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El Capitan - UI performance

aevan

aevan

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 5, 2015
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Serbia
It seems every new Mac these days have some sort of UI lag or another - from iMac 5Ks to MacBooks. I'm really curious how the 5Ks work on El Capitan. I'm hoping for a really smooth experience.

Apple claims that that Metal for OS X "speeds system-level graphics rendering by up to 50 percent".
Also - Mission Control no longer seems to have transparency effects.

So.... No more Mission Control (or any other UI) lag? Can't wait to see how it works on my iMac 5K, gonna try the public beta in July. If anyone tries a developer beta, tell us your experience regarding performance.
 
It will most likely work on the same Macs that ran Yosemite (and that it will run better) and some of the UI tweaks should make it run faster. As for Metal - no idea what the requirements are (or if they exist). I'm guessing anything that can do OpenGL or OpenCL will benefit in some way.
 
One user with a base level retina iMac said that the animations were perfectly smooth in another thread.
 
I feared the lag with my 5k iMac coming to me last week. I have yet to see any of that since owning it. I7 and 4gb graphics.
 
steve23094 said:
No lag on my M295X iMac. It's not consistent.
Click to expand...

Open 10 Safari tabs, 3-4 Photoshop files 4000x5000 size or larger, Messages, Mail and Evernote and put your calendar on desktop 2 - then work for 10 minutes or so - and then enter Mission Control. Still no lag? Just asking - not saying you will have lag, but not everyone's workflow is the same. Just some light surfing and a few docs open - I don't have any, either.
 
aevan said:
Open 10 Safari tabs, 3-4 Photoshop files 4000x5000 size or larger, Messages, Mail and Evernote and put your calendar on desktop 2 - then work for 10 minutes or so - and then enter Mission Control. Still no lag? Just asking - not saying you will have lag, but not everyone's workflow is the same. Just some light surfing and a few docs open - I don't have any, either.
Click to expand...

I mean, in reality, people do this? I'll probably be editing in PS and Lightroom while music is playing and have mail open and some tabs in safari. What you said, in my opinion, is overkill and majority computers out there would lag or crumble.
 
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Geaux said:
I mean, in reality, people do this? I'll probably be editing in PS and Lightroom while music is playing and have mail open and some tabs in safari. What you said, in my opinion, is overkill and majority computers out there would lag or crumble.
Click to expand...

Overkill for some, but for others - this is standard workflow for any illustrator working in Photoshop - and it works lag free on any non-retina iMac, including my old 2011 iMac. It also works great on the iMac 5K, only the Mission Control lags. I also expect El Capitan to eliminate UI lag completely during this workflow.

Either way, I just wanted to say that not all workflows are the same and that UI lag is a relative term.
 
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Geaux said:
I mean, in reality, people do this? I'll probably be editing in PS and Lightroom while music is playing and have mail open and some tabs in safari. What you said, in my opinion, is overkill and majority computers out there would lag or crumble.
Click to expand...

Actually, that is not that out of line for the way I use my iMac at times. Well, maybe 4 or 5 tabs open not 10 but I do a lot on it.
 
Geaux said:
I mean, in reality, people do this? I'll probably be editing in PS and Lightroom while music is playing and have mail open and some tabs in safari. What you said, in my opinion, is overkill and majority computers out there would lag or crumble.
Click to expand...
That's a light workload for many professionals. I typically have Photoshop with several 1GB+ files open, high res models in Maya and ZBrush, Safari with 10+ tabs, iTunes, and probably a few other random things.
 
some parts of the UI are really slow for me on my mid-2012 MBA. double clicking the title bar to shrink a window is super jittery
 
I have the base retina iMac and animations are much improved. I can now say the horrid Mission Control lag is fixed on my machine. I've experienced no noticeable UI lag and I am a fairly heavy user (multiple applications, browser tabs).
 
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MDMac said:
I have the base retina iMac and animations are much improved. I can now say the horrid Mission Control lag is fixed on my machine. I've experienced no noticeable UI lag and I am a fairly heavy user (multiple applications, browser tabs).
Click to expand...

And this is on Beta 1 :) Awesome news.
 
I have finally installed it on my iMac 5K (i5, M290X). I can happily say that the lag is gone.

Here's what I did:

I opened several safari tabs, Photoshop images, a reference app (PureRef) containing several large images, a PDF file, Evernote, Notability, Tweetbot, Fantastical 2, Wunderlist, Pages, App Store and Finder. I then tried Mission Control: it was perfectly smooth. No dropped frames, responsive, beautiful.

I activated quick look on a 5K image (this caused the 'zoom' animation to be choppy on Yosemite) - the animation was fluid, zoom vas fast and instant.

I opened an image heavy PDF that struggled a bit on Yosemite - this time it was really, really smooth.

Every other aspect is good too, apps load fast, swiping between desktops is fast and, honestly, the whole system somehow emanates with speed and confidence. I'm still almost expecting it to lag or be choppy, but I just can't get it to falter. Even the little things, like, opening Dictionary definitions seems faster.

And this is DP1!!

So, in conclusion: there is NO UI lag on iMac 5K i5/M290X on El Capitan. Everything is smooth and responsive. PDFs are immediate and enjoyable to read.

When developers start implementing Metal into their apps (can't wait for the next Adobe CC release) - it will be even more amazing. The iMac 5K now feels like the supercomputer it was meant to be. I couldn't be happier with it on El Capitan.
 
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aevan said:
I have finally installed it on my iMac 5K (i5, M290X). I can happily say that the lag is gone.

Here's what I did:

I opened several safari tabs, Photoshop images, a reference app (PureRef) containing several large images, a PDF file, Evernote, Notability, Tweetbot, Fantastical 2, Wunderlist, Pages, App Store and Finder. I then tried Mission Control: it was perfectly smooth. No dropped frames, responsive, beautiful.

I activated quick look on a 5K image (this caused the 'zoom' animation to be choppy on Yosemite) - the animation was fluid, zoom vas fast and instant.

I opened an image heavy PDF that struggled a bit on Yosemite - this time it was really, really smooth.

Every other aspect is good too, apps load fast, swiping between desktops is fast and, honestly, the whole system somehow emanates with speed and confidence. I'm still almost expecting it to lag or be choppy, but I just can't get it to falter. Even the little things, like, opening Dictionary definitions seems faster.

And this is DP1!!

So, in conclusion: there is NO UI lag on iMac 5K i5/M290X on El Capitan. Everything is smooth and responsive. PDFs are immediate and enjoyable to read.

When developers start implementing Metal into their apps (can't wait for the next Adobe CC release) - it will be even more amazing. The iMac 5K now feels like the supercomputer it was meant to be. I couldn't be happier with it on El Capitan.
Click to expand...


good review, what about the fans, do you hear a change? are they more active, less active? thanks..
 
I have a mid 2010 MacBook Pro (2.4GHz i5) with 8gb ram. Is anyone running El Captian on a machine this old. I am worried that it will be time for me to get a new Mac once it comes out. anyone have experience running it on something around a 2010.
 
olletsocmit said:
I have a mid 2010 MacBook Pro (2.4GHz i5) with 8gb ram. Is anyone running El Captian on a machine this old. I am worried that it will be time for me to get a new Mac once it comes out. anyone have experience running it on something around a 2010.
Click to expand...

running fine on my iMac 2008 with 6GB
 
slayerizer said:
good review, what about the fans, do you hear a change? are they more active, less active? thanks..
Click to expand...

No, they didn't change - meaning they never go up unless I game Heroes of the Storm :) I couldn't check exactly because iStat Menus isn't working on El Capitan yet, but I never heard them and the computer never got hot - it felt exactly the same as before.
 
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