I have an Intel HD 3000 graphics card. Is this any good? Could this be the reason why my Early 2011 Macbook Pro i5 8gb of ram running Mountain Lion is getting the spinning beachball sometimes and freezing(twice since ML)?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Is this graphics card good?
- Thread starter macuser1232
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
There are many possible causes of your Mac's slowdown, but it's definitely not the Intel HD3000. Graphics lag would present itself as choppy GUI animations, not beachballs.
hm ok. And my Mac has pretty much nothing wrong with it and I really only get the beachball when i'm opening big applications such as Adobe software. I just have this paranoia that something is wrong with my Mac.
You didn't say what MBP you have, if it is the 15" you have 2 graphic cards:
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP620
13": http://support.apple.com/kb/SP619 has one gfx card.
In my experience using a 2011 Mac mini, the HD 3000 gfx card does quite well for most applications. Of course, the discrete cards in the MBP 15" are better for more demanding situations, but in general the HD3000 is enough. Don't worry so much.
OS 10.8.x is still being improved, probably won't settle down until 10.8.6 or so...
still early days.
Check your console logs after you see the beachball, may be able to get a hint on what is causing that.
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP620
13": http://support.apple.com/kb/SP619 has one gfx card.
In my experience using a 2011 Mac mini, the HD 3000 gfx card does quite well for most applications. Of course, the discrete cards in the MBP 15" are better for more demanding situations, but in general the HD3000 is enough. Don't worry so much.
OS 10.8.x is still being improved, probably won't settle down until 10.8.6 or so...
still early days.
Check your console logs after you see the beachball, may be able to get a hint on what is causing that.
I'm pretty confident that he has the 13" i5 2011 model based on his signature.
As for the lag it could be your hard drive that's slowing you down. I'm almost certain the 5400 RPM hard drive is ruining your performance in opening apps.
So long as it doesn't occur every other click, then yes, a beach ball once in a while is nothing to worry about.
Install a SSD.
It stopped giving beach balls to me.
Its not the graphics card.
Even though HD3000 is horrible.
It stopped giving beach balls to me.
Its not the graphics card.
Even though HD3000 is horrible.
You;re not alone! There seems to be a connection between knowing too much and thinking that something is horribly wrong every time something minor happens. I have the same problem from time to time.
Wow, you can relate then! Yeah, I'm waiting to get my external hard drive so I can complete reinstall of OS X and everything else(User,Library, etc) to relieve my paranoia! Then I will put certain things back on my Mac. Can't wait!