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New Macbook Pro (Retina) Laggy

Rudy69 said:
To be honest the whole thing is really a big beta test. It's the first notebook with such a high resolution, it's also the first time OSX has been used by consumers in HiDPI mode. So yes, you're paying $2000+ to be part of an Apple beta test, just like people were with the first Intel mac in a way.
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Heh, funny you should mention that. My first laptop (and only Mac I've owned, not counting a hackintosh) was a first generation MacBook Pro, right when they switched to Intel. Now, years later, I'm seriously considering the Retina MBP. I guess Apple beta hardware appeals to me :D.
 
beowulf70 said:
I just had a play on the 15-inch: 2.3GHz Retina display MBP and there was NO lag in Safari in all the resolution options.

Apple Store Covent Garden has six on the table to play with. All looking pretty damn slick. ;)
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Also had a positive impression playing w/ the scaled modes @ Apple Store, but my impressions were brief and I wouldn't at all doubt the claims of lag, I have the 2.5ghz 6770m 1gb & 2 TB Displays, if I go crazy w/ a dozen workspaces/fullscreen apps etc. it's easy to max out the vram and transitions & mission control etc. can chop.
 
Just went to applestore to play with one. The lag is definitely noticeable but more so, I was unimpressed with the screen. I thought it would blow me away like the iPhone retina effect did but it was barely noticeable at the distance i usually use the laptop at. Thank god, I get to pass on this gen.
 
I also tested the new MBP 15" Retina today...

1) The screen is gorgeous, seriously. PDFs and websites read beautifully. I noticed the extreme sharpness right away. It is like browsing the internet in High Definition. Awesome!

2) The scaling to non-natural resolutions (1680x1050 or 1920x1200) is impressive. I was very sceptical in this regard, but it's very well done. No blurriness or pixelation at all. Good job on this one Apple.

3) The screen is VERY glossy. That thing would be impossible to use outdoors due to reflections.

4) Scroll lag: it does exist and it is INDEED noticeable, specially on busy websites. At the Apple store, I browsed to the same site on two MBP 15" sitting side by side (one retina and the other non-retina), and the scroll lag is VERY noticeable. That was under the HD4000 GPU, tested both in natural retina resolution mode and in scaled resolution mode. I didnt have the opportunity to test it under GeForce settings (which I think you cannot pre-select, the OSX auto-throttles into it under heavy GPU stress). Quite frankly, I found this lag very disappointing. It feels like scrolling with an outdated laptop.

5) The computer is thin, sleek and light. Truly a MBA-MBP hybrid. Beautiful to the eye. However, the 15.4" footprint is pretty huge to be considered as a mobile laptop. This is more a desktop replacement than a road warrior.

So... quite frankly, I don't know, I would be hesitant to throw $2700 into this new retina screen: in one hand it's gorgeous and everything reads and looks stunning. But in the other hand, the scroll lag and the glossiness put me off badly.
 
Today I played again with one 2.3 GHZ at the store in the Stanford Shopping Center.

I just tested the lag thing, here are my findings:

Model: 2.3 ghz, 8GB RAM, 256 GB Solid State
Geekbench: ~11k

Ok, first of all I tried two resolutions the maximum space one, and the 'best for retina'.

I didn't see any software update available, but it could be due to the store not having made the update available ( I heard those are managed in-store )

The lag was TERRIBLE, It was awful, seriously.

Safari: Terrible lag, the worst part was when you reached the end of a page while scrolling to see the bar bounce, terrible. In both resolutions it was very very bad.

I noticed that the OS didn't handle windows resizing very well... sometimes it appeared to get confused. Dynamic window resizing was also laggy.

Chrome Canary: It was much better than safari, and I went into the advanced settings ( I think it's config:flags or something ? ) and enabled all the GPU acceleration that I could. It was much much better, and I was even happy about it ( they don't seem to add that bounce effect that safari adds ). ( no lag at both resolutions )

iTunes:

On a window full of album pictures the lag was horrible :(

iTerm2:

Scrolling on this app, which I use 24/7 * 365 days a year was also a nightmare.


Overall I really feel it's more of a software issue, I tested all with discrete graphics, and I'm quite disappointed. I already ordered one, and I preffer it due to the weight loss and better screen for coding, but yeah, it's laggy.

I hope the software update fixes this :(
 
cardinal said:
I bought a new Macbook Pro (Retina) today because I thought the high resolution would enable me to have a lot of desktop workspace. I enabled scaling for more space in system preferences and tried Safari. I immediately noticed excessive scrolling lag. It was much worse than without scaling enabled and also much worse than my roommate's Macbook Air.

Pretty disappointed if this is how it's going to be when the desktop is scaled.
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Op if you really want a lot of desktop workspace than I suggest doing what this guy did:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1387363/

What I will be doing. Might be too tiny for some people but if you like desktop real-estate and have good eyesite it should be ok. I doubt you will have the lag issues in that method because then it wont be upscaling and downscaling (if its not doing that in hardware that could explain the extreme lag).
 
Anyone with 2.6/8/512 rMBP slated for 5-7 have anything better than processing?
 
I experienced the same thing at some retailer. Laggy overall performance. Even in switching back and to full screen mode. But I don't understand: the iMac just does fine with just some less pixels to manage. And with last generation hardware!!!!!
 
Stetrain said:
In that mode it's actually rendering at 3840x2400 :)eek:) and then downscaling to 2880x1800. Sounds like it needs an update to tweak the scaling process.
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Yes, this is true. I'm also worried about that.
 
Tried a RMBP in Milton Keynes Apple Store today and definitely lots of very obvious lag present. But, oh that screen!

Its very good indeed, if a little reflective, and scaling at 1680x1050 it looked so much better than the regular hires MBP nearby. Got to have one now! :)
 
JasonH42 said:
Tried a RMBP in Milton Keynes Apple Store today and definitely lots of very obvious lag present. But, oh that screen!

Its very good indeed, if a little reflective, and scaling at 1680x1050 it looked so much better than the regular hires MBP nearby. Got to have one now! :)
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If you order now, probably then in a 3-4 weeks, when you get it, Apple has solved that problem :)
 
Got mine last night

So far, pretty good. I've tried the various scaled resolutions; all seem fine. I think the lag people experience comes from the trackpad (specifically the momentum scrolling). I tend to use a standalone mouse and scrolling is generally fine. I disable the integrated GPU so perhaps that does help but by far the most annoying scrolling is the trackpad's momentum scrolling; raw performance seems okay.

With the integrated GPU it is a little laggy at times (grabbing windows and shaking them around as well as scrolling) but that isn't really surprising.

I use Chrome which has an interesting bug/issue -- if you have Adobe Flash active on a page, the *entire page* looks blurry and crappy. Without Flash (or if you block plugins and enable them on-demand), things look just like Safari. Whether this is a Flash or Chrome bug, who knows, but it really was annoying for a while until I realized the pattern -- somehow Adobe Flash is now capable of making an entire page look like crap.

After a few hours use, I did feel like I was suffering some eye strain. My previous MBP was 1680x1050, so I'm running at the higher 1920x1200 resolution, so perhaps that's part of it. It also may have been coincidence. Regardless, it's a little surprising as I have never really had eye strain on laptops before. It may just be getting used do it.

Overall the display is amazing, truly amazing. As is the rest of the machine, of course.
 
I went into the Robina apple store today and compared a MBPR base model ( no 2.6ghz on display) with 15' non-retina MBP and 13' MBA, there is apparent lag/jerky when scrolling through same web page and especially resizing window on the MBPR.

p.s tried on 1440, 1680 and 1920. lag is always there.
 
Just left the Apple Store about an hour ago and I really didn't have any issues with any lag, on any of the scaled resolutions (which all look amazing). But anyway, that screen is BEAUTIFUL, especially after getting back to my MacBook Pro 13. Very impressed with the machine and was waiting to see an iMac refresh, but after today, I might just be picking one of these bad boys up instead.
 
As far as the lag is concerned, there is another thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1386070/

The general results are as follows (according to my understanding):

1) In the Apple display models the lag is atrocious and people speculate it is due to the software that those demos are running; it isn't simply related to the trackpad update and the problem is present on both the integrated and discrete GPUs.

2) Consumers who have the new RMBP in hand still have lag issues, even with all updates, especially in Safari and iTunes in Lion, though nothing like in the Apple store. (yes with both GPUS).

3) The issue seems almost entirely resolved in Mountain Lion Developer Preview 4, though there is still some jerkiness in iTunes. Just watch the three videos posted in page 9 to see for yourself how smooth everything is on the base model with 2.3ghz and 8gb of RAM.

Conclusion, the problem is entirely software based and will be tweaked out with pending updates. No need to worry.
 
no lag in mountain lion

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but multiple people with the mbpr who installed the latest build of mountain lion said it fixed all lag including lag in safari.

Edit: Just realized the post above me mentioned this, my bad!
 
I've just been today in apple store and tried that scaling thing and noticed the lag with all the animations, and even when one of the apple staff was doing a preview he showed the scaled option then opened final cut pro and tried to resize the window and it was very unresponsive and laggy.

However i was wandering do you guys think its possible to install simple non hidpi version of os x and have standard display settings, it would be nice just to set the resolution to 1600 by 1050 or 1900 by 1200 and work on non retina but hires display until everything is adopted and all software is ready for new retina scaling as i wouldn't be the one who is buying the laptop because of retina display, its just a nice add on for me.
 
With Switchres, you can enable a scaled 1440x900 mode, and then scrolling is great in Safari. Of course, the screen looks ugly at that point...
 
Mountain Lion definitely improves scrolling performance in Safari from my experience.

Basically though: this is a lot of pixels to push, and without apps being re-worked, some stuff is going to be slow. These displays are trying to move around 1.5 million more pixels than the next highest-res screens Apple sells, so…

If you want everything to be perfectly smooth despite that the stresses on the drawing system have increased 4-fold, wait a couple generations until faster GPUs can fit in the thing.
 
killmoms said:
Mountain Lion definitely improves scrolling performance in Safari from my experience.

Basically though: this is a lot of pixels to push, and without apps being re-worked, some stuff is going to be slow. These displays are trying to move around 1.5 million more pixels than the next highest-res screens Apple sells, so…

If you want everything to be perfectly smooth despite that the stresses on the drawing system have increased 4-fold, wait a couple generations until faster GPUs can fit in the thing.
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Have you tried the ML Update? Any difference in performance?
 
killmoms said:
Mountain Lion definitely improves scrolling performance in Safari from my experience.

Basically though: this is a lot of pixels to push, and without apps being re-worked, some stuff is going to be slow. These displays are trying to move around 1.5 million more pixels than the next highest-res screens Apple sells, so…

If you want everything to be perfectly smooth despite that the stresses on the drawing system have increased 4-fold, wait a couple generations until faster GPUs can fit in the thing.
Click to expand...

Hmmm...not to call you out but, are you sure about that or is that just pure speculation on your part? I don't have a rMBP, but when I was fooling around with it in Best Buy I didn't notice any performance issues, unless you count the scrolling issue in Safari. I rapid fire tapped F3 like 20 times in 1920x1200 mode and it seems pretty smooth to me, but I'm currently on a PC so I would submit that I'm not the most familiar with the OS. I have a hard time believing the Intel HD Graphics 4000 can't handle some basic 2d animations when it does a decent job with 3d games. Is there something I'm missing--like an article that goes into more detail about any performance concerns with the Retina MBP or something? I suspect most performance issues are due to software bugs and Apple clearly rushing this thing out and not an insufficient GPU--but that's just speculation on my part.
 
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