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Mountain Lion on the Air

13" 2011 i5 Air here... and I'm not thrilled so far. The OS itself seems fine but UI animations have become slow and choppy. Even simple things like moving the mouse cursor around the screen.

No one else is seeing something similar?

Try opening iCal... err... Calendar (that's going to take some getting used to since I launch everything from Alfred) and use the trackpad gesture to swipe between months. What I assume should be a smooth animation looks like it instead has about 5 frames it jumps between.

I only have 4GB but half is free at the moment, and CPU usage is almost nil. Strange. It's running more like I'm encoding a video in the background or something.

=======Edit

Alright... Just reset SMC and PRAM just to see if it might make a difference and I think it may have. If anyone notices the same give it a shot.
 
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Dr. Cheesesteak said:
13" 2011 i5 Air here... and I'm not thrilled so far. The OS itself seems fine but UI animations have become slow and choppy. Even simple things like moving the mouse cursor around the screen.

No one else is seeing something similar?

Try opening iCal... err... Calendar (that's going to take some getting used to since I launch everything from Alfred) and use the trackpad gesture to swipe between months. What I assume should be a smooth animation looks like it instead has about 5 frames it jumps between.

I only have 4GB but half is free at the moment, and CPU usage is almost nil. Strange. It's running more like I'm encoding a video in the background or something.

=======Edit

Alright... Just reset SMC and PRAM just to see if it might make a difference and I think it may have. If anyone notices the same give it a shot.
Click to expand...

i'm experiencing similar things mate, how do you do the resets you mentioned? i always forget...

cheers :)

edit: just turned on the automatic show/hide dock feature and the animations have become silky smooth!
 
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Might be too early to ask this, but can anyone report on how the battery life is on their 2011 Airs running ML?
 
TheMadBrewer said:
I have an Original MacBook Air that I don't use for much. Mostly it's used by house guests who want to check email, etc. But it is always the first computer I upgrade to a new OS X.

I see from the specs that it won't run Mountain Lion. That sucks.

So it looks like 4 years is the max lifetime you can expect to get out of an Apple product if you want OS upgrades.
Click to expand...

really? 4 years? as 2010 and under macs can't airplay, if you don't have SSD you don't get power nap, it looks like every 2 years if you want the full OS X, which is really dumb.
 
Rideherhard said:
really? 4 years? as 2010 and under macs can't airplay, if you don't have SSD you don't get power nap, it looks like every 2 years if you want the full OS X, which is really dumb.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm pissed I'm not getting features I didn't know would exist and wasn't promised. God damn immigrants. 'Murica
 
Loud Fan

I had no issues installing ML on my 2010 11", but my fan is now on constantly, hovering at about 6,000RPM when idle. Under Lion it barely broke 2,000 during my regular load. I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM to no avail. Temperatures are fine, with my CPU at about 58C and everything else very low. Really hoping I won't have to do a clean install. Anyone else having any problems with their fan?
 
Works great on my 2011 MBA 11" with 128GB and 4GB RAM. Wakes up from sleep alot without a hiccup, overall performance seems smoother and the new safari update has made me jump ship from chrome!
 
Acronyc said:
I had no issues installing ML on my 2010 11", but my fan is now on constantly, hovering at about 6,000RPM when idle. Under Lion it barely broke 2,000 during my regular load. I tried resetting the SMC and PRAM to no avail. Temperatures are fine, with my CPU at about 58C and everything else very low. Really hoping I won't have to do a clean install. Anyone else having any problems with their fan?
Click to expand...

How long has it been ? Could be your system working a little harder because Spotlight is re-indexing. Been using ML on my 2010 13" Air all day and it's def. faster then Lion and no fan issues.
 
Rideherhard said:
really? 4 years? as 2010 and under macs can't airplay, if you don't have SSD you don't get power nap, it looks like every 2 years if you want the full OS X, which is really dumb.
Click to expand...

Some of the features, such as AirPlay and PowerNap, rely on hardware features that Intel has only added over the past 2 years. AirPlay uses Intel's Quick Sync technology that is part of the Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge processors. Power Nap relies on Intel's Smart Connect technology that was built into the chipsets that are approved for the Ultrabook platform.

I'd rather have an OS that takes advantage of new hardware where possible than one that is deliberately crippled just so that everyone gets the same exact OS experience.

----------
mouthster said:
How long has it been ? Could be your system working a little harder because Spotlight is re-indexing. Been using ML on my 2010 13" Air all day and it's def. faster then Lion and no fan issues.
Click to expand...

^This. The fans were spinning pretty wild for the first hour after I restarted with Mountain Lion on my 2012 MacBook Air, but now it's as quiet as ever. Safari seemed a bit slower at first, but now seems quite a bit snappier, as well.
 
ML on the 2011 13" i5 MBA has been great so far. It feels exceptionally smooth (not to say that Lion wasn't). Lion never gave me any problems so I can't say that this one is miles better. But it is great nonetheless.
 
Installed ML, this morning (Australian time)... went perfectly.... Lovin Safari's new features........... boots Super fast, from ON button to Desktop...11 sec!!!!
2 things I have noticed. 1, shutdown, is significantly longer .... 2, Ram, has been impacted to the tune of 500mb!!........regardless......... its leaps and bounds over Lion.........

base model 4gb/11"/64SSD.......
 
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mouthster said:
How long has it been ? Could be your system working a little harder because Spotlight is re-indexing. Been using ML on my 2010 13" Air all day and it's def. faster then Lion and no fan issues.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it must have been Spotlight or something else going on, because after a few hours its back to normal. After installing ML last night, I used it away from an outlet for a few hours without any issues. Once I plugged it in at the office this morning, the fans were going like crazy for about two hours, and I'm guessing Spotlight only works when the system is plugged in.

Anyway, all is going well so far and it definitely feels faster. Really enjoying the updates to Safari too, it might be time for me to take a break from Chrome.
 
Dr. Cheesesteak said:
13" 2011 i5 Air here... and I'm not thrilled so far. The OS itself seems fine but UI animations have become slow and choppy. Even simple things like moving the mouse cursor around the screen.

No one else is seeing something similar?

Try opening iCal... err... Calendar (that's going to take some getting used to since I launch everything from Alfred) and use the trackpad gesture to swipe between months. What I assume should be a smooth animation looks like it instead has about 5 frames it jumps between.

I only have 4GB but half is free at the moment, and CPU usage is almost nil. Strange. It's running more like I'm encoding a video in the background or something.

=======Edit

Alright... Just reset SMC and PRAM just to see if it might make a difference and I think it may have. If anyone notices the same give it a shot.
Click to expand...


This seems to be caused by the dock, as if I hide the dock or change the dock to a 2d dock, then animations are smooth again. This is also affected by the size of the dock. If the dock is long, whether by having lots of applications or enlarging the icons the stuttering is much worse that if the dock only occupies a portion of the bottom of the screen.

It's a shame, hopefully it will be fixed to be as smooth as Lion in an update.
 
this is good news. it seems for the most part folks are happy with it. i purchased my 2012 air late june so it looks like i get it for free. just waiting for the code kinks to be worked out.
 
mrs1986 said:
Thats a nice observation, may I ask if you upgraded the ram on your original Air or is just the base model? Sorry if is an stupid question, when the first air was released i wasnt even thinking on getting a mac, just toooooo expensive at my country....
Click to expand...

The Original Air didn't have many choices, IIRC. If there was a choice, I got the max.

----------
Rideherhard said:
really? 4 years? as 2010 and under macs can't airplay, if you don't have SSD you don't get power nap, it looks like every 2 years if you want the full OS X, which is really dumb.
Click to expand...

Well, with your 2 year old Mac you can at least load the OS. And some new features are impacted by hardware -- or lack of it.
 
Pompiliu said:
Anybody has one of the 2010 Airs with 2 gigs of ram?
Just curious how ML runs. :)
Click to expand...

At least on my 4gb 1.4ghz 2010 MBA Mountain Lion is very choppy. This especially applies to Safari 6.

Certainly slower than Lion was.
 
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