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Scrolling stutters

K

krzkrzkrz

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 29, 2010
32
1
I just bought a MBP Retina today. On Firefox (even Safari), scrolling on some webpages doesn't render smoothly. In fact, the stutter is very small but quite noticeable. The experience happens randomly.

Take for example this website: http://www.theverge.com/ Scroll from the top all the way to the bottom. The scrolling experience is not smooth at all! Is this expected or is this a defect?

The scrolling "stutter" is also apparent when you do small scrolls. About an inch of movement. Try doing it on that site. You will notice a "choppy" sensation as the page scrolls slightly.

Before I lay my case and ask for an explanation tomorrow morning in the shop where I bought my laptop. I'd like to know if this is supposed to be expected.

I came across this thread, which have the some users experiencing the same issue: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1397436/

I am also on Mavericks. I will try upgrading to Yosemite in a few hours to see if the "stutters" go away.

One other thing I realize is. Scrolling along the page at http://www.theverge.com/ renders high CPU usage. At least this is what Activity Monitor is saying about Firefox... Sometimes going up to 60-70%. Which seems really odd....
 
Last edited:
Well, OSX Yosemite didnt do anything... The "stutters" are still there. Anyone else on theverge.com see the same issue on the MBP Retina?
 
krzkrzkrz said:
Well, OSX Yosemite didnt do anything... The "stutters" are still there. Anyone else on theverge.com see the same issue on the MBP Retina?
Click to expand...

13" MBPr here, and no scrolling issues on that site with my machine...running Yosemite as well. The only time I really experience stuttering or clunky UI is when viewing giant PDF's.
 
Apparently the stutter scrolling effect also happens when you try to scroll down on your Facebook feed. Can anyone else confirm this on their MBP Retina?

I asked someone next to me, and she says, "Isn't that normal?".

Is it?

----------

On Firefox, Activity Monitor reports high CPU usage when scrolling theverge.com

On Safari, everything seems to be much smoother. And Activity Monitor does not report high CPU usage....

Can anyone explain this?
 
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stempsons said:
13" MBPr here, and no scrolling issues on that site with my machine...running Yosemite as well. The only time I really experience stuttering or clunky UI is when viewing giant PDF's.
Click to expand...

What browser are you using?
 
Can you try with Firefox? I even tried uninstalling Firefox and recreating a new profile (which means Firefox from scratch, which includes no addons). Still see high CPU% spikes when scrolling sites like theverge.com
 
krzkrzkrz said:
What browser are you using?
Click to expand...

safari, chrome and firefox...mostly safari though. the only time i see "non- smooth" scrolling, is if i swipe the track pad super fast over and over, as if trying to scroll to a super old post on fb. i'm not experiencing the resource hogging issue either, with any of the browsers...nothing more than maybe 20% at times.
 
Yes, scrolling on the retina macbooks stutters.
That is very appearant and has been discussed at naseum.
 
Meister said:
Yes, scrolling on the retina macbooks stutters.
That is very appearant and has been discussed at naseum.
Click to expand...

Is there a thread about this already?

----------

I tried this in the shop where I purchased my MBP Retina, on their display model. I managed to install Firefox. The issue was the same.

I also tried with non Retina models. Also the same... Must be the way Safari is integrated with OSX that makes it much smoother. I'm guessing Safari is natively "connected" to OSX, while Firefox and Chrome are connected through means of an API...

Chrome and FF don't play nicely in terms of smooth scrolling and CPU% utilization. What a pity! Such an expensive laptop, and such poor performance with a non Apple browser.

This is the part where I missed my Arch Linux setup!
 
Last edited:
leman said:
It is possible that your power management is misconfigured. Try following the instructions in this post (reset SMC before resetting PRAM) and see if it helps: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1833125/

High CPU usage while scrolling is expected and normal.
Click to expand...

I followed the instructions to reset SMC here http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

Right after reboot, I followed instructions to reset PRAM at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1833125/

Still high CPU% on Firefox. I guess its just the Retina not playing nicely with Firefox (possibly any other applications that allow scrolling as well)
 
krzkrzkrz said:
I also tried with non Retina models. Also the same... Must be the way Safari is integrated with OSX that makes it much smoother. I'm guessing Safari is natively "connected" to OSX, while Firefox and Chrome are connected through means of an API...

Chrome and FF don't play nicely in terms of smooth scrolling and CPU% utilization. What a pity! Such an expensive laptop, and such poor performance with a non Apple browser.
Click to expand...

They all have access to the same APIs. If Chrome or FF are underperforming, its kind of their fault ;)

Retina screens do require more work from the applications then non-retina ones and OS X uses a number of quite aggressive optimisations to help out (here is a neat coverage of one of them : http://arstechnica.com/apple/2013/10/os-x-10-9/19/). Years of deploying on overpowered hardware has made developers lazy. Unfortunately, retina displays are quite good at exposing ineffective drawing algorithms. It may just be that Safari's layout engine is faster. A difference of 10% would be unnoticeable with classical resolutions, but it becomes quite dramatic when you consider the 4x increased pixel density.
 
It is not Apple's fault that they deliver a more efficient browser. Chrome likes to suck down RAM like it is going out of style and Firefox (and its derivatives) love to eat the CPU.
 
Altemose said:
It is not Apple's fault that they deliver a more efficient browser. Chrome likes to suck down RAM like it is going out of style and Firefox (and its derivatives) love to eat the CPU.
Click to expand...
Chrome also harasses the CPU. It's a horrible browser!!
 
Meister said:
I am only talking about the OS version. I use firefox under windows.
Click to expand...

Firefox has been having slow text entry bugs under Windows for me at least. Chrome works fine on Windows once you disable all of the excess CPU pigs ("Chrome Notifications", "Let Chrome run in the background", etc.). Internet Explorer doesn't want to open certain pages or work with certain elements (e.g. MacRumors).

On OS X, you pick every browser by the downfalls.
 
Altemose said:
Firefox has been having slow text entry bugs under Windows for me at least. Chrome works fine on Windows once you disable all of the excess CPU pigs ("Chrome Notifications", "Let Chrome run in the background", etc.). Internet Explorer doesn't want to open certain pages or work with certain elements (e.g. MacRumors).

On OS X, you pick every browser by the downfalls.
Click to expand...
Safari has been excellent so far.
 
I just installed Chrome 64bit w/ Adblock Plus. It's actually running quite well now...especially compared to Safari on Yosemite.
 
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