Does ML Bring Back the Snappiness of OSX?

[superspartan]

I tried 10.7 three or four times on my mid-2007 iMac with a Radeon HD 2400. The hard drive has been swapped for an SSD, so the general performance was okay, but I found the animations in Lion to be so sluggish that it made my machine feel very laggy. I'm a heavy Expose user, so the Mission Control delays were unacceptable.

10.6 is smooth as silk, but many of the ML features look pretty appealing. Anyone have experience on a similar machine or graphics card?

 

[antoniogra7]

I haven't tried DP4, but DP1 or DP2 (can't remember which one I tried) felt almost as sluggish as lion in my mid-2010 13" MacBook Pro.

I really hope it's improved by now.

 

[PurrBall]

It's a lot better, for me at least. Graphics performance is still an issue, but you can tell they're working hard on it. My AMD card in my MacBook Pro is running very smoothly now.

 

[ErikGrim]

Maybe it's time to upgrade your half a decade old computer. Just a suggestion.

 

[antoniogra7]

Maybe it's time to upgrade your half a decade old computer. Just a suggestion.

If Snow Leopard ran well, the problem is the software, not the hardware.

 

[ErikGrim]

If Snow Leopard ran well, the problem is the software, not the hardware.

Your computer science knowledge is either lacking or you are completely delusional.

 

[Cougarcat]

On my 2010 MBP it definitely feels better--especially scrolling in Safari. (DP4).

ML should run perfectly fine on your 2007 iMac. Same processor as 2010 MBPs, and although the graphics card is dated, it should be more than enough to handle OS X. Of course, Apple is somewhat notorious for neglecting drivers for older cards.

 

[MikhailT]

I doubt ML is going to be better than Snow Leopard or Lion on your iMac, it is outdated and ML does more animations that might take a hit on your iMac since there's very little chance that Apple will update the drivers for your graphic card.

 

[superspartan]

Maybe it's time to upgrade your half a decade old computer. Just a suggestion.

Sure the computer is 5 years old, but with a Core2Duo faster than some Airs sold just last year, a fast SSD, and 4GB of RAM, I'd hardly consider it underpowered for basic use. The only bottleneck is probably the graphics card.

As mentioned in this thread, much of the animation issues could be the result of graphics drivers that aren't optimized for older hardware. I had asked my original question with the hope that the updated drivers & graphics overhall in 10.8 would help with the performance hit I took in Lion.

 

[RJCP]

I'm trying it right now. I backed up my Lion system and upgraded it to ML's DP4 'cause I wanted to test it properly on a daily system, not on an ascetic fresh install.

I have a late 2008 Macbook Alum with 4Gb RAM and a Seagate Momentus XT.

PROS:
Some apps aren't even bouncing once before opening. They just open (especially after you've used them more than once).
Graphic performance is very very smooth and at the level of SL (Launchpad and Dock magnifying were very choppy for me in Lion);
Safari may very well be the release of Safari everyone's been asking for: snappy, smooth and beautiful;
Regarding boot time, it takes 30 seconds to be fully up and running and about 5 seconds to shut down (but as you know this is highly variable according to which apps you have open)
Correct free disk space counting: in Lion, a Finder window would say I had X free space and Disk Utility would say I had Y free space. On ML they've finally agreed.
Some new GUI touches are great.
CONS:
amplified scroll bars are HIDEOUS!!!! ABSO-FRIGGIN-LUTELY HIDEOUS I hope Apple either trashes them completely for the release or redesigns them.
Longest Spotlight indexation ever.
Stupid Safari "r" bug: type an R on the search/address bar and it crashes.

This is what I've came across so far, but I've been working on Pages all afternoon and did very little trying around.

 

[ScottishDuck]

DP4 seems more unstable than DP3.2 but it's still far more productive than Lion.

Lion was just awful.

 

[rorschach]

If Snow Leopard ran well, the problem is the software, not the hardware.

How does that make sense, at all? Lion is newer software than SL. Of course 5-year-old hardware won't run new software as well as it does old software.

Mac OS 9 ran well on my TiBook and Snow Leopard doesn't at all; it's obviously the software's problem, right?

 

[Cougarcat]

How does that make sense, at all? Lion is newer software than SL. Of course 5-year-old hardware won't run new software as well as it does old software.

Newer software doesn't necessarily make the system requirements higher. (And there is negligible difference between a 5-year old iMac and 2-year old 13" MBP.)

The only thing in OS X that's really more demanding are the increased animations, (and added features which could benefit from more RAM) but anything above a GMA 950 should be handle them easily.

Apple doesn't put in the effort to support older machines well, though, especially when graphics drivers are concerned.

 

[antoniogra7]

How does that make sense, at all? Lion is newer software than SL. Of course 5-year-old hardware won't run new software as well as it does old software.

Mac OS 9 ran well on my TiBook and Snow Leopard doesn't at all; it's obviously the software's problem, right?

There is a little bit more difference between Snow Leopard and Mac OS 9 than between SL and Lion. In fact, Lion only brought a few aesthetic changes (which shouldn't affect the performance: animations like mission control are comparable to SL's exposé, etc) and the other changes which also shouldn't affect the performance, at least when they are not being used: Launchpad, Restore, Autosave, Versions, Airdrop, etc.

Don't talk nonsense and accept that Lion is a back step from Apple in terms of performance.

 

[Icy1007]

They changed major aspects of the graphics subsystem from SL to Lion. They're doing it again from Lion to ML. Performance is a non-issue with Lion on my Mac. I suspect ML to perform the same or worse on your iMac as Lion did.

 

[jabalczar]

I hope it does bring back the snappiness. I'm running Lion on the latest iMac 21.5ins with 12GB RAM and it isn't snappy, certainly not compared to SL, though I much prefer Lion as an OS. My HD spins too much too often.

I'm hoping ML does for Lion what SL did for Leopard given they both retain the same animal family names, just moving to a 'leaner' animal within that family.

 

[garybUK]

I am running ML DP4 on a Late-2007 Macbook Pro 15" 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo with 4gb ram, and it 'feels' a lot better than Lion..... but it's not been installed that long to be honest and I did a clean install.

 

[irnchriz]

ML DP4 seemed as fast as Lion on my iMac and Macbook Pro. Not had a single issue with Lion on either machine and Lion was far far faster on my iMac than Snow Leopard ever was.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

How does that make sense, at all?

It makes sense, if you know the history of (Mac) OS X.

Lion is newer software than SL. Of course 5-year-old hardware won't run new software as well as it does old software.

Nonsense! Panther did run much faster than Jaguar on "older" hardware. I would say twice as fast, including all animations, shadows, and so on. Why? Apple optimized a lot of code in Panther, and they used a much better compiler. So 10.3 was faster than 10.2. I expect also that ML has the same hardware requirements as Lion, but runs much faster.

 

[MikhailT]

The problem is that ML is going to be exactly one year after the Lion's release, I seriously doubt that's enough time to optimize ML to the point that it'd be much faster than Lion. It usually takes much longer than that to really optimize the OS to the point that it'd be as fast as Tiger or Leopard.

From what I've seen in this forum, ML is slightly faster but compared to 10.7.4, it's barely noticeable.

With only one month left, I don't think it's going to speed up that much.

I really hope Apple would just stop, take a step back and just streamline the OS without any new features.

 

[GoGa]

The last few releases of ML have been slightly snappier than lion for me, but the latest build relased today is a hell of a lot smoother and snappier. Lots better than lion for me, I am using a 2009 iMac.

 

[RJCP]

Same for me. DP4 with today's update runs with the same responsiveness of Snow Leopard. It's absolutely amazing.
Safari hasn't been this responsive for YEARS now. It's stunning. Finder just opens instantly.

I think ML is going to be what should have been and that is an absolutely brillian OS.

 

[mentaluproar]

ML seems to be the completed Lion, which makes me wonder about the release of Lion. I think Steve wanted to stand on that stage one last time before he died, so he had them rush Lion.

 

[gentlefury]

I tried 10.7 three or four times on my mid-2007 iMac with a Radeon HD 2400. The hard drive has been swapped for an SSD, so the general performance was okay, but I found the animations in Lion to be so sluggish that it made my machine feel very laggy. I'm a heavy Expose user, so the Mission Control delays were unacceptable.

10.6 is smooth as silk, but many of the ML features look pretty appealing. Anyone have experience on a similar machine or graphics card?

All of my macs are extremely fast on Lion. Maybe try a fresh install.

 

[RoelJuun]

All of my macs are extremely fast on Lion. Maybe try a fresh install.

A fresh install will not fix terrible graphics drivers.