Are animation effects "choppier" in Leopard than in Tiger?

[ktrix]

There are a few threads on here about poor performance on animation effects in Leopard. Some users, myself included, have reported that Spaces, Stacks, and even the Genie Effect all appear somewhat "choppy" or at least not as smooth as in Tiger. The "choppiness" can be observed most clearly when one holds down the shift key before triggering an animation (e.g., before clicking on a stack). Give it a try, then vote.

Are the animations "choppier" in Leopard than in Tiger?

 

[Sdahe]

I think this will be fix when Envidia releases the updated video drivers for Leopard....

 

[nukiduz]

I have an ATI X1600 and it's choppy too.

 

[ktrix]

MacBooks use the GMA 950 from Intel.

 

[mrfrosty]

Its strange ....mine is choppy too. But other graphical stuff is fine....plonk an app on each of 4 spaces and move between them with (ctrl)+arrow and it's like lightning

 

[pjarvi]

The only thing that's choppy for me is when I switch spaces and have iTunes playing music with the visualizer on. I think a lot of people were judging the performance of the system before waiting for Time Machine and Spotlight Indexing to complete their first runs.

If other MacBook users are experiencing choppiness, I can only assume that I don't have the same problems due to the following:

-Did an Erase & Install
-Have 2GB RAM
-Have 7200RPM Hard Drive with 16MB Cache
-Don't use any major software myself, just EyeTV and Turbo.264

My Stacks spring up smooth as silk, and Spaces is only choppy when something graphically intensive is running, such as the visualizer in iTunes.

 

[Alloye]

It must depend on hardware and/or drivers. On my 24" Al iMac, Leopard's animations are flawless.

 

[ktrix]

Its strange ....mine is choppy too. But other graphical stuff is fine....plonk an app on each of 4 spaces and move between them with (ctrl)+arrow and it's like lightning

I've noticed the same thing on my machine. The choppiness only seems to occur when Leopard resizes a 'window,' which happens with Stacks, Expose, Spaces, etc.

I think a lot of people were judging the performance of the system before waiting for Time Machine and Spotlight Indexing to complete their first runs.

It's something else, not Time Machine or Spotlight. Believe me. In my case, Time Machine is off and Spotlight didn't need to reindex my drive after the upgrade.

So, it seems that not all MacBook users have this problem. Do all MacBooks have the same video hardware? Here's what System Profiler tells me about my computer:

Chipset Model: GMA 950
Type: Display
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 64 MB of shared system memory
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x27a2
Revision ID: 0x0003

For other MacBook users without a problem, do you have the same hardware? Same Revision ID (if that means what I assume it does)?

 

[00hkelly]

leopard is definitely faster on my macbook pro. the only time something might be a little bit choppy may would be the first time i use it after a cold start up. other than that its smoother than a very greasy thing thats been extra greased up to be super slick!

 

[y0zza]

Do the Stacks animations stutter when you use a folder with lots of items? (100+)

My Stacks animations are smooth for the Fan. For the Grid, it's smooth when there are only a few items (less than 30, say).

After dumping my Applications on to the dock with 181 items, there is a noticeable stutter at the point in the animation when the grey background fades/pops in. This also happens when done in slow motion (shift + click).

With only a few items, the Grid view becomes smooth, although I haven't tried to determine at what number of items it ceases to be smooth.

My specs are as below in my signature. I would expect my machine to be able to handle it relatively OK if you guys with MacBooks are reporting smooth animations (unless that's just with a few items in the folder).

Anyone else notice this behaviour? For those who say theirs is smooth, how many items do you have in the Grid view?

 

[seanneko]

I would say that overall (not just animations), Leopard is slower than Tiger.

Application launch time, system bootup, etc, all takes longer. I have no idea why so many reviewers were claiming that Leopard is "much faster" - how much did Apple pay them to say that?

 

[72930]

Leopard and its animations are way faster on my MB C2D. Maybe thats because I spend time in Pages and Safari (not much else) and they're both optimized for 10.5

The Airport menubar icon no longer hangs on click...

 

[flopticalcube]

I would say that overall (not just animations), Leopard is slower than Tiger.

Application launch time, system bootup, etc, all takes longer. I have no idea why so many reviewers were claiming that Leopard is "much faster" - how much did Apple pay them to say that?

that might only be your personal experience. I find everything but animations to be much faster in Leopard. Most apps start with one bounce on both my MacBook and mini. Spotlight is instantaneous.

 

[Wayfarer]

Everything's smooth for me. No complaints.

 

[seanneko]

that might only be your personal experience. I find everything but animations to be much faster in Leopard. Most apps start with one bounce on both my MacBook and mini. Spotlight is instantaneous.

Are you comparing a fresh Leopard install to a fresh Tiger install, or a fresh Leopard install to a 3 year old bloated Tiger install?

The only apps that I really use are Firefox and Thunderbird which both take about 5 bounces to open. Finder and Spotlight are pretty instantaneous.

 

[00hkelly]

I would say that overall (not just animations), Leopard is slower than Tiger.

Application launch time, system bootup, etc, all takes longer. I have no idea why so many reviewers were claiming that Leopard is "much faster" - how much did Apple pay them to say that?

I would certainly disagree. Boot, login launching apps are all noticeably faster for me in leopard.

What system are you on?

The Airport menubar icon no longer hangs on click...

this used to drive me nuts in Tiger, i felt physically relieved when i learned of this feature.

 

[flopticalcube]

Are you comparing a fresh Leopard install to a fresh Tiger install, or a fresh Leopard install to a 3 year old bloated Tiger install?

The only apps that I really use are Firefox and Thunderbird which both take about 5 bounces to open. Finder and Spotlight are pretty instantaneous.

Fresh to fresh. Leopard is faster on both machines, for me at least.

 

[Snarf]

On my Mac Pro with an x1900xt everything is fine in Leopard...except expose. I wouldn't call it choppy, but it's much less smooth than it was in Tiger. I find it strange that it's only noticeable when I expose all windows.
Even more perplexing, everything runs just great on my MacBook.

 

[flopticalcube]

On my Mac Pro with an x1900xt everything is fine in Leopard...except expose. I wouldn't call it choppy, but it's much less smooth than it was in Tiger. I find it strange that it's only noticeable when I expose all windows.
Even more perplexing, everything runs just great on my MacBook.

My mini and MacBook suffer the same fate. The mini is identical in spec to the MacBook save for a slower CPU and hardrive and yet animations are fine on it but choppy on the MacBook.

 

[Alloye]

I would say that overall (not just animations), Leopard is slower than Tiger.

Application launch time, system bootup, etc, all takes longer. I have no idea why so many reviewers were claiming that Leopard is "much faster" - how much did Apple pay them to say that?

PPC or Intel?

On every Intel system I've tried, Leopard boots quicker, launches applications faster, and is generally more responsive than Tiger.

 

[mike12806]

I would say that overall (not just animations), Leopard is slower than Tiger.

Application launch time, system bootup, etc, all takes longer. I have no idea why so many reviewers were claiming that Leopard is "much faster" - how much did Apple pay them to say that?

Yeah Apple's reputation has been tarnished so badly in the past year it has now resorted to paying people to hype it's OS's....creative sarcasm On a more serious note.....I am not seeing any issues on my imac with 2.5 gigs ram and a 2.16 core 2 duo, itunes, safari, all open in "one bounce" on the dock and are ready to go, and no issues with stacks, expose, spaces. This must be an issue with the integrated graphics as I can see "Seanneko" has a macbook....

 

[Jack Dangers]

I've just noticed the longer I use it, the better it gets.

as of this evening expose and genie animations are much better...

 

[xXriderXx7]

One thing that I have noticed that I am really disappointed with is expose while watching a iTunes TV show. On Tiger, expose while watching was flawless and smooth, in leopard, it is very choppy and glitchy.

 

[Chaszmyr]

On my Mac Pro, I think the animations might have been a little smoother in Tiger, but they are still plenty smooth in Leopard.

 

[solvs]

how much did Apple pay them to say that?

Nothing. How much did Microsoft pay you? Faster for me. Has been since the early betas. I'm assuming the choppiness will go away for most users when the drivers are improved, but I haven't seen it myself. G4s, G5s, Intels. Clean Installs, Upgrades, and Archive and Installs.