M1 Mac performance (Tahoe)

[workerbee]

16GB MacBook Air M1 here also has been somewhat stuttery at times with Tahoe, especially noticeable when watching MKV videos in IINA, which has never been a problem before. Safari tends to use RAM quite generously now, probably more than before.

Apart from that, Tahoe seems OK so far; the Fluid Glass stuff is just there, stopped noticing it within a few hours of use. Only thing really bothering me are the silly rounded corners everywhere.

 

[FNH15]

Lag and stutter is back - especially in Mission Control. Happens with a lot of windows open / spaces being used. Was never an issue in any prior macOS version. Seems like the Metal implementation is screwed up in Tahoe. MTLCompiler constantly pegs ~100% CPU when this happens. Memory pressure is green, I'm assuming this is a bug in Tahoe.

 

[yeah3x]

On an M4 Pro, my laptop is noticeably warmer when it always used to run cool. And the battery is definitely draining faster. I'm only doing basic web browsing, email, and texting. Similar experience to my iPhone 15 Pro that I updated to the new iOS 26.

 

[auxbuss]

Also, M1s are almost 5 years old so they won't last forever (I mean, Apple does not want that). Current hardware cap of Tahoe is 2019, so I won't be surprised if we start seeing M1 dropping support in couple of years.

M1s are phenomenally powerful computers, they should not be remotely taxed by a few shiny blobs in a GUI.

 

[bombardier10]

On my 9-year-old computer with an i5-6500T processor Tahoe works perfectly.
I ran Geekbench test on other macOS such as Monterey and Sequoua -
the performance was exactly the same as on Tahoe - see this video.
It also does not appear that the system puts more strain on the computer
or has greater requirements.
There is only one conclusion - there must be something wrong with the support
for m1/m4 chips, etc. This does not happen on Intel.
Maybe they will fix it in the next update.

 

[RumorConsumer]

It looks that you are suffering from the usual pain of early adopters. Just wait a couple of point versions and things should improve

Also, M1s are almost 5 years old so they won't last forever (I mean, Apple does not want that). Current hardware cap of Tahoe is 2019, so I won't be surprised if we start seeing M1 dropping support in couple of years.

In any case, not jumping to 26 anytime soon on my M2 Pro.

The M1 is lightning fast right until Tahoe. Sorry, that is not right. I hope it gets resolved in point releases. If they allow the performance to remain here they will be putting a black eye on Mac user ship they will never recover from.

 

[Sptzz]

Has anyone with M1 machine (MBP/MBA/iMac) updated to Tahoe?

My M1 iMac has been updated to Tahoe. I found that the common dialogue (pop-up) box's animation is very jittery (Framerate drops to around 30fps). Quick Preview is stuttering, not smooth at all. Besides, Adobe AI, ID performance are bad, extremely stuttering during panning and zooming objects.

Are these issues existing in high-end machines such as M2-M4, Pro/Max, etc...?

However the Magic Mouse scrolling behavior is excellent and Safari is much snappier than previous versions. The new UI is too beautiful.

M3 Max 48GB here. Same thing.

 

[FNH15]

On my 9-year-old computer with an i5-6500T processor Tahoe works perfectly.
I ran Geekbench test on other macOS such as Monterey and Sequoua -
the performance was exactly the same as on Tahoe - see this video.
It also does not appear that the system puts more strain on the computer
or has greater requirements.
There is only one conclusion - there must be something wrong with the support
for m1/m4 chips, etc. This does not happen on Intel.
Maybe they will fix it in the next update.

Interesting. Intel GPUs don't support Metal 4. Since Metal 4 is new in Tahoe, I wonder if there's a bug in the current implementation.

 

[loby]

It looks that you are suffering from the usual pain of early adopters. Just wait a couple of point versions and things should improve

Also, M1s are almost 5 years old so they won't last forever (I mean, Apple does not want that). Current hardware cap of Tahoe is 2019, so I won't be surprised if we start seeing M1 dropping support in couple of years.

In any case, not jumping to 26 anytime soon on my M2 Pro.

This is true…but…what Apple get us with M1’s is some things are faster on Tahoe while other things are glitchy or lags. We have to weigh the costs.

But I am always skeptical with firmware updates when you install a new version. Going back to the previous sometimes feels slower so you are stuck also.

I guess it is a gamble which we generally loose eventually. Not knowing the OS to stick with on what Mac as determined by when it was released is the gamble.

 

[kkclstuff]

on M1 MacStudio, there has been some 'stutter' on day1 but I wonder if some of these jitters are due to indexing in the background?

over all its been smooth, but there have been a few times I had to double click on a button or menu... then alls fine🤷‍♂️

 

[loby]

This Liquid Glass is hideous. Thats the first thing. Second thing is, it runs butter smooth and fast on my iMac M3, 24gb, 4 ports system. I have not seen any lag or crashes at all yet. Surprisingly fast and smooth for a first release.

This is this issue…if you want more speed then we have to put up with the fruit-o-loops unfortunately.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I made some test on my 32Gb/2TB M1 Max Macbook Pro. With Apple Intelligence disabled and Stage Manager disabled everything is smooth and there is no exaggerated cpu load in Activity Monitor.
As soon as I enable Stage Manager, Windows Server starts to load the CPU and increasing the number of stages make the system choppier and choppier.

 

[youme]

I made some test on my 32Gb/2TB M1 Max Macbook Pro. With Apple Intelligence disabled and Stage Manager disabled everything is smooth and there is no exaggerated cpu load in Activity Monitor.
As soon as I enable Stage Manager, Windows Server starts to load the CPU and increasing the number of stages make the system choppier and choppier.

I cannot confirm this at all, unfortunately. Apple Intelligence and Stage Manager are disabled on my MBPro 16, M1, 16GB and have always been. And I cannot smoothly scroll anything. Until I reboot.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I cannot confirm this at all, unfortunately. Apple Intelligence and Stage Manager are disabled on my MBPro 16, M1, 16GB and have always been. And I cannot smoothly scroll anything. Until I reboot.

Please start Activity Monitor and look for the app/service which causes any kind of suspect CPU load.

 

[youme]

I am currently monitoring it.

WindowServer has been by far the constant highest entry at around 50-80% right before reboot, with stuttering.

After reboot it settles around 6-20. No stuttering.

Right after reboot contactsd and AdressBookManager are around 50-60%. Now, after 5 minutes, it doesn't consume anything/much at all anymore

All CPU %, GPU not challenged at all

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Try to enable and after a minute or two to disable Stage Manager.
I had the same issue with Windows Server, but after disabling Stage Manager it went down to less than 10%.

 

[youme]

I'll check that, when performance degrades again. Thanks !

 

[workerbee]

WindowServer has been by far the constant highest entry at around 50-80% right before reboot, with stuttering.

Right after reboot contactsd and AdressBookManager are around 50-60%. Now, after 5 minutes, it doesn't consume anything/much at all anymore

Mmmh, WindowServer is sitting at ~50% CPU for a very long time (hours) here, with nothing whatsoever happening on-screen apart from Activity Monitor.

contactsd and sometimes AdressBookManager spike up to ~40% and ~180% CPU respectively, one or two days after a reboot.

Guess that's two places where Apple should look when refining MacOS 26.0.1.

 

[Retroworldnews]

my iMac bought in 2024 already feel a " weird lag " while scrolling Facebook on Chrome browser. Before it seem laggy while just scrolling on chrome browser. Later came to know there is an update from here so I do an update. It seem solve but still feel a bit laggy while scroll facebook. Is hard to explain. That feel is unlike perviously back , smooth scrolling before I do an update of the new Mac OS. Epic even just insert an Emoji need to do double tap now instead just one tap on my track pad now. I got another old iMac I think bought in 2015 run on Sierra. I do the same insert Emoji just one tap. Now a days I scare to update new Mac OS. .... as time go back Obviously sometimes you need to skip update... I can't imaging if I go update this new OS on the old iMac. Will be even lag? Oh one thing to add one. I not sure maybe due to the ram. Both iMac is one 8gb ram.

 

[RumorConsumer]

M1s are phenomenally powerful computers, they should not be remotely taxed by a few shiny blobs in a GUI.

Agreed.

M3 Max 48GB here. Same thing.

Ouch. This tells me more and more its just unoptimized or buggy code not anything to do with our machines.

 

[kagharaht]

I don't understand what makes it be so slow, laggy or stuttering on your M series Mac. I have just an iMac M3, 24gb RAM, 4 ports. Aside from the hideous Liquid Glass Look, it's fast and smooth. I haven't experience any lag yet. I run Topaz Video, Topaz Photo, Handbrake, iMovie, Safari, Mail, iMessage, Photos at the same time and I don't experience what you guys are experiencing. I mean this is just an iMac and no Pro, MAX or Ultra chips... something else must be in your system causing the issue...

 

[Retroworldnews]

Agreed.

Ouch. This tells me more and more its just unoptimized or buggy code not anything to do with our machines.

Gee some one claim M3 Max 48GB ram , like that is not due to my iMac only have 8GB ram than. I do feel a sense of " lag " while just scrolling FB on chrome browser. I only have 8 open tabs.

 

[Retroworldnews]

I don't understand what makes it be so slow, laggy or stuttering on your M series Mac. I have just an iMac M3, 24gb RAM, 4 ports. Aside from the hideous Liquid Glass Look, it's fast and smooth. I haven't experience any lag yet. I run Topaz Video, Topaz Photo, Handbrake, iMovie, Safari, Mail, iMessage, Photos at the same time and I don't experience what you guys are experiencing. I mean this is just an iMac and no Pro, MAX or Ultra chips... something else must be in your system causing the issue...

my iMac is bought in 2024. With just 8GB ram. The last OS is smooth for me. This new OS , I don't know just feel a bit laggy while just scrolling browsing FB. I never open a lot tabs just 8 as usual. Same for the last OS I use. I never run any program backend beside surfing the net. I even updated the Chrome. Before it do feel more laggy. After update the chrome it don't feel so but still feel a sense of lag just scrolling.

 

[kagharaht]

my iMac is bought in 2024. With just 8GB ram. The last OS is smooth for me. This new OS , I don't know just feel a bit laggy while just scrolling browsing FB. I never open a lot tabs just 8 as usual. Same for the last OS I use. I never run any program backend beside surfing the net. I even updated the Chrome. Before it do feel more laggy. After update the chrome it don't feel so but still feel a sense of lag just scrolling.

Perhaps a quick run in Safe Mode and then reboot in normal mode can clean up the OS and flush out and refresh the system.

"
What is Safe Mode?

Starting up your Mac in safe mode can help you determine whether an issue you're experiencing is caused by the software that loads every time your Mac starts up. It does this by preventing your Mac from loading things like login items, non-system fonts, and system extensions, and performing a First Aid check on your startup disk. It also deletes certain caches, including the kernel cache, which are recreated on the fly when needed."

 

[Parowdy]

Can't talk about newer high end Macs, but my 10 CPU and 14 GPU M1 Pro is definitely not as smooth as it was with Sequoia, even less so on battery power.
Considering iOS 26 and watchOS 26 aren't good on my 15 Pro and Series 7 either, I hope these are just general issues ironed out in the next few months.
If not, I'll see myself forced to to downgrade to Sequoia before this year ends. Really a shame though because I appreciate a customizable Control Center.