Retina MacBook Pro: no sign of a scroll lag

[tejaswi.rohit]

:d

I can confirm that Mountain Lion fixes all the lag issues that some people are facing in Lion, none of the animations lag (UI and scroll)

I downloaded ML DP4 (couldn't bare the lag in Lion) and clean installed it and now everything is smooth as butter. But i find one minor lag when you change tabs in System Information, hopefully that gets fixed.

Was running on default Best for Retina scaling

I own the base Retina MBP model 2.3/8/256.

Update: When running at scaled 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 there is a slight lag while moving from one workspace to other, scrolling and other animations still smooth. Hope they fix that in the GM version

 

[kensenjiha]

I'm using native 2880x1800 resolution.

never feel lag, even with Intel HDG.

 

[xaelia]

I'm using native 2880x1800 resolution.

never feel lag, even with Intel HDG.

Heh, yes, the 2880x1800 won't have any scaling issues to deal with - but clearly unusable for every day work.

I've been runnining 1680 scaled - since the 1440 (Best for retina) is workspace downgrade - and when I first unboxed, I could tell there was a minimal amount of choppiness, as discussed. However, it seemed like there was a scrolling performance improvement just with the first Lion update I applied after unboxing. Who knows what I'm perceiving.

 

[magbarn]

Heh, yes, the 2880x1800 won't have any scaling issues to deal with - but clearly unusable for every day work.

I've been runnining 1680 scaled - since the 1440 (Best for retina) is workspace downgrade - and when I first unboxed, I could tell there was a minimal amount of choppiness, as discussed. However, it seemed like there was a scrolling performance improvement just with the first Lion update I applied after unboxing. Who knows what I'm perceiving.

Wait until you can get mountain lion on it. Wish I was a dev as my buddy's rMBP is so much smoother than mine. Still can lag on fbook, but otherwise almost as smooth as my 2011. From what I've seen of ML, ML to Lion is like win7 was to vista.

 

[heresjohnny]

I've been running ML GM since I got my rMBP, and there is some UI lag for me. Scrolling is mostly smooth.

My 2011 17" feels a lot smoother, but I can live with this. (And I am picky about such things.)

 

[gv23]

I can confirm there was no lag at all after playing with it in the apple store for 15mins. For mine on order and waiting eagerly to receiving it!

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

If this is true, Mountain Lion is no different than Lion in this regard. People are not having scrolling issues in "Best for Retina" resolution, the issues manifest themselves when you select the higher scaled resolutions. According to your post, Mountain Lion still exhibits lag in those modes, so nothing is fixed.

I can confirm that Mountain Lion fixes all the lag issues that some people are facing in Lion, none of the animations lag (UI and scroll)

I downloaded ML DP4 (couldn't bare the lag in Lion) and clean installed it and now everything is smooth as butter. But i find one minor lag when you change tabs in System Information, hopefully that gets fixed.

Was running on default Best for Retina scaling

I own the base Retina MBP model 2.3/8/256.

Update: When running at scaled 1680x1050 and 1920x1200 there is a slight lag while moving from one workspace to other, scrolling and other animations still smooth. Hope they fix that in the GM version

 

[Lvivske]

I'm on the default 'best for retina' option and notice A LOT of lag in chrome, and when 4 finger swiping between apps and mission control

pretty much anything that requires movement

on mountain lion at the moment, no better than Lion....maybe worse, not sure now


safari 6 is amazing though, no lag at all.

 

[br3nt]

I'm on the default 'best for retina' option and notice A LOT of lag in chrome, and when 4 finger swiping between apps and mission control

pretty much anything that requires movement

on mountain lion at the moment, no better than Lion....maybe worse, not sure now


safari 6 is amazing though, no lag at all.

just out of curiosity, did you upgrade or make a clean install?

 

[doopsie]

i upgraded as well, apart from improvements in safari, don't see any improvements in animations (switching launchpad etc). in fact, i felt that lion was perhaps smoother

 

[stevelam]

ML definitely did not get rid of lag. I own the RMBP, not "I played with one for 5 min at the apple store"

 

[Meekko]

ML definitely did not get rid of lag. I own the RMBP, not "I played with one for 5 min at the apple store"

Same here. Here's what I posted in another thread:

I think people don't realize that the UI scrolling lag is more pronounced when the laptop is unplugged. This is probably the reason why they don't experience animation choppiness in the Apple Store (the charger is always attached to it).

In my experience with my Retina, the scrolling is most horrible in the Mail app when I try to scroll an email thread. The scrolling is tolerable when the laptop is plugged, but once you unplug it you will see the scrolling become much worse. This happens for Safari, iTunes, maximizing windows etc. And I've tested both Lion and ML. And switching to discrete/integrated gpu makes little difference.

I'm hoping for a software fix, but I'm not that optimistic.

 

[sofianito]

Same here. Here's what I posted in another thread:

I think people don't realize that the UI scrolling lag is more pronounced when the laptop is unplugged. This is probably the reason why they don't experience animation choppiness in the Apple Store (the charger is always attached to it).

In my experience with my Retina, the scrolling is most horrible in the Mail app when I try to scroll an email thread. The scrolling is tolerable when the laptop is plugged, but once you unplug it you will see the scrolling become much worse. This happens for Safari, iTunes, maximizing windows etc. And I've tested both Lion and ML. And switching to discrete/integrated gpu makes little difference.

I'm hoping for a software fix, but I'm not that optimistic.

As I said in an other thread, the lag issue is likely specific to the operating system or a hardware limit, but not to some applications.

 

[cjred]

I am indeed.

It still disproves his theory that anyone who dares claim their rMBP is running smoothly is a complete liar though.

yep its running smoothly but their a bit of "sluggishness" and "performance inconsistency when using launchpad, mission control, changing space it's just not buttery smooth. Although when i use safari its buttery smooth to scroll and zoom except facebook which is the worst.

Overall quite fine.

 

[Thors.Hammer]

Same here. Here's what I posted in another thread:

I think people don't realize that the UI scrolling lag is more pronounced when the laptop is unplugged. This is probably the reason why they don't experience animation choppiness in the Apple Store (the charger is always attached to it).

In my experience with my Retina, the scrolling is most horrible in the Mail app when I try to scroll an email thread. The scrolling is tolerable when the laptop is plugged, but once you unplug it you will see the scrolling become much worse. This happens for Safari, iTunes, maximizing windows etc. And I've tested both Lion and ML. And switching to discrete/integrated gpu makes little difference.

I'm hoping for a software fix, but I'm not that optimistic.

I'm running mine at 1920x1200 (scaled) on battery and AC. It is not silky smooth in OS X. I am hoping for an improvement when I move to Mountain Lion in the next couple of days.

 

[Office Hours]

I'm on the default 'best for retina' option and notice A LOT of lag in chrome, and when 4 finger swiping between apps and mission control

pretty much anything that requires movement

on mountain lion at the moment, no better than Lion....maybe worse, not sure now


safari 6 is amazing though, no lag at all.

Chrome://flags

Enable all GPU acceleration options + Per Tile Painting. Chrome will now be smooth. This was possible in Lion as well.

----------

If this is true, Mountain Lion is no different than Lion in this regard. People are not having scrolling issues in "Best for Retina" resolution, the issues manifest themselves when you select the higher scaled resolutions. According to your post, Mountain Lion still exhibits lag in those modes, so nothing is fixed.

No other Macbook allows you to smoothly set a non native resolution. Consider it icing on the cake, which by the way, runs as well as best for retina on the dGPU.

 

[infernohellion]

Chrome://flags

Enable all GPU acceleration options + Per Tile Painting. Chrome will now be smooth. This was possible in Lion as well.

I don't know why but Chrome was better for me in Lion with all the GPU acceleration options enabled. Now it's a lot worse on ML.

That's why I'm using Safari right now.

 

[ZacT94]

I have no lag either on my rMBP. I saw all the other complaints about lag on rMBP and factored that in to my decision on buying the rMBP. I bought the rMBP on the 20th July. Best decision I ever made!

 

[terraphantm]

Heh, yes, the 2880x1800 won't have any scaling issues to deal with - but clearly unusable for every day work.

I've been runnining 1680 scaled - since the 1440 (Best for retina) is workspace downgrade - and when I first unboxed, I could tell there was a minimal amount of choppiness, as discussed. However, it seemed like there was a scrolling performance improvement just with the first Lion update I applied after unboxing. Who knows what I'm perceiving.

You know, I'm thinking I'll just leave it in "Best for retina" mode. Sure it's a workspace downgrade in legacy apps - but once applications that actually need the workspace are upgraded, it shouldn't matter. (My assumption is that such apps will use 1x scaling for the main content and use 2x only for UI elements)

 

[infernohellion]

I still think the scroll lag has a lot to do with software optimization. Hardware limit could also be an issue however given how smooth scrolling in Safari on ML can be I think it's most likely software optimization.

Or I am just being a little too optimistic. Next time I won't buy a rev A product from Apple. I semi-regret the purchase. It is affecting my productivity. I'd like to love the rMBP more.

 

[Lvivske]

Chrome://flags

Enable all GPU acceleration options + Per Tile Painting. Chrome will now be smooth. This was possible in Lion as well.

----------


No other Macbook allows you to smoothly set a non native resolution. Consider it icing on the cake, which by the way, runs as well as best for retina on the dGPU.

None of this makes any difference, sorry.

 

[Thors.Hammer]

I still think the scroll lag has a lot to do with software optimization. Hardware limit could also be an issue however given how smooth scrolling in Safari on ML can be I think it's most likely software optimization.

Or I am just being a little too optimistic. Next time I won't buy a rev A product from Apple. I semi-regret the purchase. It is affecting my productivity. I'd like to love the rMBP more.

If I understand your complaint correctly, you're upset everything (other than Safari scrolling) isn't perfect? These things will get worked out over time. There's a lot to like about the rMBP.

 

[infernohellion]

If I understand your complaint correctly, you're upset everything (other than Safari scrolling) isn't perfect? These things will get worked out over time. There's a lot to like about the rMBP.

Very true.

 

[mykelala01]

It's not just scrolling. Don't you just love how people latch onto one small part of the problem, walk into an Apple store, and then think they've miraculous discovered that everyone who owns one was wrong? I own the rMBP and I'm typing on it now and it has pretty annoying levels of GUI animation stutter... It's annoying because I bought a Mac partially for the flawless experience. I still have a scroll stutter in Safari, especially when using the touchpad. It looks like *smooth scrolling* is the issue. Scrolling with a mouse wheel seems to work pretty well, because it's not a smooth scroll. I hope that ML fixes this issue as I will use my laptop on the go a lot.

One weird thing I noticed. Minimizing windows to the App icon produces less animation stutter than minimizing to the right hand part of the doc.

In case you're wondering about my authenticity as a user:

Troll.... lol! Joke

Kidding aside

people who think you are not authentic and thinks that you are trolling. Just won't accept the fact there is a problem and it needs a fix real quick.

 

[flipnap]

Troll.... lol! Joke

Kidding aside

people who think you are not authentic and thinks that you are trolling. Just won't accept the fact there is a problem and it needs a fix real quick.

not a single one of these machines perform similarly. everyone thinks they are having the same experience, and each one is calling the other crazy. i know, because ive used two identical machines in two different stores and one stuttered like crazy and the other was smooth as butter.

so you have a guy at his house. with a machine thats running smooth, literally no stuttering. he reads a post by a guy who says "my machine stutters" and he gets upset because he thinks all these machines are identical and the other guy must be a troll.

meanwhile, the guy with the stuttering machine reads posts about how smooth the OTHER guys machine is, and in reality it is, and HE bugs out.. see what im getting at? nobody can get to the bottom of it. the only thing i can think of is theres some strange components that are different in some machines (sort of like the display panels, theyre not all the same), except this problem is actually causing lag.

i can see no other explanation as to why so many people are having such a wide array of conflicting reports on screen performance.