2015 rMBP problems: 5-6 hours of battery life and major UI lag.

[GGJstudios]

So are you. You made a completely unfounded claim that the lag is "not normal at all". How is THAT not sweeping, and where are your stats coming from?

The lag illustrated in the OP's video is not normal for any version of OS X. Anyone who has used a Mac for more than 10 minutes would know that by simply watching the video.

If the framedrops can and have been reproducible on a wide variety of hardware, "zero evidence" is clearly false. It is up to those who claim that Yosemite doesn't suffer from severe animation stutter to prove so.

No, it's not up to anyone to prove that they don't have a problem. You haven't proven that everyone on Yosemite has the same problem. You can claim that it has been reported in a variety of scenarios, but you cannot with any credibility prove that a problem exists on every Yosemite installation.

 

[Youhoney]

I just did a clean install of Yosemite without restoring a backup. The UI lag was there still. Seems it's either a hardware problem or otherwise the lag should be the same for everyone, and others (like me) were only more keen to notice it. I doubt that's the case. Going to give Apple a call next and see what they think. Hoping to get a replacement. Maybe going to an Apple store and comparing my rMBP with other ones could help.

 

[roncron]

I haven't had any UI lag, but I've had battery life issues with my 2015 13-inch rMBP like you. I was getting about 7 hours with brightness around 75%. Activity monitor showed nothing hogging the CPU. Many professional reviews (CNET, Laptopmag.com, PCMag.com, others) report well over 10 hours per charge.

I had a Genius Bar appointment yesterday to discuss the issue. They did diagnostics which showed no problems with the battery. They gave the standard line, many variables affect battery life and it's not at all unusual to experience 2 fewer hours of battery life than Apple's 10-hour rating. Fine, but if that's the case, why is just about every professional reviewer getting well over 10 hours? Frustrating.

I'm going to try reducing the display brightness to 50-60% (from 75%), which I expect will net me an extra hour. I don't absolutely NEED 10 hours, I'm rarely using the machine away from an outlet for more than 3 hours. When I do, I'll just be sure to keep the display brightness as low as possible, and the keyboard backlight off or low.

Good luck! And, especially, good luck with the UI lag - that sounds like the bigger problem. Sorry these have taken up so much of your time. Hope you get them resolved and can start enjoying your rMBP. Aside from my battery life issue, I am really enjoying the rMBP a lot and so happy I moved to it from a MB Air.

 

[yjchua95]

I haven't had any UI lag, but I've had battery life issues with my 2015 13-inch rMBP like you. I was getting about 7 hours with brightness around 75%. Activity monitor showed nothing hogging the CPU. Many professional reviews (CNET, Laptopmag.com, PCMag.com, others) report well over 10 hours per charge.

I had a Genius Bar appointment yesterday to discuss the issue. They did diagnostics which showed no problems with the battery. They gave the standard line, many variables affect battery life and it's not at all unusual to experience 2 fewer hours of battery life than Apple's 10-hour rating. Fine, but if that's the case, why is just about every professional reviewer getting well over 10 hours? Frustrating.

I'm going to try reducing the display brightness to 50-60% (from 75%), which I expect will net me an extra hour. I don't absolutely NEED 10 hours, I'm rarely using the machine away from an outlet for more than 3 hours. When I do, I'll just be sure to keep the display brightness as low as possible, and the keyboard backlight off or low.

Good luck! And, especially, good luck with the UI lag - that sounds like the bigger problem. Sorry these have taken up so much of your time. Hope you get them resolved and can start enjoying your rMBP. Aside from my battery life issue, I am really enjoying the rMBP a lot and so happy I moved to it from a MB Air.

If you're using Chrome, expect your battery life to be halved. I don't have any UI lag (except with many windows open when opening up MC), and my battery life is almost always near its advertised max life.

 

[dagamer34]

If you're using Chrome, expect your battery life to be halved. I don't have any UI lag (except with many windows open when opening up MC), and my battery life is almost always near its advertised max life.

Any browser that has Flash installed to it will kill battery life. I recommend everyone do themselves a favor and uninstall system Adobe Flash and *only* use Chrome when you need Flash. Use Safari at all other times.

 

[Pinkiy]

having similar issues with battery (also have some GPU/UI lag issues) ...so i don't think the OP is alone link incase some useful info:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1860281/

 

[Meister]

I did a fresh install.

Regarding the display, it's true I am using 100% brightness most of the time. I'm not sure if it's just me, but I feel like I wasn't using 100% on my MBA so much, it seemed to be brighter even on lower brightness settings. However, the new rMBP seems much dimmer, even while using full brightness. One reason might be the smaller fonts, they're especially hard to read if the display is dim. I guess I have to try getting used to more dim values or try using the lower 1440x900 resolution.

Also thanks for the tip about acclimatisation, although I think I've already done that, having used this mac 100% → empty a few times.

Regarding your Battery FAQ, GGJstudios: thanks. I'm getting the highest % CPU-values on WindowServer, climbing up to 50% and more while the UI is laggiest. The second highest is kernel_task.

There is no such thing as "acclimatisation". Draining your battery is always bad.
Follow the instructions given by GGJstudios link instead.
doesn't promise 10hours battery life and 6hours on full brightness is very good.

The UI lag on retinas is a known phenomenon and I had it pretty bad when I bought my rmbp 1.5 years ago.
Now, a few OS updates later, it has gotten much less. It appears to be software and hardware related.
For a guaranteed smooth experience get a mba.

 

[elias latach]

Solution

The hardware on the new Macbook Pro 13 is the most powerful computer on the market in its class (graphics card-less). Its graphical performance is huge, the glitch must be with the OSX Yosemite.

I would recommend everyone to switch back to Mavericks, or even Mountain lion, both of which would run lightning fast on the new machine.

Apple is messing the best software they have by not testing it long enough. They should deploy new updates gradually, and not gather all the new features and lump them all at once one time per year and leave them to the end users to suffer with.

 

[nj-mac-user]

1. UI lag:

Link to video demonstrating it: https://youtu.be/VAbAj8uS07A

Seems like you have a crapload of stuff open in the video. Just curious if you notice the same UI lag with only 1 or 2 things open.

 

[BriOS]

What you need to do is this.

SMC reset
PRAM reset
Kill and reload all dock items. You can google the first two, but I will type out the commands you need to run in terminal to do the third. This will fix all your issues.

Open terminal

Type - cd ~/Library/Preferences - Hit enter
Type - Killall Dock - Hit enter

This will delete and reload the dock items and clean up any errors of crap trying to run that can't for whatever reason. All this should help. Its all so easy to do, and you will not need to return or exchange the mac.

Brian

----------

Oh and sign up for the public mac beta program and install 10.10.3. My memory utilization was almost at 100%, and that was off a fresh boot up. After installing the beta update, Im now at 10%-20% memory utilization, and I feel the difference.

 

[magbarn]

Google Chrome and/or Safari + Adobe Flash websites kills my rMBP's battery life. If you want anywhere near close to Apple's battery life estimates you cannot do any of those two. Also if you get the latest coconutbattery app you can measure the wattage being used by your laptop. My 2013 rMBP 13 will routinely use <5-8 watts when surfing at 50% brightness. Open a flash website and it jumps for 50%-300% more at around 12-15 watts or more. Brighten the screen to 100% and 18 watts is not unheard off which will cut your battery life by more than half.

Because of the high ppi of the rMBP lcd screen, it needs a much higher powered led backlight than the much lower pip of the regular MBA's. So when you crank up the brightness on a Retina screen, the difference between 50-100% is going to be bigger than a MBA.

I've also learned to accept UI lag as a fact of life on retina screens. It was jarring for me when going from a 2011 MBP 15 to a 2012 rMBP. It's gotten better in the last 3 years with OS X updates, but it's still nowhere as smooth as my MBP was.

 

[DonutHands]

I just did a clean install of Yosemite without restoring a backup. The UI lag was there still. Seems it's either a hardware problem or otherwise the lag should be the same for everyone, and others (like me) were only more keen to notice it. I doubt that's the case. Going to give Apple a call next and see what they think. Hoping to get a replacement. Maybe going to an Apple store and comparing my rMBP with other ones could help.

Clean install of the OS with no other 3rd party software installed or open? Still have the issue? Then its probably hardware.

Did you reinstall all your software including things like Flux and the 8 other programs in the menu bar? That is not a clean install.

 

[gklka]

What you need to do is this.
Open terminal

Type - cd ~/Library/Preferences - Hit enter
Type - Killall Dock - Hit enter

This will delete and reload the dock items and clean up any errors of crap trying to run that can't for whatever reason. All this should help. Its all so easy to do, and you will not need to return or exchange the mac.

This does not delete or clean up anything. The first command just sets the actual path to the Preferences directory, and the second one restarts the Dock.

 

[lobo1978]

Good news

To spoil some 'statistics' I must report excellent battery life (fig attached) and no UI lag what so ever. I have two retinas (2013 and 2015) and air (2013), 2xiMacs (24" and 27" - all running Yosemite which looks I don't like) - the same thing there.

Enjoying a great and super stable OS X + serious piece of engineering (that only good-old IBM Thinkpad could challenge) which I use professionally in at least 99% - I get 8-9hrs but doing serious stuff (openFOAM, R, Python, Terminal + a lot of writing and editing) - not browsing for pictures of nice cats and updating my status on FB and T. But I can also get 3-5 hrs doing heavy stuff.

Some tips (some of you may not like - feel free to skip it):

1. For those always looking at battery gauge - turn this thing off

2. Stutter is your problem? - cool off and stop tinkering with default settings it is not windows. You must allow some time for a new machine to index everything etc. Just give it 2-3 days then take out your watch and measure animation lag
Ultimately - make a real clean install of OS and stop tinkering with system settings

3. Still not satisfied? - sell it and buy windows machine - then you will spend extra more time with setting this sh** up (I've been there for more than +15 yrs).

Do however visit Macrumors Forums because without your real or imaginary problems there will be no business and ads and they will have to close it.

Best!

 

[cybercho]

- Purchased new 2015 13" Macbook Pro Retina last month
- Did not restore backup from old machine on purpose to rule out glitches such as this annoying lag. Set up system as new and installed all my apps, plugins, etc.
- Lag issue mainly while invoking MISSION CONTROL, RESIZING WINDOWS, SCROLLING GRAPHICS HEAVY WEBSITES.
- Updated from 10.10.1 to 10.10.2 (same issues)
- Updated from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 (same issues)
- Tried PRAM RESET which reduced the lag by about 50%, but later returned to same amount of lag before the reset (this was about 1/2 day later while browsing websites)
- Enabled the INCREASE CONTRAST checkbox within ACCESSIBILITY/DISPLAY
which greatly improved my system animation to buttery smoothness, but not at the level I'm used to.
- After reading through this entire thread, I myself have come to the conclusion that Intel needs to work with Apple to put out better graphics drivers and clean up Yosemite. Instead of releasing a new OS this fall, improve on Yosemite.
- For goodness sakes, please don't return your new system because of this unless your screen has dead pixels......

 

[prism]

- Purchased new 2015 13" Macbook Pro Retina last month
- Did not restore backup from old machine on purpose to rule out glitches such as this annoying lag. Set up system as new and installed all my apps, plugins, etc.
- Lag issue mainly while invoking MISSION CONTROL, RESIZING WINDOWS, SCROLLING GRAPHICS HEAVY WEBSITES.
- Updated from 10.10.1 to 10.10.2 (same issues)
- Updated from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 (same issues)
- Tried PRAM RESET which reduced the lag by about 50%, but later returned to same amount of lag before the reset (this was about 1/2 day later while browsing websites)
- Enabled the INCREASE CONTRAST checkbox within ACCESSIBILITY/DISPLAY
which greatly improved my system animation to buttery smoothness, but not at the level I'm used to.
- After reading through this entire thread, I myself have come to the conclusion that Intel needs to work with Apple to put out better graphics drivers and clean up Yosemite. Instead of releasing a new OS this fall, improve on Yosemite.
- For goodness sakes, please don't return your new system because of this unless your screen has dead pixels......

Totally agree, it doesn't take a genius to realise that this is NOT a hardware problem...

 

[DJLAXL]

10.10.4 has significantly reduced UI lag for my mid-2012 15" rMBP (2.6 i7, 16GB, 512GB). Contrast is off, transparency on, graphics switching on. Had terrible lag on my other mid-2014 13" rMBP (even with the recommended fix settings on), as well as on this 15". After a few hours of use on 10.10.4 it has sped up noticeably. Anyone else try and confirm?

 

[prism]

10.10.4 has significantly reduced UI lag for my mid-2012 15" rMBP (2.6 i7, 16GB, 512GB). Contrast is off, transparency on, graphics switching on. Had terrible lag on my other mid-2014 13" rMBP (even with the recommended fix settings on), as well as on this 15". After a few hours of use on 10.10.4 it has sped up noticeably. Anyone else try and confirm?

You haven't said anything about your 13" on 10.10.4, any chance you could test that?

 

[tech324]

I just bought a 2015 13inch rMBP and I am noticing the UI lag also. It seems to be worse when the display is set to More Space under scaled. If I change it to Default, its not as laggy. To me it seems as either the video card or the OS has an issue. Anyone have any suggestions other than return it? Any software fixes? I rather use my display with the More Space setting than default

 

[cookies!]

A lot of people including myself had this problem out of the box and upon a clean OS install. I did a lot of troubleshooting, and by process of elimination I came to the conclusion that there is some sort of bug related to Yosemite's video drivers that is causing poor UI performance for a number of users, although not all of them.

All of the fixes mentioned in this thread worked only temporarily for me on a clean system.

Most of the rMBPs at the Apple Store had the same UI lag, leading me to believe that Apple quite honestly does not care about this issue and will most likely not fix it.

 

[David58117]

I went through two 2014 13" and both had the UI lag - even after indexing and a few weeks of use.

It definitely is a problem with the 13" model, and is more obvious when set to more spaces.

My non retinas didn't have it (my old 2012 15" cMBP, and both my wife's and my own 11" 2014 air, even my 2012 quadcore mini), and my 15" 2014 stock MBP retina doesn't have it either.

Even in the stores I've never seen a 13" that doesn't have it when set to more spaces (which I think the 13" needs).

So it's pretty much only, and all, a 13" retina issue..

 

[tech324]

10.10.4 has significantly reduced UI lag for my mid-2012 15" rMBP (2.6 i7, 16GB, 512GB). Contrast is off, transparency on, graphics switching on. Had terrible lag on my other mid-2014 13" rMBP (even with the recommended fix settings on), as well as on this 15". After a few hours of use on 10.10.4 it has sped up noticeably. Anyone else try and confirm?

How did you get 10.10.4?

 

[cybercho]

A lot of people including myself had this problem out of the box and upon a clean OS install. I did a lot of troubleshooting, and by process of elimination I came to the conclusion that there is some sort of bug related to Yosemite's video drivers that is causing poor UI performance for a number of users, although not all of them.

All of the fixes mentioned in this thread worked only temporarily for me on a clean system.

Most of the rMBPs at the Apple Store had the same UI lag, leading me to believe that Apple quite honestly does not care about this issue and will most likely not fix it.

Did you report this bug to Apple? Please do....I did...

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

----------

- Purchased new 2015 13" Macbook Pro Retina last month
- Did not restore backup from old machine on purpose to rule out glitches such as this annoying lag. Set up system as new and installed all my apps, plugins, etc.
- Lag issue mainly while invoking MISSION CONTROL, RESIZING WINDOWS, SCROLLING GRAPHICS HEAVY WEBSITES.
- Updated from 10.10.1 to 10.10.2 (same issues)
- Updated from 10.10.2 to 10.10.3 (same issues)
- Tried PRAM RESET which reduced the lag by about 50%, but later returned to same amount of lag before the reset (this was about 1/2 day later while browsing websites)
- Enabled the INCREASE CONTRAST checkbox within ACCESSIBILITY/DISPLAY
which greatly improved my system animation to buttery smoothness, but not at the level I'm used to.
- After reading through this entire thread, I myself have come to the conclusion that Intel needs to work with Apple to put out better graphics drivers and clean up Yosemite. Instead of releasing a new OS this fall, improve on Yosemite.
- For goodness sakes, please don't return your new system because of this unless your screen has dead pixels......

Increasing the contrast (see above) has significantly improved the UI lag, but it occasionally pops up when I scroll down web pages in Safari. Please post a suggestion to Apple so that they know to address this everyone.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

 

[cybercho]

I went through two 2014 13" and both had the UI lag - even after indexing and a few weeks of use.

It definitely is a problem with the 13" model, and is more obvious when set to more spaces.

My non retinas didn't have it (my old 2012 15" cMBP, and both my wife's and my own 11" 2014 air, even my 2012 quadcore mini), and my 15" 2014 stock MBP retina doesn't have it either.

Even in the stores I've never seen a 13" that doesn't have it when set to more spaces (which I think the 13" needs).

So it's pretty much only, and all, a 13" retina issue..

Thanks for the insight and narrowing it down. I do own the 13" retina that was released last month.

 

[gatesbuster]

I just got my new MBP 15" retina with AMD graphic card. I don't get more than 3 hours battery life; basically the same battery life as my 2010 MBP. Very disappointing. The screen brightness is not as bright as the non retina, so when I mostly use my new retina on full brightness or 85%; way too dark in a normally lit room. Disappointing; so I have basically to keep it plugged all the time. Anyone has the same issue with the 15" ?