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New Drivers in 10.7.3 and bug fixes?

sshhoott

sshhoott

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 6, 2010
304
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I am at verge of reverting back to Snow Leopard. I have a MBP 13 inch 2010 model with Nvidia 320M graphics. The main thing keeping frustrated with Lion is it's choppy animations, scrolling (in Safari, Mail, pages flips in iCal, Preview...). For example, in mail there is a lot of flicker in text when scrolling. Emails with image/pdf attachments are super choppy. Even little things like system preferences transitions are cheap looking. And this is after clean installing 10.7.2. It seems that these problems might be caused due to poor quality/ defective Nvidia 320M drivers (notice other MBP 15 users are having problems as well on their Nvidia 330M).

Doing extensive research, I still can't find if Apple is actually addressing these issues in the upcoming 10.7.3. Are there any updated drivers for these graphic cards in 10.7.3? I know I might sound obsessive for smooth animations, scrolling, smooth everything.... quality animations in OS X Lion is suppose to be one of the main ideas that bridges OS X with iOS as Apple intended them to be. Just look at your iPad and iPhone, see when you do something, not even a single time there is a hiccup in any animation/moving text. If they want Lion users to have an iOS feel, they really have to address this.

I have tried many times sending feedback to Apple (since 10.7.0, didn't seems to work at all)

Note: I tried to recreate all these issues with the latest i7 MBP and most of these issues actually don't appear. This further makes me think that it's happening because of bad graphic drivers in the 2010 MBP. In Snow Leopard everything was smooth.

Also, anyone who is kindly willing to discuss, does 10.7.3 introduce new little customizable feature such as ZOOMING EMAIL MESSAGE using pinch, and using two finger swipes in finder and other apps?:eek:
Thanks! I really appreciate your responses.
 
I can't comment on your situation...But I have the exact same computer as you and mine runs amazingly well. I'm sorry you're having troubles, but it has gotten progressively better since 10.7.0, and now i'm at the point where I like it and I hope they don't break by trying to fix it.

I clean installed (b/c of a stupid mistake I didn't have much choice), but even when it was just the upgrade it was fine too.
 
I was in the Glasgow Apple Store last night while waiting for friends to arrive at the pub across the road for a night out. I had a play around with Lion on one of the new iMacs, and even on a full Launchpad the folders flew open quickly and all animations were fluid.

I've just accepted that my machine is too old for the optimal Lion experience. My 2009 iMac only has 128mb of VRAM on an ATI Radeon HD2400, so that will narrow it down I guess.
 
While it has gotten progressively better for me, some animations are still choppy, especially launchpad. But what's more interesting about it is that if I'm in my Desktop and open launchpad, sometimes the animations will be laggy (if it's a large folder). If I open launchpad on top of a full screen app, they're amazingly smooth!
I don't get it...

I have a late 2009 Macbook alum with 4Gb RAM and Core2Duo 2Ghz. NVidia Gforce 9400 with 256 VRAM here. I went to the apple store and tried some of the MacBook Airs which don't have more VRAM than my system, and it tends to run better.

Another thing I've been experiencing since the 10.7.2. update is Mission Control crashes. Sometimes when I try to open Mission Control, I just get these really annoying graphical crashes which make my whole system spin ball and do nothing for a good minute or so. That never happened before.

sshhoott said:
I am at verge of reverting back to Snow Leopard. I have a MBP 13 inch 2010 model with Nvidia 320M graphics. The main thing keeping frustrated with Lion is it's choppy animations, scrolling (in Safari, Mail, pages flips in iCal, Preview...). For example, in mail there is a lot of flicker in text when scrolling. Emails with image/pdf attachments are super choppy. Even little things like system preferences transitions are cheap looking. And this is after clean installing 10.7.2. It seems that these problems might be caused due to poor quality/ defective Nvidia 320M drivers (notice other MBP 15 users are having problems as well on their Nvidia 330M).

Doing extensive research, I still can't find if Apple is actually addressing these issues in the upcoming 10.7.3. Are there any updated drivers for these graphic cards in 10.7.3? I know I might sound obsessive for smooth animations, scrolling, smooth everything.... quality animations in OS X Lion is suppose to be one of the main ideas that bridges OS X with iOS as Apple intended them to be. Just look at your iPad and iPhone, see when you do something, not even a single time there is a hiccup in any animation/moving text. If they want Lion users to have an iOS feel, they really have to address this.

I have tried many times sending feedback to Apple (since 10.7.0, didn't seems to work at all)

Note: I tried to recreate all these issues with the latest i7 MBP and most of these issues actually don't appear. This further makes me think that it's happening because of bad graphic drivers in the 2010 MBP. In Snow Leopard everything was smooth.

Also, anyone who is kindly willing to discuss, does 10.7.3 introduce new little customizable feature such as ZOOMING EMAIL MESSAGE using pinch, and using two finger swipes in finder and other apps?:eek:
Thanks! I really appreciate your responses.
Click to expand...
 
Each point release in each OS X revision had included updated GPU drivers.

But those drivers don't necessarily speed things up. Most are simply bug fixes and compatibility fixes.
 
Wanting the best possible experience & first impression I decided to buy a new MacBook Air with Lion preloaded. Mine runs just fine.

That said, I really don't care for some of the features. Now I'm even happier I didn't disturb my fast, fun and trouble free OS X 10.6.8 machines.

While I don't plan on running them for years, I do hope that as time goes by Apple will make Lion more compelling to professional users.
 
cas85 said:
I can't comment on your situation...But I have the exact same computer as you and mine runs amazingly well. I'm sorry you're having troubles, but it has gotten progressively better since 10.7.0, and now i'm at the point where I like it and I hope they don't break by trying to fix it.

I clean installed (b/c of a stupid mistake I didn't have much choice), but even when it was just the upgrade it was fine too.
Click to expand...

That's good to hear that my computer is capable of running Lion smoothly. This makes me think if it is a Hardware issue (with Nvidia card or Logic Board). So I carried out extended Apple Hardware Test using the DVD supplied in box and found no errors. But I don't know if you remember, I believe Snow Leopard animations were still smoother than lion.


While it has gotten progressively better for me, some animations are still choppy, especially launchpad. But what's more interesting about it is that if I'm in my Desktop and open launchpad, sometimes the animations will be laggy (if it's a large folder). If I open launchpad on top of a full screen app, they're amazingly smooth!
I don't get it...

I have a late 2009 Macbook alum with 4Gb RAM and Core2Duo 2Ghz. NVidia Gforce 9400 with 256 VRAM here. I went to the apple store and tried some of the MacBook Airs which don't have more VRAM than my system, and it tends to run better.

Another thing I've been experiencing since the 10.7.2. update is Mission Control crashes. Sometimes when I try to open Mission Control, I just get these really annoying graphical crashes which make my whole system spin ball and do nothing for a good minute or so. That never happened before.
Click to expand...

I think our machines should easily be capable of running all animations in lion smoothly. Like how you said they Macbook Airs have the same VRAM and not any better GPU than ours. All this points to is Apple's negligence of not providing optimal and thoroughly tested drivers for GPUs in older Macs. While, on the new Macs they have every thing tested out including GPU drivers. Talk about loyalty to old customers.:(


Each point release in each OS X revision had included updated GPU drivers.

But those drivers don't necessarily speed things up. Most are simply bug fixes and compatibility fixes.
Click to expand...

Thats encouraging that they update drivers in every release. I would consider choppy animations to be a bug in drivers as it interferes in user experience. So hopefully they address the driver issue in the upcoming HUGE 10.7.3 update. I just want to know if someone running the beta 10.7.3 is actually witnessing the fixes.
 
I think the only machines that are capable of running Lion are the 2011 lines. I think if it's too much of a problem for you then you should definitely go back to SL, atleast you have a choice. For us 2011 MBP owners, we have no other choice but to stick with Lion.
 
any update if apple has updated graphics drivers in 10.7.3?

I'm having issues with my Nvidia GT 120 256MB locking up daily..never done this one on SL with a 24/7 running machine...
 
SDColorado said:
There is always a choice, it will only cost you $29 if you choose to make it.
Click to expand...
Machines bought before those that came with Lion came with SL 10.6.7, so if you have access to one of those OS X Install DVDs, reverting to SL may be a good choice for the early 2011 MBP. The retail version of SL is usually 10.6.3 (older DVDs had 10.0) That older version of SL won't boot the early-2011 MBPs, they require 10.6.7. So, unfortunately enough, buying SL from the Apple store will not solve the problem.
 
If you want to run Snow Leopard on an unsupported Mac you can do so via firewire target disk mode using an older Mac's optical drive.

It worked on my early 2011 13" Macbook pro, bought recently as a refurb and supplied with Lion.
 
cal6n said:
If you want to run Snow Leopard on an unsupported Mac you can do so via firewire target disk mode using an older Mac's optical drive.

It worked on my early 2011 13" Macbook pro, bought recently as a refurb and supplied with Lion.
Click to expand...

Yes. That will work, alternately the Apple Store told me that as long as I had the disk, they had no problem with loading SL onto my Mac if I made an appointment and brought it in. They just use one of their loader discs. They just asked that I have a valid copy of SL.
 
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