Air graphics/mouse movement not smooth on Thunderbolt Display

[heffer2k02]

Hey all,

I have the Macbook Air 2011 top spec plus Thunderbolt Display.
They are both so beautiful.
But something is not quite right with them.
The graphics and mouse on Thunderbolt feel laggy.
This reads like a Haiku.

Anyway, I have never sensed any issue when using the laptop by itself, but as I move the mouse, and more noticeably if I move windows, it sometimes jumps or stutters. It also appears to have a cycle, something like every 4 seconds (but this can come and go). My mouse is wired, I've tried other mice. I'm certain it's nothing to do with the mouse, but more a graphical issue. Perhaps something related to vertical sync, but I'm just speculating.

Can someone with the same setup try? Grab your browser window and rotate your mouse in circles. It feels beautifully smooth for a few seconds, then it judders a bit. If your using the mouse to click things it has caused me to overshoot or miss.

I've rebooted, made sure everything is shutdown, I have all latest updates. I can see no service in 'top' terminal util suddenly thrashing the cpu or anything like that.

Perhaps Intel's sucky chipset/drivers can't drive the display properly at that resolution. In fact, can someone with other Thunderbolt ported systems give it a shot? Would be interesting to see if it occurs with the discrete GPU systems.

Cheers,
Charlie

 

[Freeza]

Hi,

I have also noticed this. This is my setup.
Apple Mac Mini 2011 model with Intel HD Graphics with upgraded 8gb Crucial RAM hooked up to Dell 2408wfp over Displayport via Thunderbolt port.

I hooked up via displayport because the colors over hdmi were way off. However the mouse movement was very "weird" and erratic. It would be smooth, then jerky, then smooth, then jerky in an endless loop. I have read online with many people having similar mouse problems on Lion.

I just now switched back to HDMI and the mouse movement is normal again!

I will try hooking it up by dvi and thunderbolt again. I can't believe that such an "advanced" port is giving such a serious problem. Let me know if you somehow fixed your issue.

I just saw your post and you posted a while ago. So not sure if you will even read this but maybe others may benefit.

 

[heffer2k02]

Hey. A reply! I was beginning to think I was the only one.
I never found a fix for this. I just live with it and don't really notice it anymore.
It's interesting you say the problem didn't occur over HDMI. It was at full resolution through HDMI? I only have Thunderbolt as I'm using the Air so not much use to me I guess, but it would shed light on whether the problem is the integrated graphics being too weak to power that resolution properly, or if it is down to Thunderbolt itself.

Apple can take years to fix these kind of unpopular bugs, so frankly I've resigned myself to it.