I've seen quite a few posts complaining about laggy animations in Lion (launchpad, etc). I experienced this too, but have just upgraded from 4Gb to 8Gb RAM and now it's all as smooth as silk, so it seems Lion likes a fair bit of RAM.
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Lion animations like 8Gb RAM
- Thread starter Benbikeman
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I noticed a massive improvement in performance with my MacBook Pro when I upgraded to 8GB of RAM last week. Because the system isn't having to use page files anywhere near as much, my hard drive is free to load things properly, meaning that apps load almost instantly most of the time. I do a lot of multi-tasking on my Mac and I'm very happy with the upgrade.
I'm not sure how many Dashboard users are reading this, but I was really disappointed that Apple deemed it necessary to take out the "ripple" effect when adding a new widget to Dashboard. Now they simply appear, and after getting used to the previous animation, the change is really startling. It's like a no-frills approach, almost a Microsoft-type approach. Yes, I realize that it's just eye candy, and that it offers nothing to the functionality of Dashboard, but it looked really nice. Of course, once Dashboard is set up, this whole animation discussion is really moot.
The HD3000 in the MPB13 gets boosted to 512mb RAM when you go to 8GB. But honestly, I can't tell as *animations* in Lion are the least of my worries. 
You have to set dashboard to the Classic mode in the Mission Control preferences (System Preferences). Then you'll have the ripple effect as well as the original fly-in widgets.
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System Preferences -> Mission Control: Uncheck the setting that assigns Dashboard to it's own Desktop.
Steve's Barber said:
System Preferences -> Mission Control: Uncheck the setting that assigns Dashboard to it's own Desktop.
I was noticing this too-
Also my desktop icons disappearing... ultimately found out that there's a glitch with Apps assigned to "All Desktops" - namely, the Finder!
As soon as I assigned it to "None" everything started running smoothly - swipe transitions, fade in's and all.
I'll bet that the issue is largely something to do with this.
Also my desktop icons disappearing... ultimately found out that there's a glitch with Apps assigned to "All Desktops" - namely, the Finder!
As soon as I assigned it to "None" everything started running smoothly - swipe transitions, fade in's and all.
I'll bet that the issue is largely something to do with this.
Is there any way to disable the animation when launching Launchpad, so that it just "pops" on screen when you click the icon or press the hot key, rather than it fade in/out?
The second my free RAM goes to inactive (without loading apps and closing them), my animations in Lion go out the window, including Launchpad opening/closing and going in/out of full screen in Safari, iTunes, etc.
The second my free RAM goes to inactive (without loading apps and closing them), my animations in Lion go out the window, including Launchpad opening/closing and going in/out of full screen in Safari, iTunes, etc.
Again, who are these idiots who are so far up their own backsides that they mark down posts that question RAM and animation performance questions regarding Lion? Does marking them down mean they're "irrelevant" to the community? I guarantee I'm very probably a bigger "Mac geek" than those who think they're "defending the honour of OS X" by marking down my post. Unbelievable behaviour, get a grip.
Believe me, my system has animation and RAM issues with Lion, but that's the only issues I have with it. As I said in another thread, I booted up my machine and had Safari (with three tabs) and iTunes open. I used the machine for an hour, then left it to go downstairs and have dinner with my family.
When I returned upstairs a couple of hours later, I noticed that the exact amount of RAM that was previously free, had become inactive ... 2.99GB to be exact. Nothing else opened since, nothing else opened then quit, it went from free to inactive in the time I left it idle. Now, I know inactive RAM is "just as good" as free RAM, but RAM should only go to an inactive state when it's been used and is then freed up by the application being quit.
When my free RAM goes to inactive, THAT is when I have animation issues with Launchpad opening/closing and going to/from full screen mode in apps. The frame rate is hellish at times, utterly unusable.
As I said, I've converted more people to the Mac than I care to remember. I'm not a "noob user", I've been a Mac user for over 10 years and have bought and paid for every single version of OS X ever released. Do not undermine me by thinking you're being clever and marking down a genuine question because you dare to confuse me for a Mac hater due to asking a simple question.
Believe me, my system has animation and RAM issues with Lion, but that's the only issues I have with it. As I said in another thread, I booted up my machine and had Safari (with three tabs) and iTunes open. I used the machine for an hour, then left it to go downstairs and have dinner with my family.
When I returned upstairs a couple of hours later, I noticed that the exact amount of RAM that was previously free, had become inactive ... 2.99GB to be exact. Nothing else opened since, nothing else opened then quit, it went from free to inactive in the time I left it idle. Now, I know inactive RAM is "just as good" as free RAM, but RAM should only go to an inactive state when it's been used and is then freed up by the application being quit.
When my free RAM goes to inactive, THAT is when I have animation issues with Launchpad opening/closing and going to/from full screen mode in apps. The frame rate is hellish at times, utterly unusable.
As I said, I've converted more people to the Mac than I care to remember. I'm not a "noob user", I've been a Mac user for over 10 years and have bought and paid for every single version of OS X ever released. Do not undermine me by thinking you're being clever and marking down a genuine question because you dare to confuse me for a Mac hater due to asking a simple question.
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I posted a thread about this last week. At 4GB of RAM, my 2010 MBP was very sluggish at times with Lion. I multitask A LOT and found myself having Page Outs that I never had on SL. After upgrading to 8GB of RAM, it is almost like a new machine. Very smooth. Apps open quickly.
I posted a thread about this last week. At 4GB of RAM, my 2010 MBP was very sluggish at times with Lion. I multitask A LOT and found myself having Page Outs that I never had on SL. After upgrading to 8GB of RAM, it is almost like a new machine. Very smooth. Apps open quickly.
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Don't be so pedantic. :roll eyes:
And be grateful you got the decency of a response to that piss excuse of a reply.