2016 15" iGPU (HD 530) Experiences + Other Concerns

[sleim031]

Hi all!

I have been browsing around here and /r/Apple and every now and then someone has to report on their (bad) iGPU experience. I own a 2016 15" with 2.9 / 460 / 1TB, and do notice some of the issues reported.

Mainly, when I open the Launchpad and open the "Other" folder which contains most applications concentrated in one place, the animation is stuttery. I can notice a slight stutter when I open smaller folders as well, although it is not that visible. When scrolling through Applications in Finder, there is very occasional stuttering, but nothing I'd get concerned about (primarily because I don't use it).

My question is should I be worried? I mean, watching YT videos in 4K is buttery smooth on the iGPU, scrolling on Safari is nothing short of the iPhone 7+ (some very mild stuttering occurs when the animation of scrolling slows down towards a stop). It is not an inconvenience and does not impede whatever I am browsing or watching in any way.

Is there reason for concern of any kind? Mind you before you flame, I have spent £3,000 of my own money that I've busted my ass making, so I truly want this to be working as perfectly as possible.

Secondly, I'm seeing people complain about the "different" feel of certain keyboard keys, and some are even getting replacements for that. In my experience, the spacebar and enter keys do feel a tid different from the rest of the keys, but I do credit that to their specific design and look. Enter key makes a slightly different sound too, slightly. Is the clicking mechanism different in any way because of these keys' different appearance and dimensions, that could be causing a different clicking experience?

Thanks.

 

[Falcon80]

Do you experience the scrolling lag issue on all web sites or only a few? Also what screen resolution are you on?

 

[sleim031]

Do you experience the scrolling lag issue on all web sites or only a few? Also what screen resolution are you on?

The scrolling thing is very very slight, I need to actually be looking for it in order to notice; far from an issue I'd say but nevertheless, there's no rule regarding websites - sometime it's Facebook, sometimes no issues there; sometimes its Telegraph or whatever, sometimes its fine.

I'm using the default out-of-the-box resolution which I believe is 1680x1050

 

[sziehr]

I have the UI lag pretty bad. I have noticed to does not 100% go away when I force the DGPU. I think part of this is an OS issue. I will say as some one who had to suffer with this UI lag non-sense under my 2012. That if the beta in the next few weeks does not render it a non-issue. I will return this machine and camp out on a cheap 13 with no touch bar with a vastly superior IGPU that can handle the garbage that OS X is churning out. I am supremely disappointed in apple and this machine for this very reason. I expected that by now we would have a strong enough IGPU to handle basics like file management and expanding of the finder. I suppose I was once again wrong and once again let down by apple.

The sad thing is I love the keyboard the one thing most people were worried about. I love it. The screen is amazing. The USB-C dongle life does not bother me.

The UI lag I suffered like a good Apple soldier for years with it on the 2012 15 I had cause well I knew I got in on the ground floor of retina. I expected this sort of non-sense to be sorted out on the flag ship unit by now.

 

[Nik]

I got the new 2016 15" MBP and it stutters under normal use in MacOS with the Intel 530. Clearly worse when being compared to the 13" 2014 model with the Intel Iris 5100. One of the reasons I am returning this 3600$ notebook.

 

[bevsb2]

I have the 2016 15" base model and had a slight stutter when scrolling on some websites. I read somewhere to turn off auto brightness in system preferences and the stutter is now gone, although I have no idea why this would do anything.

 

[sziehr]

I can respect that. I am not sure it is the built in IGPU 100%. I have a MacBook escape here on my desk and I am going to run it through the exact same actions and compare. I am not seeing 100% success with it going away with the DGPU fired up. The 2012 when it was hardware based lag. I could flip the power save function and it would suddenly no longer lag. So I am not 100% what is up.

If I flip the DGPU switch to force on from power saver the lag is still present just slightly less.

The 2012 under the same situation would resolve instantly

Update:

I can report the the faster IGPU in the 13 with no touch bar is exhibiting the same UI stuttering as the 15.

This leads me down the software path Vs hardware path.

 

[motime]

I have returned apple laptops before just because of this ridiculous UI lag issue. How can an operating system in 2016 still be suffering from lag in simple animations? It makes no sense to me. Windows in comparison has 0 lag on resizing windows or just general navigation through the OS. The experience is far snappier. I really like Mac OS but the choppiness can be very annoying for a premium pro machine machine.

 

[sziehr]

I have returned apple laptops before just because of this ridiculous UI lag issue. How can an operating system in 2016 still be suffering from lag in simple animations? It makes no sense to me. Windows in comparison has 0 lag on resizing windows or just general navigation through the OS. The experience is far snappier. I really like Mac OS but the choppiness can be very annoying for a premium pro machine machine.

This all relates back to HiDPI. The way OS X handles this was to do a scaling function. This allowed it to work inside a non-retina world. That time should be over Cough Cough MacBook Air. Then why are we scalling and pixel pumping when we don't need to any more.

This is all software. They screw up coredraw and core animation on every build .0 ~ .3 . Do they just start with the same horrible base and work up year after year.

See DNS responder being glitch tastitc.

I fully agree apple needs to get with it.

the phone has stuttering from time to time but that gets fixed quick
[doublepost=1480638617][/doublepost]So the lag will continue until the platform is dead or enough people bitch and moan about it that they feel the need to fix it. The thing is they have fixed it in the past and it just comes back. I know they re-wrote the dock in swift this year it was part of the sub-panels at WWDC. I wonder if that is part of some of the issues the language is not ABL compliant yet.

 

[Mathias Denichi]

I have the UI lag pretty bad. I have noticed to does not 100% go away when I force the DGPU. I think part of this is an OS issue. I will say as some one who had to suffer with this UI lag non-sense under my 2012. That if the beta in the next few weeks does not render it a non-issue. I will return this machine and camp out on a cheap 13 with no touch bar with a vastly superior IGPU that can handle the garbage that OS X is churning out. I am supremely disappointed in apple and this machine for this very reason. I expected that by now we would have a strong enough IGPU to handle basics like file management and expanding of the finder. I suppose I was once again wrong and once again let down by apple.

The sad thing is I love the keyboard the one thing most people were worried about. I love it. The screen is amazing. The USB-C dongle life does not bother me.

The UI lag I suffered like a good Apple soldier for years with it on the 2012 15 I had cause well I knew I got in on the ground floor of retina. I expected this sort of non-sense to be sorted out on the flag ship unit by now.

This was the reason I returned mine. Just like iOS, Mac OS has constant lagging. I'm not a fan of dropping $3000 with a 460 radeon to get a laggy ui. When in bootcamp, I got none at all, this is most def a software issue.

 

[sziehr]

This was the reason I returned mine. Just like iOS, Mac OS has constant lagging. I'm not a fan of dropping $3000 with a 460 radeon to get a laggy ui. When in bootcamp, I got none at all, this is most def a software issue.

Well actually it is hard to say how windows addresses the dual GPU issue.

That being said. I think we will see some relief for it sooner than latter.

The page load issue in safari is mostly fixed in the preview build 10.1.

The radeon does not drive the UI on OS X the intel 530 does. The 530 is more than enough to keep the built in display pumping smoothly but if it is provided bad data it will be worthless.

I would suggest you stop back in on the new MacBook in say April or may of next year from the refurbished store. We will trudge through for you guys and get it all fixed up by then us early adopters.

 

[dan9700]

i toke back my maxed out 15" cos was so laggy but the store demo which is lower spec was instant and fast so i think my macbook had a problem cos i reinstalled sierra twice

 

[sziehr]

this is quickly becoming the I am returning it thread that always pops up when there is a new model.