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Owners: how bad are the lag issues on the Retina MB Pro?

For me, the lag is very noticeable, and occasionally annoying. Not surprisingly, I find it especially bad if the processor is in heavy use by applications.

That said - for me it's worth it. (And I am very picky about UI lag / fluidity). The display is beautiful - everyone goes on about how good images and video look, but pure text is why I have chosen this machine over my 17".

EDIT: I am running Mountain Lion (which is nice, btw), and have graphics switching disabled. 2.6GHz, 16GB.
 
FranksWildYears said:
The Safari lag I find somewhat confusing, as I can really go crazy with the scrolling on this very forum and, as I have it open at present, The Guardian's website, yet a Google search page is a much jerkier affair. I'm only using Lion, so the reports (and videos) of the improvements served up by Mountain Lion DP4 are very welcome.
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Could you please try FireFox and let us know if there is a lag issue? Thanks.
 
It isn't as smooth as the iPad, but honestly for most people the lag isn't that bad. The overall screen quality definitely makes up for any lag, at least for me. But I rarely scroll that fast, that far down, so there's that.
 
hajime said:
Could you please try FireFox and let us know if there is a lag issue? Thanks.
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Firefox has not received a Retina update and therefore looks awful, but I've just download & tested it on Twitter (which runs horribly on Safari 5.1.7 and I can scroll as manically as I can on a Guardian article.
 
gwelmarten said:
Hi
Just considering buying a MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
A question for the owners of this: on MacRumors, we read this, discussing how the retina MBP is pushing it's graphics limits.
How much of a problem are you finding this? Is it noticeable?
Also, for the brain boxes:
If the graphics card and onboard graphics on the CPU are working full pelt, does this imply that the life of these CPU sections / chips will be decreased?

All in all, what I am asking is, is this enough of a reason for you to advise be to buy the non-retina model rather than the retina one?

Sam
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It's almost unusable mate. But I've never used one myself so I don't know for certain.
 
FranksWildYears said:
Firefox has not received a Retina update and therefore looks awful, but I've just download & tested it on Twitter (which runs horribly on Safari 5.1.7 and I can scroll as manically as I can on a Guardian article.
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I wouldn't say it looks terrible. Office looks terrible but Firefox isn't nearly as bad as Office.

It certainly isn't as crisp as Safari but it is useable. Of coarse it does negate the beauty of the retina screen.
 
Safari scrolling is very laggy for me. Even on the "easiest" websites. Much better with the Chrome Canary build, but still nowhere near a non-retina macbook pro.
Can't wait to see how it is with ML.

But doesn't bother me that much, the sharp text is more important to me.
 
I just tested out a base model at Best Buy. It was running Lion.

The scroll and UI lag is noticeable. It would certainly be noticeable to anyone moving from a <5 yo Mac, imo, even if they weren't aware the lag existed in the first place. Also, it gets worse when you use the scaled resolutions. Is it a deal breaker? Probably not, but I only used the computer for 45 minutes at most. I'll get a better feeling when mine comes in and I get to put Mountain Lion on it...

The biggest issue I had with it was video playback on Youtube. I tried out some 1080p and 4k videos in html5, and when compared to the cMBP base(which has 512mb video memory btw), the rMBP was very disappointing. I'm talking choppy playback and longer processing time, to the point where the videos were unwatchable. This was especially true when going fullscreen. It was just as terrible across all of its resolutions.


Overall, I'd describe it as disappointing. For me, it's gonna come down to testing it out during the 14 day return period and seeing how much Mountain Lion improves things, and whether the display quality overshadows whatever drawbacks remain.


Also, it's really ****** that cMBP's with similar specs cost more than their retina versions. I guess Apple is really trying to maximize retina adoption...
 
The RMBP I had (getting a replacement due to it being damaged (dead pixel)) didn't have any lag issues that I noticed. I never used it on the base OS that it shipped with as I updated it as soon as I powered it on.

I went on many websites (MacRumors, Facebook, Apple, Twitter etc.) and didn't face any issues either - as well as the UI in general!
 
Puevlo said:
It's almost unusable mate. But I've never used one myself so I don't know for certain.
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Hahaha. People are dogging you but this was obviously a joke. He's making fun of what seems like the majority of posters on this issue which are people who tried it in the Apple Store for 3 minutes, saw it lag one time, and came back reporting that this is a widespread issue and they will never own one.
 
Temperature and noise of fan

Hi
So, there was a discussion about it's graphics and performance here. I'd now like to ask about the thermals - on my MacBook Air, it got very noisy as the fan went into fast mode when I did anything intensive. Does the rMBP do this more, because all the components (graphics etc) are working harder, and all the time?

Sam
 
Here we go again. But seriously I have no updates or anyhting installed yet on my base model. The only lag I see is in safari which I am told is fixed in ML GM. Will find out when I install it tonight.
 
rikbrown said:
Minimising/maximising/expose are all pretty laggy even on Mountain Lion, compared to a non-retina MBP. That said, this may still be fixed before the ML GM.
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The ML FSS (Fair Share Scheduler) would probably need to be reimplemented in order to dedicate more Cpu resources to applications UIs to avoid lags... Let's hope there will be enough cpu resources for applications' logic...

Is the ui lag more observable with multi-threaded or mono-threaded desktop apps?

Did anyone try to run for instance several VMs (Linux, Windows, Solaris...etc) simultaneously and check if things keep smooth?
 
gwelmarten said:
Ok. I'm convinced about the graphics now, just a little concerned about how fast the fan is going to be going!

Sam
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I upgraded from a Late 2008 MBP, which ran hot and loud constantly, even on the integrated graphics card (these did not have Optimus). I was actually sick of it, though I blame dual hard drives and possibly Lion.

The rMBP, in comparison, is a dream. It's quiet, even under load, and it whirrs more than it whistles. It's not noiseless, but it's not crazy either. In my working environment and experience, it's nearly silent in light operation.
 
Dwhite78 said:
There are a ton of threads on this exact topic, with dozens of replies.

In short: it bothers some people, some people don't even notice it.
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This.

Only site i notice anything odd, is facebook, and well...it's facebook so i could care less...it's a matter of time before they optimize the site.
 
Nozuka said:
Safari scrolling is very laggy for me. Even on the "easiest" websites. Much better with the Chrome Canary build, but still nowhere near a non-retina macbook pro.
Can't wait to see how it is with ML.

But doesn't bother me that much, the sharp text is more important to me.
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i agree. Safari is a bit laggy, but Chrome Canary is quite smooth once the page is fully loaded.

Expose/mission control seems a bit laggy when not been used for a while, but once activated, switching back and forth between desktop and Expose/Mission control is quite smooth. Switching back and forth between desktops is very smooth. Unless under very heavy load, it doesn't seem to get much worse.

Overall its definitely easy to see that there is room for improvement in some areas of the UI, and especially then with Safari scrolling and maximising windows. Other elements are quite smooth and nice to use.

My rMBP (2,7/16/512) is replacing mid 2007 17" 2,4, 4GB, and this is definitely worth the upgrade. Screen real estate is less on the rMBP's native resolution, but I don't mind to much, and with the gestures and multiple desktops/full screen apps its working very well. While writing this I remember that I haven't actually used the 17" since I got this new toy, so I probably have to go back and use it to get the feel for how much snappier - or lagger - the new machine is...
 
gwelmarten said:
Ok. I'm convinced about the graphics now, just a little concerned about how fast the fan is going to be going!

Sam
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In 2 hours of web browsing I never once hear nor felt the fan kick in. It's way cooler than my 2008 umb
 
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