Definitive evidence Retina Macbook pro slowdowns are software based

What about CPU/GPU temperatures and battery drain when these things are enabled? Which GPU is being used, the internal one or the dedicated one?

 

Just tried this. theverge.com and facebook.com struggle to break 20fps on integrated or discrete graphics with these settings enabled.

 

i think theres still a lot of confusion as to whats going on under the hood technically speaking to make these retinas flow. Apple is doing a LOT of trickery to keep these displays relatively smooth. im still slightly confused as to whats responsible for what. i was in the apple store yesterday for quite sometime on one. I was on an 8gb machine and the graphics staggering and stuttering was extremely noticable. screen tearing in the OS was quite noticible when doing basic tasks.i switched over to discrete and it didnt make a bit of difference. i was actually shocked because i thought the stuttering was a graphics card issue. So im wondering if 16g of ram would help instead of the graphics card.

my new macbook pro non retina performed horribly with parallels, graphics stuttering and skipping as well but it was because i needed more RAM and once i upgraded it was smooth. Im wondering if you guys who are having a smooth experience on the rMBP is simply because you have more ram. Honestly, on the 8g machine last night, typical OS operations like swiping, or Maximizing was pretty bad, graphics tearing and stuttering. i have 7 days left to return my 2012 purchase non retina model (honestly, the screen res on this compared to retina is so bad its giving me headaches) but i dont understand whats driving the retina to behave that way, nobody seems to know what the issue is.

 

With the i7 chips the more ram you put in, the more vram you have on battery/low power mode. Integrated graphics memory is based on how much you can spare. 16GB brings it to almost a GB of vram, which I'm sure can make a big difference when rendering using the HD4000.

 

so the idea that OS performance on the rMBP can be vastly different between 8 and 16 g machines, regardless of discrete graphic performance?

 

see, this is what im saying. nobody seems to be able to pinpoint exactly whats going on here. vram, ram, software? ive read two very different results of graphics staggering on these machines and im starting to think the real issue is two different ram configurations of 8 vs 16. Ive read on these forums users having literally zero issues other than the occasional stutter, then theres the "so much stuttering im thinking of returning it" ...starting to wonder if its simply a ram issue.

 

Being a completely new piece of hardware, I'm sure there will be updates coming soon to address any issues. ML is coming out in a couple weeks....so I'm sure that will address a lot of issues...be patient, early adopters. I never freak out over new device hiccups. It's expected and will be repaired...as long as there aren't any show stoppers, like iMac crashing on flash playback...we should be good (even that got resolved within a month of release.)

 

I have the base rMBP 2.3/8/256 and I have no scroll lag problems. I use facebook pretty heavy and it flows smooth as does all transitions. I'm pretty OCD when it comes to spending this much money and I see and have zero problems with this laptop. I hope you guys figure it out. Mine is also with stock default settings 1440x900 best for retina.
jeff

 

Why would it be an advantage? A full 2880x1800 image is just around 20 MB. Add offscreen buffers for subelements, windows, etc, and you maybe end up with 5 times as much storage requirements. Around 150Mb or so should be enough to pack in everything you need.

 

Are you serious?? Wtf is wrong with this forum??? Is it required that everyone is negative about everything? Why would more ram and more vram be an advantage...I don't know, according to you its not.

Though I'm guessing if I said something like, you don't need that much ram you would say that you do.

I'm getting sick of this forum being full of people with a need to argue rather than discuss anything!

 

No reason to get so exited. I was just asking why you thing that 1GB VRAM would substantially speed up a task for which a few hundred MB are already more then enough. Having a 1000ps car won't let you be any quicker in a rush hour either.

BTW, I am, discussing, you are the one who is arguing

 

The additional ram can only help and never hurt. My car is fast...not in bumper to bumper...but once that traffic clears I am happy to have a car that can blast ahead....also when there are breaks in traffic I don't have to be afraid to but thru since I have the power to do it without any incidents.

 

Seriously? It's obviously not a RAM issue. If a computer needs 16gb of ram just to scroll up and down than that is a monumental failure of a machine.

 

I agree, scrolling is not a hardware function. It might be OpenGL accelerated tho. Which would account for graphics memory and unfortunately with the power saver HD4000 GPU, the VRAM is based on how much physical memory you have.

 

Please be an adult, Im not here to argue the merits of owning this machine. Ive been using apple products since day one, i dont need people telling me its a great machine. I know its great, thats why im on this forum asking the question.

Im ready to pull the trigger and buy a rMBP and Im willing to settle for a few hiccups to get this gorgeous screen but Id like to know technically why things are behaving the way they are so i can make an informed decision. The lagging and tearing I witnessed at the store on the 8g model was not in my head and it wasnt a "small issue". If you don't know simply say you dont know. Im looking for a simple technical answer as to why switching between between on board and discrete wouldnt make a difference on an 8G ram model if supposedly the OS is driving the screen from the graphics chips.

Im seeing WIDELY varying reports of the smoothness on this display and im trying to figure out if its due to the ram configuration. Please dont respond with "deal with it", "its a beautiful machine", etc.

 

by the way, im starting to wonder if theres something on the imaged drives at apple that might be causing this as well.

 

OpenGL is a hardware function.

 

That was my point. While the scrolling is not a hardware issue, if it is OpenGL accelerated it becomes one.

 

Using Safari, any one else notice scrolling on Facebook is much smoother if you play a video thats been posted to your news feed?

 

Some people are definitely more sensitive to a little lag then others, probably depending on their other computing experiences. If you were around for the early OS X days, you probably wouldn't even refer to what the rMBP has as lag.