Comparison: Mavericks vs Yosemite Responsiveness [Videos]

[MuzakaEklekta]

Over on the Mac mini forum, I shared my experience with running Yosemite on my Mac mini (Early 2009).

I ran benchmarks that proved the UI is drastically slower in Yosemite compared to previous versions of OS X. Well, at least on my machine anyway The whole OS feels very unresponsive, most evident in the simple act of resizing a window. Something which we have been doing since the 80s.

Here's my experience. I have 4GB of RAM, SSD and a clean install. It's just a Finder window showing some folders. Nothing complex at all.

Resizing a window in Mavericks:
http://youtu.be/174ugKsj6z4

Resizing a window in Yosemite:
http://youtu.be/1TMh5Pjj4uk

Core Animation in Yosemite must have taken a fundamental change because something strange is afoot. Is everything vector now?

I would love to know if others have experienced such a hit in UI responsiveness or have any idea what Apple have done under the hood that has caused this?

 

[joewillmott]

I too have experienced this sluggishness in Yosemite (2012 MBA) just as bad as shown in those videos. I also find scrolling through websites is *sometimes* smooth, but often sluggish as hell.

I am angry that the machine I use to make a living is now unbearably slow. To the point it has completely destroyed my productivity, in fact.

 

[TechGod]

I too have experienced this sluggishness in Yosemite (2012 MBA) just as bad as shown in those videos. I also find scrolling through websites is *sometimes* smooth, but often sluggish as hell.

I am angry that the machine I use to make a living is now unbearably slow. To the point it has completely destroyed my productivity, in fact.

Clean install?

 

[MyopicPaideia]

So weird that Yosemite is providing such an inconsistent experience. The 2010 Mac mini in my sig is completely smooth with every basic UI element I throw at it. My 2011 MBA in my signature OTOH has a big problem with scrolling in Mail app specifically, it is much less responsive and jittery than Mavericks, which wasn't entirely smooth either.

In theory, my Mac mini should be having a harder time than the MBA, but that's not my experience. Both machines are on the default MAS update installed from Mavericks 10.9.5, neither are clean installs.

 

[tumas]

Resizing on my MBPr 15 looks different than yours and works without those lags. Not sure why, maybe because of the much higher RAM? I have 16GB and Yosemite uses a lot of RAM (which is not a bad thing as long as there is enough available).

 

[mabaker]

Remember to submit Apple feedback. Posting here won't yield any results.

I agree the UI lag is unbearable in Mision Control and on some websites.

 

[MuzakaEklekta]

Resizing on my MBPr 15 looks different than yours and works without those lags. Not sure why, maybe because of the much higher RAM? I have 16GB and Yosemite uses a lot of RAM (which is not a bad thing as long as there is enough available).

I've noticed that with Finder, it is worse when having the column view show a directory with a few folders. If the folder is empty, it seems more responsive. Also, icon view and detailed list view seem more responsive than column view. What does this all mean?! Argh! See if this behaviour rings true for you too.

 

[tumas]

I've noticed that it is worse when having the list view show a directory with a few folders. If the folder is empty, it seems more responsive. See if this rings true for you too?

Actually i tried it inside the programs directory + list view. Even inside the library directory it is quite smooth. But since i do not have the Mac mini, maybe there are others who can confirm this kind of issue with the same/similar hardware?!

 

[Beavix]

Same problems here on my Early 2009 Mac Mini. Yosemite is very slow.

Also on my 15" rMBP (Late 2013) Finder is noticeable slower than in Mavericks. And there are a bunch of graphic glitches which were already mentioned on this forum. Erasing and installing Yosemite did not help.

 

[mvmanolov]

I've noticed that with Finder, it is worse when having the column view show a directory with a few folders. If the folder is empty, it seems more responsive. Also, icon view and detailed list view seem more responsive than column view. What does this all mean?! Argh! See if this behaviour rings true for you too.

on my mini it a little choppy but nothing even remotely close to what your video showed...

 

[VMukhtarov]

Same problem on my MBP mid 2012.

 

[ijha]

Yosemite is sluggish on my 2013 rMBP. Never experienced before.

 

[GlenK]

It is amazing how inconsistent this seems to be. My 2011 MBP runs like a new Mac on Yosemite, and my sluggishness was on Mavericks.

I am totally happy with Yosemite performance. It's actually incredible!!

 

[ABC5S]

So weird that Yosemite is providing such an inconsistent experience. The 2010 Mac mini in my sig is completely smooth with every basic UI element I throw at it. My 2011 MBA in my signature OTOH has a big problem with scrolling in Mail app specifically, it is much less responsive and jittery than Mavericks, which wasn't entirely smooth either.

In theory, my Mac mini should be having a harder time than the MBA, but that's not my experience. Both machines are on the default MAS update installed from Mavericks 10.9.5, neither are clean installs.

It is amazing how inconsistent this seems to be. My 2011 MBP runs like a new Mac on Yosemite, and my sluggishness was on Mavericks.

I am totally happy with Yosemite performance. It's actually incredible!!

Mine is just fine. Me thinks it's the User that is at fault, not Yosemite. It's what they have on the system, their programs, not a clean install, possible hardware changes, something they did to it.

If we can have a good experience, than they should has well, but the download was borked, they probably did an update, not a clean install, they put some app or program on it that does not work well with Yosemite, etc, etc. They can rant all they want, but unless they start fresh, and make sure they do it right, I have no sympathy for them.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

I too have experienced this sluggishness in Yosemite (2012 MBA) just as bad as shown in those videos. I also find scrolling through websites is *sometimes* smooth, but often sluggish as hell.

It is also possible that this is just a new GUI animation, and appears therefore slower.

Quartz Debug (part of the development tools) can show you the real number of frames per second.

 

[Wheelie4]

Over on the Mac mini forum, I shared my experience with running Yosemite on my Mac mini (Early 2009).

I ran benchmarks that proved the UI is drastically slower in Yosemite compared to previous versions of OS X. Well, at least on my machine anyway The whole OS feels very unresponsive, most evident in the simple act of resizing a window. Something which we have been doing since the 80s.

Here's my experience. I have 4GB of RAM, SSD and a clean install. It's just a Finder window showing some folders. Nothing complex at all.

Resizing a window in Mavericks:
http://youtu.be/174ugKsj6z4

Resizing a window in Yosemite:
http://youtu.be/1TMh5Pjj4uk

Core Animation in Yosemite must have taken a fundamental change because something strange is afoot. Is everything vector now?

I would love to know if others have experienced such a hit in UI responsiveness or have any idea what Apple have done under the hood that has caused this?

Redo your tests experiment with "Reduce transparency" checked in system preferences accessibility section and see if it makes a difference.

 

[MuzakaEklekta]

Mine is just fine. Me thinks it's the User that is at fault, not Yosemite. It's what they have on the system, their programs, not a clean install, possible hardware changes, something they did to it.

Well mine's a clean install, so calm down.

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Redo your tests experiment with "Reduce transparency" checked in system preferences accessibility section and see if it makes a difference.

Yeah, already have this checked.

 

[MyopicPaideia]

Yosemite is sluggish on my 2013 rMBA. Never experienced before.

Apple made a 2013 rMBA!?!? I want one!!!

 

[Smoothie]

After reading posts like this, I've decided to forgo installing Yosemite on my mid-2009 13" MBP even though it's on the approved upgrade list. I'm currently running Mountain Lion, and the computer is very responsive. I installed an SSD a couple of years ago, and that made an incredible difference in the overall speed. I'm going to wait until Apple releases a new MBP lineup with Broadwell processors before replacing my computer and running Yosemite.

 

[ABC5S]

Well mine's a clean install, so calm down.

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Yeah, already have this checked.

Have you even given any thought as to many others without issues or very little of them and having a good experience, that it's you that messed up some where, bad download perhaps, things installed on your system (Programs/Apps/hardware), did not to do a disk repair or PRAM or something else ? Sorry but if mine and others are doing fine, it must be you. Give that some thought and do it over. Clean install, don't use Time Machine/CCC or another back up, see if all is well, than install one program at a time.

 

[MuzakaEklekta]

Have you even given any thought as to many others without issues or very little of them and having a good experience, that it's you that messed up some where, bad download perhaps, things installed on your system (Programs/Apps/hardware), did not to do a disk repair or PRAM or something else ? Sorry but if mine and others are doing fine, it must be you. Give that some thought and do it over. Clean install, don't use Time Machine/CCC or another back up, see if all is well, than install one program at a time.

You're coming across as arrogant and rude.

As an IT technician, I don't think you need to worry about my groundwork. As I have stated, it's a clean install. The only factor that has changed is a new OS. Hardware inside has not changed since 3 years ago.

 

[pcote]

Over on the Mac mini forum, I shared my experience with running Yosemite on my Mac mini (Early 2009).

I ran benchmarks that proved the UI is drastically slower in Yosemite compared to previous versions of OS X. Well, at least on my machine anyway The whole OS feels very unresponsive, most evident in the simple act of resizing a window. Something which we have been doing since the 80s.

Here's my experience. I have 4GB of RAM, SSD and a clean install. It's just a Finder window showing some folders. Nothing complex at all.

Resizing a window in Mavericks:
http://youtu.be/174ugKsj6z4

Resizing a window in Yosemite:
http://youtu.be/1TMh5Pjj4uk

Core Animation in Yosemite must have taken a fundamental change because something strange is afoot. Is everything vector now?

I would love to know if others have experienced such a hit in UI responsiveness or have any idea what Apple have done under the hood that has caused this?

I have the same problem. I submitted this to Apple but it is still very slow as of today. I even tried installing 10.10.3 Public Beta to see if it would help but it doesn't.

Anybody found a solution yet? Thanks.

----------

I've noticed that with Finder, it is worse when having the column view show a directory with a few folders. If the folder is empty, it seems more responsive. Also, icon view and detailed list view seem more responsive than column view. What does this all mean?! Argh! See if this behaviour rings true for you too.

I noticed it is a bit faster when you enable the option to show scroll bars at all time...

 

[orioncrystalice]

This might be useless, but I noticed that switching to Scale effect for minimizing has actually sped up my performance. Yosemite already ran better than Mavericks did for me, but getting rid of the Genie effect makes it run how I really expect to, down to a single bounce on opening Safari. Keep in mind I'm also on public beta 10.10.3.

 

[MarcusCarpenter]

Disabling font smoothing on my 15" retina machine seems to have removed the lag when resizing windows, still happens on safari depending on which site I'm on but don't in anything else

Settings/general/LCD font smoothing - off

 

[vista980622]

Have you even given any thought as to many others without issues or very little of them and having a good experience, that it's you that messed up some where, bad download perhaps, things installed on your system (Programs/Apps/hardware), did not to do a disk repair or PRAM or something else ? Sorry but if mine and others are doing fine, it must be you. Give that some thought and do it over. Clean install, don't use Time Machine/CCC or another back up, see if all is well, than install one program at a time.

Nope, sorry.

All my personal Mac as well as my friends' Mac with OS X Yosemite has the same choppy Finder window resizing in column view with folder containing more than 20 files. Went into an Apple Store. All their Macs (which are deployed with fresh restore images) has the exact same performance issue.

I'm happy that you enjoy Yosemite. Sometimes it's really awesome that many people don't feel the obvious sluggishness and can simply enjoy new technology!

----------

I have the same problem. I submitted this to Apple but it is still very slow as of today. I even tried installing 10.10.3 Public Beta to see if it would help but it doesn't.

Anybody found a solution yet? Thanks.

----------



I noticed it is a bit faster when you enable the option to show scroll bars at all time...

Looks like an API issue instead of Finder app's issue since the same performance problem is still present with 10.9 Finder.app running under 10.10.

Beside filing bug reports and hoping Apple fixing it soon (since it's not a critical bug, I don't think it will be fixed in 10.10 at all, but probably 10.11), there's nothing we can do on our ends beside downgrading to Mavericks or replacing the entire Finder app and it's corresponding frameworks with their counterparts in Mavericks. (BTW - Attempt to do that will result in a tangled mess)