Retina Macbook Pro 15" (2012) UI lag on Mavericks

[Valkyre]

Hello guys.

Yes this is another one of those threads. But I really still encounter UI lag even with GT650M activated.

The thing is the lag is "weird". No I am not talking about safari "scroll lag". That is non existent anymore.

I am talking about general UI lag. I will try and explain.

If I have 3-4 windows open for example safari, itunes, iphoto and finder and I try and use mission control there is lag... not much but enough.

If i try to swipe between desktops sometimes it is silky smooth but then it gets jerky and laggy. Sometimes I swipe 2-3 times and it is super smooth but if i continue swipe back and forth, eventually it starts to lag.

The same happens in launchpad as well. Super smooth, then after a few swipes, boom... lag.

Same with notification center... smooth, then lag.

I have reset SMC and PRAM that doesnt make any difference.

I have tested the machine thoroughly in benchmarks and the resulta i get are on par with the performance expected, both in terms of cpu and gpu so there appears to be no fault at all.

Please dont post just to say that your retina macbook pro is super smooth. I want to know if other people share the same experience as I do, and whether there is a solution.

I know the frames per second thing is a subjective matter that differs from people to people, some consider smooth performance what other consider laggy, but I think I explained quite well my issue. The lag comes after doing the same thing continuously. Sometimes it is laggy when i start the swipes, then it gets smooth then laggy again.

It happens prominently with mission control, spaces, launchpad and notification center.

Please share if you have the same issue. I thought Mavericks where supposed to eliminate UI lag, but I dont have such an experience.

 

[maflynn]

Please share if you have the same issue. I thought Mavericks where supposed to eliminate UI lag, but I dont have such an experience.

I've not noticed any lags, but then I didn't notice it on ML either. I guess it depends on what software you're running.

I don't think resetting the SMC and PRAM would have done anything. If there's a lag issue, its software related, i.e., drivers.

 

[Valkyre]

I've not noticed any lags, but then I didn't notice it on ML either. I guess it depends on what software you're running.

I don't think resetting the SMC and PRAM would have done anything. If there's a lag issue, its software related, i.e., drivers.

What do you mean it depends what software you are using? I had UI lag with Mountain Lion and I still have (albeit in different ways) in Mavericks.

Thing is I do not understand why I have 2-3 smooth swipes or mission controls , before it starts to eventually become laggy... it is really bugging me...

anyone else with the same issues?

 

[DannyDrama]

Mine is laggy when I open the apps folder on my dock. Looks really horrible but everything else is like butter.

 

[Valkyre]

Mine is laggy when I open the apps folder on my dock. Looks really horrible but everything else is like butter.

yes I notice lag also when opening apps folder from the dock.

You dont exprience the lag i am describing though? For example swiping back and forth through desktops multiple times doesnt eventually start to lag or look like it is droping frames?

 

[walkie]

Have you tried a fresh install?

There may be something running in the background sucking up the GPU that creates artificial UI lag

 

[DannyDrama]

yes I notice lag also when opening apps folder from the dock.

You dont exprience the lag i am describing though? For example swiping back and forth through desktops multiple times doesnt eventually start to lag or look like it is droping frames?

No, everything but dock folders are smooth as silk. No lag whatsoever. I occasionally get a black screen which requires a reboot on wake-up also. Those are the only problems I have.

 

[maflynn]

What do you mean it depends what software you are using? I had UI lag with Mountain Lion and I still have (albeit in different ways) in Mavericks.

Thing is I do not understand why I have 2-3 smooth swipes or mission controls , before it starts to eventually become laggy... it is really bugging me...

anyone else with the same issues?

I mean perhaps the software you were using (no the OS) was contributing to the issue. I'm not seeing any performance issues or lagging. I'm on my rMBP right now, since I have an external display, its on the dGPU.

 

[Valkyre]

I mean perhaps the software you were using (no the OS) was contributing to the issue. I'm not seeing any performance issues or lagging. I'm on my rMBP right now, since I have an external display, its on the dGPU.

I really dont know what could be affecting it... apart from a few thrid party apps everything else is right from apple's store.

I tend to have a lot of icons in the dock if that makes any difference though... does it? (dont think that i have like 60 items or such though, more like close to 35)

 

[Svend3r]

I had this problem to...

I opened autocad, there were some recovery files in it... Closed autocad again and the lag was gone...

Maybe it helps

 

[AirThis]

Same symptoms as OP. Fresh OS install doesn't really help.

 

[laurihoefs]

I only get occasional stuttering when changing spaces. It only happens while running something that demands a lot of resources in the background (like exporting or importing a large number of images in Lightroom, with filters being applied) while having Mail and/or Safari open in one of the spaces. But even then it's very rare.

The same stuttering was present in Mountain Lion and Mavericks. But other than that, things have been quite smooth since 10.8.3 or so.

With scaled resolutions I get the stuttering a bit more often, but even then it requires there to be some heavy task running in the background.

 

[TechZeke]

I mean perhaps the software you were using (no the OS) was contributing to the issue. I'm not seeing any performance issues or lagging. I'm on my rMBP right now, since I have an external display, its on the dGPU.

This. Sometimes even on my cMBP I get lag and graphics tearing when using AutoCAD for Mac. Turn it off and everything runs like normal(smooth)

 

[AirThis]

This. Sometimes even on my cMBP I get lag and graphics tearing when using AutoCAD for Mac. Turn it off and everything runs like normal(smooth)

I think we're talking about UI lag with no "big" software running. Two simple YouTube videos (non HD) in Safari and Chrome will do the trick. Give them each their own space and voilà you've got UI lag.

 

[Buckyy]

I believe this is relative to UI lag, but it only happens when I run certain software. I play League of Legends and before the Maverick update everything ran fine. As soon as I played AFTER the Maverick update I noticed tremendous lag, not related to ping. Normally, I'm at a steady 60 FPS. However, since the Maverick update my FPS drops VERY low at random times. I still haven't figured out why.

(I need to reinstall my windows partition otherwise i would just play on windows)

 

[dusk007]

I think the only thing that really helps is what used to fix Windows PCs so often in the past. Clean Install, though more importantly clean profile. If you restore from time machine, nothing will change.

I had similar issues time and time again. Lag is also not a couple frames but severe choppiness where an animation performs as bad as if the UI render thread has very low priority and the rest of the system is full loaded. Even though this only happens when there is medium load.
My 2013 rMBP 15" actually lags much more in that respect than the old 2010 on the intel gpu (that arrendale gpu was quite terrible compared to a Iris Pro/750M). Still at the end GUI was very smooth in Mavericks. Took a long time though. ML stayed extremely choppy almost forever with obvious bugs. I once fixed them by trying a new profile but I had so much stuff set up at my old profile that I just didn't want to redo. When I tried once the problem reappeared. It is one thing to many on stuff installed and everything is messed up. It is IMO to time consuming to find out what exactly is the cause of such issues, especially since that can change each new OS iteration.

You want to fix such buggy behavior, try a new profile.
For me it is often when I run Flash stuff on the external screen that the everything even the most basic webpages get choppy and sometimes even some general gui animations. VLC sometimes causes the same problem. It is very odd because there should be plenty of CPU ressources left to handle, well everything. And even if there wasn't User interactions and UI animations should run with the highest priority and always get served first in any decent OS.
I don't really run any actually demanding stuff in OSX. The problem with a new user profile is that the cause might be an application that I won't be able to do without, which would put me back to where I started. I guess I just wait for a few updates.

 

[commac]

I mean perhaps the software you were using (no the OS) was contributing to the issue. I'm not seeing any performance issues or lagging. I'm on my rMBP right now, since I have an external display, its on the dGPU.

Does your 15" rmbp with dgpu often get hot or loud connected to the external?

 

[Tanmayg]

I have an early 2013 rMBP 15" model and I face a noticeable lag while scrolling facebook and other websites in safari. Macrumors forum is smooth but i guess where there is pictures it tends to lag.
Then i face a slight lag in zooming pdf files using preview!
While the macbook is on battery, my 1080p videos tend to lag sometimes. It is not a big lag but quite noticeable and irritating.

(I have mavericks clean installed, got this macbook 18 days ago only and also got it checked for any hardware problems from the service center! )

 

[Farrowism]

Having exaxtly the same issues mentioned here.

• lag when opening application menu from dock
• intermittent window switching lag
• case extremely hot at base above keyboard/below screen. fans very loud under minimal load (2 youtube video windows in chrome, another browser window, outlook, and calendar open but minimised open. (even now editing this post is causing the fan to start, nothing else is open or running)
• moving or scaling elements in illustrator is so laggy
• switching pages and page previews in indesign are slow and refresh rate is unusable
• basic lightroom editing gets laggy as cpu gets hotter and fans run (obviously under intense load for not doing very much.

I thought maybe it could be a font error as this has caused major lag previously (things like Futura system font duplicates). however i have not found any that are having problems from my end..

I have done every reset and fix i could find or think of. including:

• pram reset
• .plist deletion
• cache deletion
• launch agent deletion
• disable all fonts ( except system)
• made sure the 750M run vs the Iris (after it was recommended, it made no difference)

none have improved anything by a significant degree.

I would love for the great wall of apple to open a little and tell us how to fix this, and at least admit they have a problem.

I had upgraded from a mid 2007 mac pro to the new late 2013 maxed out rMBP and to be honest, i'm really trying to convince myself it was $4100 well spent?

 

[sonyisawesome]

I had upgraded from a mid 2007 mac pro to the new late 2013 maxed out rMBP and to be honest, i'm really trying to convince myself it was $4100 well spent?

Probably not.

 

[Love4ndpeace]

It seems that there is no way to fix this problem yet?

For mine, I switched to OS X Mavericks on the release day without problem.

I only has problem after the latest update, same problem with most of you. UI lag, full screen lag, and just a little bit lag while the page is loading. after its done loading the lag is gone. but UI lag stays all the time.

 

[iopre]

Wow this worked.

I had this problem to...

I opened autocad, there were some recovery files in it... Closed autocad again and the lag was gone...

Maybe it helps

Svend3r, I opened up my CAD and closed it and everything was perfect. I created this account because I was so happy it worked and I just had to tell you your advice worked. Thanks!

 

[Sifinity]

have you tried cleaning your cache?