Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OS X El Capitan Scaled Resolution Performance?

Westy8897

Westy8897

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 17, 2015
7
0
Frankston, Australia
Hi all, Just wondering...

Has anyone who has access to the OS X El Capitan Beta and who is running a Macbook Pro 13" with a Retina Display been using a scaled resolution? I am currently running Yosemite (10.10.4 beta) and am experiencing a lot of lag while running at a scaled resolution. Id love to use the more space option (1050p) but the lag is to great and really pisses off my OCD. So currently I am using the 'Best for Retina' setting and not getting any lag at all. However there simply isn't enough screen real-estate. Has this performance issue been resolved in El Capitan? Hopefully it will be, let me know if you've given it a shot.

Also I'm very sensitive to frame drops, witch is why some people notice the lag (like me) while others don't. Thanks again
 
What I recommend is getting a utility like SwitchResX or one of the free ones, that will allow you to set the resolution to the native res of the retina display. This will give you a lot of space, and better UI performance.

The reason there is a lot of lag at scaled resolutions is due to the way Apple implemented this feature. When you scale up, it actually scales the resolution as if it were twice that for pixel doubling, then down samples it to the display. It's like scaling way up, then scaling back down. It puts a lot of stress on the graphics and even causes lag on my rMBP 15". Setting the native resolution with a utility eliminated this for me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mackker
I have a 2015 13in. Macbook Pro that I run at 900p and 1050p and haven't been experiencing near the amount of lag that I was on Yosemite. Animations are fluid and lag is next to not present.
 
I have a 2015 15" rMBP and I can't really see much difference between Yosemite and El Capitan. Both are very smooth and fluid. One notable difference though is Mission Control, which used to lag occasionally under Yosemite but is extremely smooth on 10.11.
 
Zorn said:
What I recommend is getting a utility like SwitchResX or one of the free ones, that will allow you to set the resolution to the native res of the retina display. This will give you a lot of space, and better UI performance.

The reason there is a lot of lag at scaled resolutions is due to the way Apple implemented this feature. When you scale up, it actually scales the resolution as if it were twice that for pixel doubling, then down samples it to the display. It's like scaling way up, then scaling back down. It puts a lot of stress on the graphics and even causes lag on my rMBP 15". Setting the native resolution with a utility eliminated this for me.
Click to expand...

Is text even readable at native retina?
 
Zorn said:
What I recommend is getting a utility like SwitchResX or one of the free ones, that will allow you to set the resolution to the native res of the retina display. This will give you a lot of space, and better UI performance.
Click to expand...

Uh... What?
 
Naio said:
Uh... What?
Click to expand...

What is the confusion?

By setting the resolution to the native resolution of the panel, it bypasses the scaling completely and the GPU render directly to the screen. That reduces the overhead required to scale down the doubled resolution render to fit your screen, thus the performance is increased.

It's the same reason Windows UI is faster on the same hardware, the GPU doesn't have to scale down the screen rendering.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zorn and T'hain Esh Kelch
MBHockey said:
Anyone know if Apple changed the way El Capitan handles scaled resolutions in any significant way?
Click to expand...

Metal might help reduce the CPU cost of using the scaled resolutions but beside that, there is no changes to how it works.
 
Zorn said:
What I recommend is getting a utility like SwitchResX or one of the free ones, that will allow you to set the resolution to the native res of the retina display. This will give you a lot of space, and better UI performance.

The reason there is a lot of lag at scaled resolutions is due to the way Apple implemented this feature. When you scale up, it actually scales the resolution as if it were twice that for pixel doubling, then down samples it to the display. It's like scaling way up, then scaling back down. It puts a lot of stress on the graphics and even causes lag on my rMBP 15". Setting the native resolution with a utility eliminated this for me.
Click to expand...

Isn't the only native resolution of the retina display the default one?
 
MikhailT said:
What is the confusion?

By setting the resolution to the native resolution of the panel, it bypasses the scaling completely and the GPU render directly to the screen. That reduces the overhead required to scale down the doubled resolution render to fit your screen, thus the performance is increased.

It's the same reason Windows UI is faster on the same hardware, the GPU doesn't have to scale down the screen rendering.
Click to expand...

Because you recommend to use the display at native resolution while claiming this will give you more space and better UI performance. This would only be true if you actually use it at native resolution which will make everything ridiculous tiny and unusable.
 
Skika said:
Isn't the only native resolution of the retina display the default one?
Click to expand...

No, the default resolution is not the native resolution, it's the HiDPI resolution. In other words, it is actually the scaled resolution of 1440x900, the 15" native resolution is 2880x1800. HiDPI on Mac platform are typically using the 2x scaling. So, 2880/2 = 1440, 1880/2 = 900, 1440x900 is the default HiDPI 2x resolution on 15" rMBP.

Look at Apple's tech spec if you don't believe me: http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs-retina/

I believe recently, Apple made changes to OS X to let you change the resolution to the native resolution if you click on "Scaled" with the option key. Here's what shows up on my iMac 5K:

50QMAL1I.png


5120x2880 is the native resolution while the default HiDPI resolution is set to 2560x1440.

Naio said:
Because you recommend to use the display at native resolution while claiming this will give you more space and better UI performance. This would only be true if you actually use it at native resolution which will make everything ridiculous tiny and unusable.
Click to expand...

You might want to go back up the quotes, I did not make any recommendation, Zorn did. I merely explained why such a native resolution has no scaling overhead that means the performance will be faster and reduce the lags.

My recommendation is to use the default resolution as it reduces eye strain during the day even if you have a perfect vision. If you need more space, OS X makes it easy to change to a higher resolution, even to a native resolution where it might be useful for when you're working on a large image.

El Cap does appear to improve the performance of scaled resolutions for me.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: strawbale
Native resolution on a 13" screen is not viable, its too small, hence the scaling to 2x - the OP wanted to know if 1.5x scaling which is a good compromise between clarity and size has any performance issues. Simply suggesting to run a native res is beside he point and useless.
 
MikhailT said:
You might want to go back up the quotes, I did not make any recommendation, Zorn did. I merely explained why such a native resolution has no scaling overhead that means the performance will be faster and reduce the lags.

My recommendation is to use the default resolution as it reduces eye strain during the day even if you have a perfect vision. If you need more space, OS X makes it easy to change to a higher resolution, even to a native resolution where it might be useful for when you're working on a large image.

El Cap does appear to improve the performance of scaled resolutions for me.
Click to expand...

Sorry, my bad. I assumed it was the same person replying that I had replied to.

In your example, the application should already be drawing the image at 1x. Pixelmator does this. If you changed to native resolution in that case, it wouldn't have any effect on the image itself, only the UI.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MikhailT
Naio said:
Sorry, my bad. I assumed it was the same person replying that I had replied to.

In your example, the application should already be drawing the image at 1x. Pixelmator does this. If you changed to native resolution in that case, it wouldn't have any effect on the image itself, only the UI.
Click to expand...

Yep. Not all apps do this correctly, unfortunately. I remember a screenshot app that would just blow it up twice the size instead of leaving it alone at 1x, it made it difficult to work on a small screen. Luckily, it is only a small amount of apps that haven't updated to support retina assets properly.
 
MikhailT said:
Yep. Not all apps do this correctly, unfortunately. I remember a screenshot app that would just blow it up twice the size instead of leaving it alone at 1x, it made it difficult to work on a small screen. Luckily, it is only a small amount of apps that haven't updated to support retina assets properly.
Click to expand...

Do you know if Photoshop does it properly?
 
Naio said:
Do you know if Photoshop does it properly?
Click to expand...

I don't use Photoshop but I know Adobe updated their apps more often and did include a lot of Retina-related changes a while ago, so it should work as expected.
 
If someone with a 13" rMBP could check this, I'll be very grateful. I think you have to have FileVault enabled.

If you set the resolution to More Space (1680x1050), will it stay like that in the user switch screen after performing a restart or when it locks after certain amount of time?

Now in Yosemite 10.10.3 it will restore to Best for Retina and change to More Space every time I input my password (it's not a smooth transition). I've read that it's a known issue and just hoping to know it's been fixed. It doesn't happen on any other setting (using it now at 1440x900 and it stays like that everywhere).

I love More Space, but I can't live with that issue happening every time so I've been using 1440x900.

Thanks.
 
netsped said:
If someone with a 13" rMBP could check this, I'll be very grateful. I think you have to have FileVault enabled.

If you set the resolution to More Space (1680x1050), will it stay like that in the user switch screen after performing a restart or when it locks after certain amount of time?

Now in Yosemite 10.10.3 it will restore to Best for Retina and change to More Space every time I input my password (it's not a smooth transition). I've read that it's a known issue and just hoping to know it's been fixed. It doesn't happen on any other setting (using it now at 1440x900 and it stays like that everywhere).

I love More Space, but I can't live with that issue happening every time so I've been using 1440x900.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I started to have the same issue on my 13" rMBP after I switched to 1536 x 960 from 1440 x 900.

It only happens for me when I restart.
 
XboxMySocks said:
Probably an app like RDM.

The better question is why.
Click to expand...

on my rMBP 1440x900 is too big and 1650x1050 too small for me. So i would love to have an option in between. Unfortunately RDM doesn't support HiDPI 1600x1000 oder 1536x960..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back