iMac 2020 27" 8-core - randomly laggy UI, requires restart

[MythicFrost]

Hi,

Trying to sort out a strange issue for my dad's new iMac.

It's working fine most of the time, but will randomly start lagging.
Just hovering over icons in the dock is like watching a 20 FPS slideshow with jitters and pauses! Dragging windows is the same!

Specs: iMac 2020 27" | Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6 | 8-core | 32GB RAM | 5500 XT 8GB | Thunderbay 4 - 3x SSDs

I closed all open programs but the issue remained. I then opened Activity Monitor to check what's going on:

• WindowServer was using 160% CPU - 2:46:48.50 CPU time total
• AXVisualSupportAgent was using 40-60% CPU - 47:33.59 CPU time

When I stopped moving the mouse and typing, both of these dropped to <5%. As soon as I would start moving it again or typing, they both instantly jump back up to 160% / 60% respectively.

Some notes:

• No anti-virus running (or actively protecting)
• No backups running
• Turning off second monitor did nothing
• Disk usage was not high
• GPU usage was less than a few percent

Restarting fixes the issue straight away, but obviously it randomly comes back and isn't resolved until the computer is restarted.

Has anyone experienced this? Is it a common issue? Any ideas for tests that I could run to try and fix it?

Appreciate any help!

Cheers,
Mythic

 

[dspdoc]

Mouse and KB connected via BT? I’ve heard similar issues with the 7,1 MP. Hopefully you get in touch with Apple and have a senior advisor report this to engineering. I’m starting to fear that Apple is simply bailing out on Catalina and going to leave it a mess.

 

[Benz63amg]

Hi,

Trying to sort out a strange issue for my dad's new iMac.

It's working fine most of the time, but will randomly start lagging.
Just hovering over icons in the dock is like watching a 20 FPS slideshow with jitters and pauses! Dragging windows is the same!

Specs: iMac 2020 27" | Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6 | 8-core | 32GB RAM | 5500 XT 8GB | Thunderbay 4 - 3x SSDs

I closed all open programs but the issue remained. I then opened Activity Monitor to check what's going on:

• WindowServer was using 160% CPU - 2:46:48.50 CPU time total
• AXVisualSupportAgent was using 40-60% CPU - 47:33.59 CPU time

When I stopped moving the mouse and typing, both of these dropped to <5%. As soon as I would start moving it again or typing, they both instantly jump back up to 160% / 60% respectively.

Some notes:

• No anti-virus running (or actively protecting)
• No backups running
• Turning off second monitor did nothing
• Disk usage was not high
• GPU usage was less than a few percent

Restarting fixes the issue straight away, but obviously it randomly comes back and isn't resolved until the computer is restarted.

Has anyone experienced this? Is it a common issue? Any ideas for tests that I could run to try and fix it?

Appreciate any help!

Cheers,
Mythic

Are you using third party Ram? What Apps do you have installed on the Mac?

 

[MythicFrost]

Thanks for the responses guys!

Mouse and KB connected via BT? I’ve heard similar issues with the 7,1 MP. Hopefully you get in touch with Apple and have a senior advisor report this to engineering. I’m starting to fear that Apple is simply bailing out on Catalina and going to leave it a mess.

No - wired mouse and keyboard. Also audio hardware is connected (Helix.) I'll get in touch if I can't figure out any way to test it further.

Are you using third party Ram? What Apps do you have installed on the Mac?

32GB from MacFixIt. Off the top of my head, lots of Adobe apps (16+) as well as software for the Helix. However, I closed all open apps at the time so nothing else was running besides activity monitor.