rMB - UI Responsiveness

[Cronus]

I've got a 256GB/1.1 Gold on order. Already shipped.

I did play with one on Friday at a local store here. They look awesome, however, I noticed some pretty slow and choppy animations when doing things like: opening and closing mission control, swiping between spaces, opening and closing the notification center side-bar, minimizing, maximizing and dragging around windows, etc. I usually had just one safari or one finder window open when performing these tests. Scrolling through the sites such as the verge were buttery smooth! Did anyone else experience this? I haven't seen any other comments on it yet.

I currently use a 2010 Mac Pro at home, and a mid-2013 MBA 11"(8GB, 1.7 i7). I did buy the 2012 rMBP when it came out, and I recall the store unit suffering from similar issues. But I don't believe the unit I actually purchased suffered from such slow frame rates as the model in the store. In fact, I believe that people were posting at the time that Apple runs some sort of software that causes slow downs on the demo units. Is this true?

I'm still excited, but hoping the animations aren't anywhere near as slow as how I experienced them in store!

Edit: I forgot to mention, that I did most of these tests in the highest possible scaled resolution (1440x900).

 

[Beau10]

It's a known issue w/ the retina machines in general when scaled (the 'default' resolution is actually scaled on these). I found it to be pretty similar to my late 2014 13 rMBP, which is somewhat worse than a late 2013 15" rMBP I had before it. Alot of people claim they don't see it, but before buying my 13" I tried every machine in the store at the time and they were identical... it gave me pause but in the end I decided the trade off is worth it. The rMB honestly is better than I was expecting, but then again I am used to this.

BTW, scrolling through The Verge (I also test things like this used to be _way_ worse prior to Safari 8. It went from stutter city to buttery smooth with that release, so much so that I switched back from Chrome for some time... Chrome finally followed suit around v38/39 but it's still not quite as nice in v41.

 

[Theophil1971]

Ya, I'd guess that's a consequence of scaling at the high res. Most of the professional reviewers have reported a pretty smooth UI experience on the 1.1machines they've tested, and were using the default resolution.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Ya, I'd guess that's a consequence of scaling at the high res. Most of the professional reviewers have reported a pretty smooth UI experience on the 1.1machines they've tested, and were using the default resolution.

My 13-inch 2013 RMBP is choppy as well compared to my 5K iMac. Don't get me started on the Mail app. I decided to get the 12-inch instead since I never used any of the ports anyway.

 

[newellj]

I've got a 256GB/1.1 Gold on order. Already shipped.

I did play with one on Friday at a local store here. They look awesome, however, I noticed some pretty slow and choppy animations when doing things like: opening and closing mission control, swiping between spaces, opening and closing the notification center side-bar, minimizing, maximizing and dragging around windows, etc. I usually had just one safari or one finder window open when performing these tests. Scrolling through the sites such as the verge were buttery smooth! Did anyone else experience this? I haven't seen any other comments on it yet.

I currently use a 2010 Mac Pro at home, and a mid-2013 MBA 11"(8GB, 1.7 i7). I did buy the 2012 rMBP when it came out, and I recall the store unit suffering from similar issues. But I don't believe the unit I actually purchased suffered from such slow frame rates as the model in the store. In fact, I believe that people were posting at the time that Apple runs some sort of software that causes slow downs on the demo units. Is this true?

I'm still excited, but hoping the animations aren't anywhere near as slow as how I experienced them in store!

Edit: I forgot to mention, that I did most of these tests in the highest possible scaled resolution (1440x900).

I spent quite a while this afternoon using one at its highest setting and didn't see any choppiness or UI lag that bothered me. However, I think it's very optimistic to assume that the display units in the store are slower than what you'll get from Apple.