rMBP 15": performance at 1920x1200?

[ammarr]

Been looking into getting the 15" rMBP refurb. Initial reviews mention that at the highest scaled resolution (1920x1200), general UI performance can be laggy.

Since this is the resolution I am looking to use it at (or perhaps 1680x1050), has this gotten any better? Any thoughts from owners who have been using these resolutions in regular use?

Thanks!

 

[nontroppo]

It is my default resolution, I only scale up to 2880 for Lightroom and down to 1440 for reading of scientific PDFs and programming visual stimuli in OpenGL. I have no problems, everything is smooth doing a lot of "work" across multiple applications, but I never really saw much "lag"[1] anyway. Most complaints I saw were usually because of specific cases of particular web pages with particular browsers or some weird "resize application X vertically".

----
[1] lag is a pretty innacurate description, most people saw framerate variability, not lag. I did have very clear UI performance issues with navigating Spaces with gestures in 10.8.0, but this got fixed...

 

[ammarr]

So, I went out and tried it at the Apple Store. You're right, I did see frames dropping in some animations (show launchpad, mission control etc). I failed to check the version of OS X though.. has this issue been fixed in recent updates?

 

[akdj]

Interesting. I would assume the computers in the 'store' are updated OS-wise. I'm using a pair of rMBPs--mine, that I'm typing on right now, is configured @ 1920 by default. My wife prefers 1650 on hers.

I just launched both M/C and Launchpad. Neither did I notice a F/R drop...nor any lag. I'm a CS6 suite user---mainly visual. Premier, PS, AE , Audition, and LR...My wife uses In Design and Illustrator. We both use Chrome and Safari. I can't tell you or explain easily in words how happy I am with these computers. It's like the performance of our MacPro is wrapped up in a 4 pound package!

Lots of software has already been updated---Fire Fox released this week a retina update. Adobe is on board, Apple's FCPx runs brilliantly...and I'm happy with the MS Office suite as well (Word and PowerPoint...I rarely use Excel).

J

 

[Schranke]

i use 1920X1200 each day and dont have any lag

 

[nontroppo]

I never use LaunchPad, but Mission Control (which I do use a lot) is smooth for me. I use several Mac Pros with 5870 GPUs and have a 2010 15" MBP all on 10.8.2, I do not notice any consistent problem comparing my rMBP to these systems (i.e. there is very occasional frame-rate glitches on my Mac Pro too...)

As another data point, for my graphics programming work I can have two external monitors connected as well as the internal panel running and no problems with HiDPI1920 in this configuration — lots of pixels to handle and it does so with aplomb! I measure very low-level data and for example the variance in screen update timing is in the 0.03 - 0.05ms range, very good (though we have to use a custom kernel extension to work around OS bugs).

*BUT* perhaps you use some particular browser with some particular website and you do get framerate inconsistency, I can't guarantee you won't see some problem. And Apple have genuinely terrible GPU drivers, and seem to do as little as possible to update them, so YMMV.

 

[ammarr]

Thanks for the input. Its good to hear that it doesn't seem to be the norm. At the refurb price I'm finding it an exceptionally good deal. I'll make sure to check the OS and try a couple more before pulling the trigger on it.

 

[thegreatdivorce]

I'm glad you posted this thread. I preferred mine at 1650 instead of 1440, but was worried by reports of "lag". Then I forgot about it all and never got around to trying it.