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One thing i learned from the ios7 (i think) days is that transparencies are very computationally expensive. I've seen on my intel mac using the intel gpu in non retina mode (as that's the only thing an intel mac can afford) is that window server goes from 20% - 40% depending on whether the dock and menubar are visible or hidden. Its worth hiding those to see if that's making any difference.

Also do you have something moving BEHIND the menubar and dock? That's what does it for me.

If i'm going to use this version long term, at minimum its transparencies only as a desktop / plugged in. If its mobile definitely need to turn off the transparencies.

EDIT: having said, the m1 should have no trouble with a transparent dock and menu bar, even though you wouldn't want them on for battery life.

Also having said, apple are TRYING to obsolete their macs. Even if they kept macos without any bloat for eternity, when a calendar date hits the hardware goes on the vintage and obsolete list so i dont think optimisation and compatibility is their first priority.
 
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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."

Same. I happen go Safari try scroll. It do sense more better than using Chrome. I noticed now if you use trackpad doing two fingers gesture to the left or right. I will not , is like need to hold a bit to see the arrow on chrome browser than it works. Sorry Is hard to explain here. If you don't get it. Nevertheless i feel this new Mac OS still have quite a lot bugs to settle likewise thus others apps etc also will need to update once Mac OS come out the first bugs fix.
 
One thing i learned from the ios7 (i think) days is that transparencies are very computationally expensive. I've seen on my intel mac using the intel gpu in non retina mode (as that's the only thing an intel mac can afford) is that window server goes from 20% - 40% depending on whether the dock and menubar are visible or hidden. Its worth hiding those to see if that's making any difference.

Also do you have something moving BEHIND the menubar and dock? That's what does it for me.

If i'm going to use this version long term, at minimum its transparencies only as a desktop / plugged in. If its mobile definitely need to turn off the transparencies.

EDIT: having said, the m1 should have no trouble with a transparent dock and menu bar, even though you wouldn't want them on for battery life.

Also having said, apple are TRYING to obsolete their macs. Even if they kept macos without any bloat for eternity, when a calendar date hits the hardware goes on the vintage and obsolete list so i dont think optimisation and compatibility is their first priority.
Yes, I don't want to say the M1 is "too good" so Apple does something to make people buy...as I "could" accuse them off doing (probably justified)...as I have seen over the years and experienced some "questionable things". but I believe you are correct...

Apple will have to do something to bloat their M1's so people will buy after vintage and obsolete schedules since their mac are not intel anymore and are good enough for most currently.

For once in my long Apple ecosystem mac life, I would only update because "I want too" instead of need. Of course I have been "trained" by Apple to update as I always like the new and latest, but for need..this is the first time I could wait some. I cannot tell my wife that of course. 😂

I do not like the "cartoon" type reactions with ios26 and macOS26, but believe they are cleaning up their code to make it "M-series" only and lessening the intel architecture, so we should see faster and smoother OS's (in theory) in the future regardless of what M-series version you have.

Currently, though there are glitches using M1 over my M3, macOS Tahoe is generally faster (which is what drives me to continue with Apple).
 
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I have the m1 iMac has anyone else's got warm after this update? and can hear the fans
My M1 mini is sometimes laggy. Things take a beat too long to open and populate. Beach balls in places. But it's never gotten hot enough for the fan to be audible.

Can you check activity monitor?
 
My M1 mini is sometimes laggy. Things take a beat too long to open and populate. Beach balls in places. But it's never gotten hot enough for the fan to be audible.

Can you check activity monitor?
think I'm gonna try a fresh install since I updated to it
Screenshot 2025-09-24 at 00.05.06.png
 
MacBook Pro, M1, 8GB. Tahoe works very well and I really like the new UI.
Of course there is a bug or a stutter here or there (like when dragging a file from a folder into an e-mail, there is a two-second freeze, but then it's all good again), but minor things that don't impact my usage at all. I'm impressed with the performance on my M1 MBP with the lowest RAM count, and it's early days still. Very nice. It's shaping up to be my favorite software so far.
 
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Has anyone seen a difference between doing a fresh install and just upgrading?

I did notice that I did a fresh install on my 16" M1 MacBook Pro, but did an upgrade on my M3 Air. What I noticed is that Adobe Elements 2024 on the fresh install M1 MacBook Pro errored a little, while the upgraded M3 Air had no issues. Maybe since it was already installed. Adobe Elements 2024 uses Rosetta to install.

Has anyone did a test to see if there is a difference overall with performance, graphical stuttering etc.when doing a fresh install vs. jut an upgrade ???

I might reinstall macOS Sequoia (everything worked well) and do an upgrade instead and see...
 
Installed 26.1 on a spare M1 MacBook. Performance is much better and many of the visual bugs have been addressed. Should've been the shipping release honestly. I can't update my primary machine as I cannot afford to have a beta bug pop up right now. But I assume it will be the same on my M1 Pro.
 
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Installed 26.1 on a spare M1 MacBook. Performance is much better and many of the visual bugs have been addressed. Should've been the shipping release honestly. I can't update my primary machine as I cannot afford to have a beta bug pop up right now. But I assume it will be the same on my M1 Pro.
Thank you for reporting back from the field. Nice to know they are working on improving things.
 
I installed 26.1, on my M1 Pro. No noticeable improvement in animation speed compared to 26.0. The Quick Look feature is still choppy as well.

After some observations, I noticed that the performance takes a hit when connected to an external monitor.
 
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