda makes you wish for a UHD Retina Macbook Pro which could run at native resolution while looking like a the top scaled option on a current one.

 

[rekhyt]

Looks ugly though. One of the most important aspects of Yosemite's design was transparency and yet even the top laptops in Apple's range (i.e. quad i7 & dedicated GPU) can't handle it? That's ridiculous. It's like getting a ferrari and saying "just drive below 60mph otherwise it gets really unstable."

Well there are speed limits...

 

[allenhj]

Funny. My 3 years old original 15 Retina Macbook Pro is still waiting for a miracle update that will finally make it work like it's supposed to. It's still laggy, safari falls apart all the time, using scaled resolution makes it really unresponsive and many apps are just way too slow. Lightroom on Yosemite vs Lightroom on Windows 8.1 (same computer via bootcamp) is light and day. I really can't imagine what using the new macbook is going to be like...

Did you go lower end on your rMBP? I maxed out everything I could on mine and everything is still absolutely fluid and responsive 3 years in. Until the introduction of the force touch, which isn't even on the 15" model yet, I was telling people how weird it was that I went three full years feeling at the cutting edge of the macbook line.