Mavericks Slow on Maxed out iMac late 2013

[IA64]

I am not sure where to post this, I've been looking for a solution since 2 weeks and nothing, none, nada, null, zero....

I came from late 2009 ( core i5 / 8GB RAM / 4850HD ) running 10.8.5 and paid $4000 for an i7-4771 / 32 GB RAM / GTX 780M / PCIe SSD.

Eagerly unboxing the iMac, I power it on, Mavericks 10.9 preinstalled. Cool...
Software updates ( 3GB including 10.9.1 and some apps ). So far so good.

Spent couple of minutes working on it and I was like.. WTF is this thing ? Applications open instantaneously, everything is very quick. 750MB/720MB read write speed


...................................................................... BUT



The UI is freaking slow !! it's not that I get any beachball whatsoever but it's nothing close to fluid

I am always under the impression that the video card is having hard time or CPU load is 100% but I have 28 GB free ram, CPU idle 98%, no apps installed ... just nothing.

Hardware test reported NO ISSUE.

I can't believe that my late 2009 felt more responsive when doing barely nothing.


So I installed Windows 8.1 via BCA and TADA! Everything is just perfect.


I did a clean boot and no help. What's the deal ? Also HD recovery is very sluggish and tearing is unbearable. With 10.8.5 I had no issue

Here's a video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJO4wnRMCYg


I run Unigine Heaven Benchmark and I noticed that the Max FPS is 60 whereas windows get over 200FPS. Has Apple capped the FPS with the new OS ?

Too much heartache when you throw that amount of money on such a disappointing experience.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Just a thought...it may be your video card or logic board. If Mavericks really was *that* bad with all the graphic stuttering and slow performance on the new iMacs, then there'd be way more complaints en masse.

I'd recommend making an appointment at your local Apple store, and see if they can find anything wrong with the iMac. It could possibly be a lemon. It could also be Mavericks. It could be a bad factory install. Best way is with a Genius. If going to the local Apple store isn't a possibility, then at least call AppleCare (apple.com/support) and go from there.

Keep us posted, there's been quite a few bad bugs with Mavericks, but even this would be a bit much for an 10.x.0/1 release.

Edit: eh, on preview, it looks like Windows did work flawlessly on the iMac. It could be that Windows isn't detecting the potential issues with your video card or another component on the OS, but, Apple Support is definitely the way to go.

 

[maflynn]

My 2012 rMBP is quite smooth with OSX, so it may be something other then Mavericks. If its an upgrade, try going a clean install route (make sure you backup your data first).

 

[IA64]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough with the issue.

Under Mavericks, the stuttering and lags aren't that bad. For example, if I click the application folder in the dock, it will open slowly ( slow motion animation ) for the first time. if I open it again, it will animate fluidly. Everything is OK but feels heavy. Maximizing and minimizing is pretty fast tho.

The video in my first post shows tearing only in Recovery Mode.

At least, can anyone please confirm that those tearing and stuttering are noticeable under Recovery 10.9 ? ( Boot from recovery )

Thanks.

 

[Rodster]

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough with the issue.

Under Mavericks, the stuttering and lags aren't that bad. For example, if I click the application folder in the dock, it will open slowly ( slow motion animation ) for the first time. if I open it again, it will animate fluidly. Everything is OK but feels heavy. Maximizing and minimizing is pretty fast tho.

The video in my first post shows tearing only in Recovery Mode.

At least, can anyone please confirm that those tearing and stuttering are noticeable under Recovery 10.9 ? ( Boot from recovery )

Thanks.

1) Verify and repair permissions if necessary

2) Verify Disk and repair if necessary.

 

[IA64]

1) Verify and repair permissions if necessary

2) Verify Disk and repair if necessary.

I did that of course. Even a clean installation. Nothing.

I'm very positive that I don't have a failing hardware or whatsoever because I get high benchmark scores and everything runs fine under Windows 8.1.

I just need someone to confirm my observation under Recovery mode.

 

[Rodster]

I did that of course. Even a clean installation. Nothing.

I'm very positive that I don't have a failing hardware or whatsoever because I get high benchmark scores and everything runs fine under Windows 8.1.

I just need someone to confirm my observation under Recovery mode.

Is the slowdown you say before or after bootcamp? What's the iMac like with a clean install, Mavs only and no devices attached other than keybd and mouse?

 

[IA64]

Is the slowdown you say before or after bootcamp? What's the iMac like with a clean install, Mavs only and no devices attached other than keybd and mouse?

I can't tell because I don't have a USB mouse and keyboard.

Slowdown may have happened after bootcamp but I can't be sure.

Can someone please confirm whether Recovery Console 10.9 is sluggish and laggy ( tearing and stuttering ) ? that will help me rule out any OS error.

 

[robgendreau]

Odd; that blockiness in the video.

I don't know the reason, but if I boot my 2010 iMac into safe boot the screen will behave that way; lots of ghosting type behavior. Goes away when I boot normally, so I've always thought it's a kext or something that doesn't get loaded.

That would also be consistent with Windows working acceptably.

As for overall slowness, does it occur if you run as a user with an absolutely miminal setup with no addons, etc?

 

[IA64]

Great, so it's safe to confirm that 10.9.1 is crap...

I have to questions left :

1- If my iMac came with 10.9 pre-installed, can I install 10.8.5 back ?

2 - If I clean boot ( fresh installation of 10.9 ) , will my BootCamp partition be affected ?

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Just tested window dragging in Recovery Mode, on my MBP 13" 2011, also running 10.9.1. I can confirm the window 'tearing' and stutter does happen, but only in Recovery Mode.

The same thing happens when running OSX in Safe Mode. AFAIK, this is nothing new, and has been this way forever. When running OSX in Safe Mode, the graphics driver is not loaded; instead, a basic graphics driver (without Quartz support) is loaded. This is to rule out any problems with the graphics driver in Safe Mode, and to help for diagnostic purposes. This is also why DVD Player does not work in Safe Mode.

I would assume Recovery Mode also does not load the proper graphics driver with Quartz, which is why you're seeing the window tearing. Why would you need full graphics support in Recovery Mode? The intent is to strip Recovery Mode of as much memory as possible, so it can install or repair OSX quickly and efficiently.

tl;dr: If you see window tearing during normal usage of Mavericks, this is not normal. If the sluggishness is only seen in Recovery Mode, don't worry about it.

 

[Gochugogi]

I have a early 2008 iMac--2.8GHz coreduo--and Mavericks crawls on that thing. Pretty much unusable and I wish I kept it on Lion as it performed well. Since it's my work computer, the boss agreed to buy me a new iMac so I won't bother reverting back to Lion and will live with it for a couple more weeks.

On the other hand, Mavericks rips on my 2009 MacPro and 2013 Mini at home and seems a bit faster than the prior 10.85.

 

[old-wiz]

I have Mavericks 10.9.1 running on a 2008 iMac 24" 4gb ram, and it runs fine. No slowdowns, no odd graphical artifacts. I don't use wi-fi.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I have a early 2008 iMac--2.8GHz coreduo--and Mavericks crawls on that thing.

I have the same machine - its fine for me. The only real problem is that some of the desktop animations stutter a bit.

 

[xgman]

Call Apple and try to get it replaced. Somethings not right.

 

[old-wiz]

Call Apple and try to get it replaced. Somethings not right.

Brand new machine shouldn't need any fooling around with clean installs or debugging. Take it back and tell Apple to replace it.

It should work fine right out of the box. Don't waste your time messing with a new system.

 

[ljonesj]

has anybody thought that it might be a bug in the ram compression as windows 8.1 does not have this technology and its fine and it does take up some cpu cycles to compress and uncompress

 

[thirdeyeopen666]

Huh... kinda looks like you're in Safe Boot.

 

[allthingsapple]

Great, so it's safe to confirm that 10.9.1 is crap...

I have to questions left :

1- If my iMac came with 10.9 pre-installed, can I install 10.8.5 back ?

2 - If I clean boot ( fresh installation of 10.9 ) , will my BootCamp partition be affected ?

I've read through this thread and I don't see any mention of a SMC and pram reset. Have you tried these? If doesn't make a difference and you do have a fairly new mac then I would take it back to the apple store and exchange it.

 

[IA64]

has anybody thought that it might be a bug in the ram compression as windows 8.1 does not have this technology and its fine and it does take up some cpu cycles to compress and uncompress

But why would I need RAM compression with 32GB of memory ? Shouldn't that be dynamic feature ? say you are running out of memory, the OS will optimize your resource and compress the RAM.

Also, no one really noticed that the FPS is capped at 60 now ? under Lion I could go up to 400-500 FPS now with every benchmark software I tested, the maximum I could reach was 60 FPS. Is there any reason behind that ?

 

[ljonesj]

does not matter the ram compression works even if you do have that much ram or 2gb of ram. i am like why do u need it for 32gb. for me i wish there was a way to turn it off as for me it does not release ram when i think it should and ive had people tell oh you want all of it active well when it goes active and no free my macs run super slow but when i sudo purge and get free ram back its back to being fast again

on the fps it might be with not mature drivers

 

[ultraspiracle]

I agree with opinions here that the orig. poster should take the machine to an Apple store and ask for a replacement. There's no reason at all a brand-new machine should be anything but blazing fast. Mav's is pretty damm good, btw.