I literally can't tell the difference between the UI performance in your comparison videos. Maybe you should get a better camera to more properly illustrate your hyperbole? I hear some scientists have created one that actually allows you to record the passage of actual light waves frame-by-frame. This seems perfect for you.
In fact, your videos (along with the wonderful videos posted by the OP here) have convinced me that the rMBP doesn't have a UI lag problem. I can take a lost frame or two in exchange for that resolution.
Your exaggeration of the problem and incorrect advice is in direct conflict with the status of informed developer and walking buyer's-guide you've given yourself. Cease and desist.
PS: you appear to be frustrated on the Internet.
In other words, stop posting.
Just went to my local Apple store and I have to say that I didn't even find the lag that bad. On 1400x900 there was no general OS lag. On safari it was barely noticeable on average websites, the verge was choppy but tolerable. It still pings up and down fine and is responsive, using the scroll normally on rich content websites there was no lag. Howver I tried it on the normal MBP15 and I agree the scrolling was smoother but the MBPR isn't that bad, if I didn't try the old MacBook I wouldnt have noticed the lag.
However with x1200 resolution the lag was noticeable, so I can see what Anand means. But 1400x900 best for retina on lion is perfectly useable.
This was without the 1gb update too. I definitely think that the scrolling issue is overstated. It's only going to get better on mountain lion.
I suppose it depends if you're a perfectionist or not, I could easily live with it and don't even see it as a compromise. It's also worth noting that Anand never said Haswell will fix it, he actually said that it will "take some time" to catch up with the screen resolution.
Why do so many people who do not own a rMBP think they can give a conclusive assessment of its performance? Why?
The only people who should be making conclusions are owners. After you use it for 1 week, you *may* notice the performance issues many, many others have posted about on Macrumors.
In my experience with 3 machines in here, problems have cropped up all over the place. In iMovie there's stutters that pop up while using the program. Loading OS X Finder Windows in applications also has tendencies to stutter. Swiping into things like Dashboard can stutter. It's not always as bad after things are cached but it crops up all over the place. It's frustrating.
I am not interested in making any excuses for Apple. There is no excuse. Either they have this figured out when they launch a product or not.
What is my recommendation? Buy it and use it for 13 days, if you don't like it, take it back. But you need to actually use it everyday to make a proper assessment.
Will I take mine back? I've been close to doing so. But I'm going to keep 2 of the 3 for development purposes and live with it. I do really like the screen, it runs cooler, and it's thinner and lighter. But the performance is frustrating.
I've owned every single Apple laptop there is, everyone except 17" models. That's even the PB 2400c, the Lombard, the Pismo, a gazillion Wallstreets, iBook Clamshells, including the Paris edition. I've used every version of OS X.
This computer reminds me of running OS X on the PB Wallstreet. There wasn't any GPU support and pretty much everything was offloaded to the CPU. It was slow and choppy (OS X UI events).
I'm sorry but this is an honest assessment, and after running tests and seeing others complain about choppiness, there's no denying the issues. Just to everyone... go buy it and use it. Time will sort this machine out.
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How about using the rMBP to perform graphics, video editing and animation via Adobe applications or FCP & Motion? Would like to see them in action. Thank you for taking the time to do this.
I've been messing around with Photoshop (CS 6) and I'm not impressed. Moving layers around is somewhat choppy and slower than my 2011 MBP. It doesn't feel great. But let's see if Adobe updates their $ware to optimize it for ML.
