Just returned new iMac 5k :(

[familychoice]

When I said I had the same setup as robgendreau, that meant the 295.

Yes, it's scanned -- but it's also 561 MB, which is a lot of PDF. There's not the slightest hesitation (I wish I could say that about large images in LR and PS.)

If it's scanned then the Mac isn't having to do as much work redrawing the fonts - it's a simple image resize. Plus if you're using the m295 you probably wouldn't have the issue anyway as the extra power seems to fix the problem.

There are a lots of people with M290X that don-t suffer from this, but also a lot having the issue , I think it's software related

I personally think it's hardware, as 295x users don't seem to have the issue. Do you have links to any reports from 290 users that can handle large .pdf's without any issues?

 

[Astelith]

If it's scanned then the Mac isn't having to do as much work redrawing the fonts - it's a simple image resize. Plus if you're using the m295 you probably wouldn't have the issue anyway as the extra power seems to fix the problem.



I personally think it's hardware, as 295x users don't seem to have the issue. Do you have links to any reports from 290 users that can handle large .pdf's without any issues?

I know people with the m295x having the issue, and yes others with the 290 handling good large PDFs

 

[familychoice]

I know people with the m295x having the issue, and yes others with the 290 handling good large PDFs

Links to 290 users handling large .pdf's without issues? I haven't read any myself so it'd be good to have some evidence of this.

 

[roadkill401]

I have an riMac with an i7 and the x290 video card. Wondering if I would experience the same thing I found a 17.7mb pdf file link and gave it a try.

I can load it with no lag or beach ball. I can zoom in and out with only a slight milisecond delay, but that is quite standard for any of the pdf's that I have ever used. No beach ball. Zoomed to any level I can scroll and move around with no lag or problem.

I am curious if I am just not performing the same functions as everyone else. I am at 6.09mb of used memory on the iMac. I just can't seem to get any issue.

 

[familychoice]

I have an riMac with an i7 and the x290 video card. Wondering if I would experience the same thing I found a 17.7mb pdf file link and gave it a try.

I can load it with no lag or beach ball. I can zoom in and out with only a slight milisecond delay, but that is quite standard for any of the pdf's that I have ever used. No beach ball. Zoomed to any level I can scroll and move around with no lag or problem.

I am curious if I am just not performing the same functions as everyone else. I am at 6.09mb of used memory on the iMac. I just can't seem to get any issue.

Are you viewing the .pdf after downloading it on your desktop, or viewing it online?

I notice you have the i7 upgrade, I had the standard i5 model - maybe the standard i5 and x290 combination is not up to the redrawing task of viewing larger .pdf on the desktop?

 

[joema2]

Are you viewing the .pdf after downloading it on your desktop, or viewing it online?

Note there are four different display pathways a PDF can be viewed:

(1) OS X built-in PDF preview. Access by: selecting PDF in finder, press space bar. Page up/down by: Fn + up/down arrow keys

(2) Stand-alone Adobe Reader. Access by: double-clicking on PDF in finder (if Adobe Reader is default app for this file type). Otherwise, drag/drop PDF to Adobe Reader icon. Page up/down by: Cmd + up/down arrow.

(3) Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari. Access by: open PDF from Safari, or drag/drop local PDF to Safari.

(4) Safari built-in PDF Rendering. To use this you have to first disable the Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari (do at your own risk): remove Adobe plugins from Mac HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin, also delete AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin. This will cause PDF display within Safari to revert to the built-in Apple PDF renderer.

If everyone evaluating this situation doesn't use the same PDF display method you can't be sure your results are comparable.

Also Adobe Reader has fairly recently had major performance problems on OS X, mostly fixed in recent versions. If everyone is not using the latest version of Adobe Reader, that is another variable.

Here is another smaller PDF test file I've found useful: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa-tnd-6846pt.1.pdf

 

[roadkill401]

Are you viewing the .pdf after downloading it on your desktop, or viewing it online?

I notice you have the i7 upgrade, I had the standard i5 model - maybe the standard i5 and x290 combination is not up to the redrawing task of viewing larger .pdf on the desktop?

I simply downloaded it to my documents folder (SSD) and double click it. Brings up this app called Preview (ver 8.0)

As far as the processor goes, I find it very hard to think that would make any bit of difference to the display properties of the video card. The thread seem to make the inference that the x290 card could not keep up with displaying a large PDF file and that you would need to get the x295 upgrade. I just wanted to dispute those findings as I can easily read/view pdf files on my riMac.

As said, unless you give the actual specifics as to what app, and how you got the results you got so that someone else can try and reproduce the problem you had, it is sort of conjecture. You had said in a post that you tried this on an riMac at an apple store and got the same results, I would hightly doubt that apple would load a whole bunch of alternate apps into the demo machine to cripple it but rather have quite a vanilla install like I have.

 

[fathergll]

Note there are four different display pathways a PDF can be viewed:

(1) OS X built-in PDF preview. Access by: selecting PDF in finder, press space bar. Page up/down by: Fn + up/down arrow keys

(2) Stand-alone Adobe Reader. Access by: double-clicking on PDF in finder (if Adobe Reader is default app for this file type). Otherwise, drag/drop PDF to Adobe Reader icon. Page up/down by: Cmd + up/down arrow.

(3) Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari. Access by: open PDF from Safari, or drag/drop local PDF to Safari.

(4) Safari built-in PDF Rendering. To use this you have to first disable the Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari (do at your own risk): remove Adobe plugins from Mac HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/AdobePDFViewer.plugin, also delete AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin. This will cause PDF display within Safari to revert to the built-in Apple PDF renderer.

If everyone evaluating this situation doesn't use the same PDF display method you can't be sure your results are comparable.

Also Adobe Reader has fairly recently had major performance problems on OS X, mostly fixed in recent versions. If everyone is not using the latest version of Adobe Reader, that is another variable.

Here is another smaller PDF test file I've found useful: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/nasa-tnd-6846pt.1.pdf

I'm on a base model iMac and I tried the nasa pdf. I downloaded the pdf to my computer and I got lag using both the Adobe Reader and OSX PDF preview. Interesting note..... I then started up Windows 7 via Parallels and also had a lag issue in Adobe Reader but then tried a freeware program called Sumatra PDF reader and lag went away.

 

[joema2]

I'm on a base model iMac and I tried the nasa pdf. I downloaded the pdf to my computer and I got lag using both the Adobe Reader and OSX PDF preview. Interesting note..... I then started up Windows 7 via Parallels and also had a lag issue in Adobe Reader but then tried a freeware program called Sumatra PDF reader and lag went away.

OK thanks for trying that. On my 2013 iMac 27 with 3.5Ghz i7 and GTX-780m, I get no lag when scrolling rapidly or doing rapid page up and page downs using:

- Adobe Safari plug-in
- OS X Quick Look (hit spacebar in Finder)

There is a slight trace of lag using Adobe Reader on rapid page up and down operations but it's very small.

I have the latest Adobe Reader ver. 11.0.10.

 

[GatorGhost]

I simply downloaded it to my documents folder (SSD) and double click it. Brings up this app called Preview (ver 8.0)

As far as the processor goes, I find it very hard to think that would make any bit of difference to the display properties of the video card. The thread seem to make the inference that the x290 card could not keep up with displaying a large PDF file and that you would need to get the x295 upgrade. I just wanted to dispute those findings as I can easily read/view pdf files on my riMac.

As said, unless you give the actual specifics as to what app, and how you got the results you got so that someone else can try and reproduce the problem you had, it is sort of conjecture. You had said in a post that you tried this on an riMac at an apple store and got the same results, I would hightly doubt that apple would load a whole bunch of alternate apps into the demo machine to cripple it but rather have quite a vanilla install like I have.

Same here! I used a pdf file at 24mgs and a preview file at 19mgs and it snaps right up every time on my base retina iMac. They are both the same image saved both ways. Same for the test file in the prior post. All is well.
My main point is that...every complaint on this forum about the retina iMac, I have not been able to replicate in any way what so ever. I do not see how this system will not be able to function well for several years.
Maybe, it is that when I bought this unit I loaded everything from scratch...that is programs and files and data from a 2012 iMac. I am surprised at the performance of the i5 chip and the 2gig video card of which I knew may not be as strong as the custom configurations.

 

[familychoice]

As said, unless you give the actual specifics as to what app, and how you got the results you got so that someone else can try and reproduce the problem you had, it is sort of conjecture. You had said in a post that you tried this on an riMac at an apple store and got the same results

I think you're getting me mixed up with another poster, I didn't say that. The point of this thread is to get to the bottom of what the issue is, I'm open to suggestions that I may have bought a dud or that it's related to something else. I really liked it otherwise and though not as fast overall as I was expecting, if the .pdf/Mission Control issues are fixable then I'd buy one again.

I'm just pointing out that you have a higher spec than the one I had - maybe mine was a dud, or maybe the faster processor you have is helping the iMac to overcome any lag in graphics power.

(1) OS X built-in PDF preview. Access by: selecting PDF in finder, press space bar. Page up/down by: Fn + up/down arrow keys

(2) Stand-alone Adobe Reader. Access by: double-clicking on PDF in finder (if Adobe Reader is default app for this file type). Otherwise, drag/drop PDF to Adobe Reader icon. Page up/down by: Cmd + up/down arrow.

(3) Adobe Reader plug-in for Safari. Access by: open PDF from Safari, or drag/drop local PDF to Safari.

(4) Safari built-in PDF Rendering.

I didn't try the last two options, but viewing the .pdf in the Finder didn't cause any issues, though I noticed the image wasn't as sharp as the .pdf viewer version so maybe there's compression being applied to speed things up. I was using the latest version of Acrobat and had the same lag as I did with the built-in viewer.

I'm on a base model iMac and I tried the nasa pdf. I downloaded the pdf to my computer and I got lag using both the Adobe Reader and OSX PDF preview.

Sounds like you're able to replicate my issue, thanks for the confirmation.

Same here! I used a pdf file at 24mgs and a preview file at 19mgs and it snaps right up every time on my base retina iMac. They are both the same image saved both ways. Same for the test file in the prior post.

Have you tried the NASA .pdf fathergill tested? The problem with testing .pdf files is that some are less graphics intensive than others - .pdf's using lots of scanned images for example will render faster than lots of scalable text and vector graphics.

Thanks for the replies, it'll be good to narrow this down and find a reason for the issue - whether it's lack of processor or graphics card power, OS/software related or a dud purchase.

I would add that scrolling up and down with the .pdf page set to fit the window wasn't really a problem - it's when I zoomed into the .pdf and then tried to scroll around the page that the issue occurred.

 

[GatorGhost]

I tried the NASA file and it works just fine. Scrolling down and zooming in and scrolling. Tapping down the return key jumps pages and holding the down arrow rolls right down the pages.

Just guessing but it sounds like a software issue, however the best way to find out is to return it and get another unit. Or try an i7 chip the next time if you do not want to upgrade the video card. Just my two cents.

 

[fathergll]

Maybe, it is that when I bought this unit I loaded everything from scratch...that is programs and files and data from a 2012 iMac. I am surprised at the performance of the i5 chip and the 2gig video card of which I knew may not be as strong as the custom configurations.

I loaded everything from scratch as well.

The other odd thing I reported in a different thread was that I get a "beachball" every time I go into system preferences to the display area setting. Its not just the act of changing the resolution, im talking about just clicking on display area it gives me a beach ball. This only happens on my admin account which has the vast majority of my files loaded. I created a new profile and there is no beachball when going into system preferences. Just to note I also tried the PDF test in the new account as well and its laggy as well.

Sidenote: I have 24 GB of ram in my base iMac.

 

[familychoice]

I tried the NASA file and it works just fine. Scrolling down and zooming in and scrolling. Tapping down the return key jumps pages and holding the down arrow rolls right down the pages.

Just guessing but it sounds like a software issue, however the best way to find out is to return it and get another unit. Or try an i7 chip the next time if you do not want to upgrade the video card. Just my two cents.

Thanks for checking - if you're using the same i5/270 model without issues though then it must be something specific with the iMac I had.

I loaded everything from scratch as well.

The other odd thing I reported in a different thread was that I get a "beachball" every time I go into system preferences to the display area setting. Its not just the act of changing the resolution, im talking about just clicking on display area it gives me a beach ball. This only happens on my admin account which has the vast majority of my files loaded. I created a new profile and there is no beachball when going into system preferences. Just to note I also tried the PDF test in the new account as well and its laggy as well.

Sidenote: I have 24 GB of ram in my base iMac.

Looks like we can rule out adding extra RAM to fix the issue then, I had the standard 8gb.

 

[MistrSynistr]

This is so odd to me. Any company that received over 5 of these complaints would have someone on this (a PDF scrolling/lag issue?) and in 30 minutes of released an update fixing it.

 

[GatorGhost]

This is so odd to me. Any company that received over 5 of these complaints would have someone on this (a PDF scrolling/lag issue?) and in 30 minutes of released an update fixing it.

Maybe they can not reproduce the issue and thusly no real way to fix it. One may think.

 

[strukt]

PDFgate!

Anyway, I downloaded that NASA PDF and opened it up with quick look and preview. Working fine here, no lag.

5k iMac / 4Ghz / 32GB / 295

 

[johnnyturbouk]

Geez dude before you buy anything do your homework, and remember when you buy ANY new products there and going to be some downsides to it, such as the new iPhone but when you look at what are getting compared to what you are not the iMac 5k is the best machine I ever owned.

Sorry, that is a ridiculous comment. Browsing a 4.5mb pdf file should not be an issue at all, it should perform flawlessly for such trivial tasks such as viewing pdfs, surfing safari, light games. I would agree if the OP was rendering complex 3D graphics, whilst burning multiple video formats on handbrake.
From day 1 release i have tormented myself on getting this machine. But i had a really bad feeling about the graphics card, and cases like this support my initial decision to wait for the next gen. models.
I hope apple see sense and go back to the Nvidia graphics, the 980m with 8gb ddr5 would of been perfect for this machine.

As for the new iphone 6plus (IP6p) , i agree there was some issues, especially if i am opening multiple apps with multiple complex pages on safari, it may refresh, otherwise it is pretty good overall. The screen is amazing.
The imac undoubtedly has a revolutionary, jaw-dropping screen, however, i fear the components driving the screen are stressed to the max (in the base model), trying to push all those pixels.

 

[monokakata]

This is getting interesting, now.

I downloaded the NASA PDF.

Using Preview (Yosemite) I can move around from page to page, top to bottom, no problems whatsoever.

But if I pick a page and start clicking on + rapidly, Preview will zoom in OK for 2 or 3 clicks, then start to lag, then catch up.

If I'm well zoomed-in and scroll back and forth page to page, I see no issues.

Acrobat XI Pro doesn't like the NASA PDF at all. Laggy to move through pages, very much so to zoom in.

I ran "Preflight" within Acrobat, and got red flags for PDF/X-1a 2003. It seems to be in PDF 1.4 format.

The NASA PDF looks like a scanned typescript.

My 900+ page scanned typescript is in PDF 1.3. I did experiment with zooming in on that one, and it's not perfectly smooth, but nowhere near as bad as the NASA one.

I don't know . . . at at least here are more data points.

 

[familychoice]

Maybe they can not reproduce the issue and thusly no real way to fix it.

Support took over remote control of my iMac and confirmed the issue. They couldn't come up with a solution, just said I could send it back for repair or a refund.

PDFgate!
Anyway, I downloaded that NASA PDF and opened it up with quick look and preview. Working fine here, no lag.
5k iMac / 4Ghz / 32GB / 295

You're using the 295 card, which doesn't seem to have the issue.

But i had a really bad feeling about the graphics card, and cases like this support my initial decision to wait for the next gen. models.

My thinking too. I knew about the Mission Control and other lags but didn't think it'd have a problem with basic file types. Smaller files or simple .pdf's open fine, but as soon as I tried anything a bit bigger it really struggled - regardless of whether I used the built in Preview or Acrobat. Tested the same files on other Macs and PC's without any problems at all. As I'd have to work with a lot bigger files for work, and support not being able to fix it, I thought it best to send it back and wait for the next refresh.

Using Preview (Yosemite) I can move around from page to page, top to bottom, no problems whatsoever.

But if I pick a page and start clicking on + rapidly, Preview will zoom in OK for 2 or 3 clicks, then start to lag, then catch up.

Yeah that was happening to me though I wasn't clicking particularly quickly and it didn't always catch up. I could scroll through the pages without an issue but after zooming in past a certain point the beach ball of death turned up.

I should point out I wasn't viewing the NASA .pdf as this was linked to after I posted this. I was using a 4.5mb simple two page leaflet layout .pdf created by a DTP app on the iMac. To make sure it wasn't the file itself I tried opening other .pdf's created on other platforms and in other software and had the same issue. And again all of these worked fine on my old MacBook Pro or PC.

 

[steve62388]

Just to point out the Mission Control lag has been witnessed by people across lots of different Mac models (search the forums here), so that's a software issue. Saying that I don't get the lag so it's not consistent which probably explains why Apple are having problems tracking it down.

Likewise the whole PDF thing does not seem to affect everybody so my guess is that is software too.

 

[antonis]

I've never witnessed such problems even on my MBA, which has many times lower the performance of the current iMac. Especially the PDF thing, while I use large PDFs very often. All these sound like a driver issue.

 

[supercooled]

Wow very disconcerting to read/hear. I bought a late 2014 Mac Mini and that thing struggles with 4K monitors attached to it. I mean mouse lag is so extreme the cursor goes from one end of the screen to the next like teleportation. Beachball hell would be an improvement.

So now I'm thinking "gee, this Mac Mini was a mistake, may be I should splurge and get the Retina iMac but base model because I don't want to spend too much; lo and behold, people say there are known issues with it already? Unbeknownst to me, I thought this would be fine for pedestrian tasks like viewing pictures, editing some videos in FCP or Photoshop. NOPE! Sounds like it will beachball like nuts.


Is this about sums it up? I keep checking the refurb store and only the x290 GPU based iMacs are on sale.

 

[tears2040]

2012 iMac 3.4GHz i7 2GB Graphics Card GTX 680MX


With video and all playing in the background + at least 6 webpages opened up I downloaded the Nasa .pdf + the other one in this thread and everything was perfectly smooth me zooming in to the max and doing everything.

Must be your computer as mine is perfect.....

 

[hifivoice]

I have a iMac Retina with the i5 and M290X. I see absolutely no delay in scrolling and zooming into the NASA pdf. I also have no issues with Mission Control.