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I think it's really down to a lack of GPU grunt. The 13" has no Dedicated GPU and the Iris Pro on the 15" is not good enough for these super high resolutions neither is the 750m which is a 2013 graphics card folks.
No, this is a software issue. If the 750 wasn't fast enough you would get a slide show on the Iris 5100, but you don't.
 
This is probably the main reason why I'm still using Mavericks. Mavericks seems to be the best OS to stick to if you've got a retina display with the improved drivers compared to previous releases (albeit still not good enough to totally eradicate the UI lag, and maybe look slightly outdated). When they first previewed Yosemite I was already thinking, "Goodness me, all those transparency surely won't make the UI lag better..."
 
I am not sure why some many get fixated on "lag" in this forum. People need to just use the computer for what it is made for instead of finding things to nitpick. Clearly doing a screen will increase this by a considerable amount. Please, use the computer and enjoy it. You have one of the best computers on the market. Make use of it.
 
This makes me nervous, I was seriously considering buying one of these to replace my 2011 Macbook Air but I thought this far down the macbook pro retina line that they would have solved the UI lag issue by now.
 
This makes me nervous, I was seriously considering buying one of these to replace my 2011 Macbook Air but I thought this far down the macbook pro retina line that they would have solved the UI lag issue by now.

They have, this issue is far and few between...my new rMBP is flawless and smooth as butter at 1680x1050
 
A 13" MBP with dedicated video would be really nice.

No, because then users would be infuriated with the excessive heat, fan noise and poor battery performance.

It seems I did the right thing to buy a new mavericks non-retina mba 11" while it still was possible back in october 2014. This retina eye-candy can mature some years still before I make the switch.
 
No issues here, 2015 rMBP 2.7GHz i5 8GB - 10.10.3 (latest beta). This is with transparency on, and scaled display, along with two external monitors via thunderbolt.

My 2010 suffered big time, but the 2015 is rockin' it. SO fast.
 
No issues here, 2015 rMBP 2.7GHz i5 8GB - 10.10.3 (latest beta). This is with transparency on, and scaled display, along with two external monitors via thunderbolt.

My 2010 suffered big time, but the 2015 is rockin' it. SO fast.
on your 2010: System Preferences>Accessibility>Display> turn on "Reduce Transparency" I did this on my 2010 mac and it helps considerably. I also find I have to repair permissions from time to time, but, that may have to do with connecting to external display w/HDMI adapter, via an AVR so I can switch between mac/blu-ray/apple tv (sometimes something comes up about displaypolicyd), or, it could be because I have flash player installed (I hate flash, I wish websites would dump it, go HTML5).

>>>For those experiencing lag, sign out of iCloud and sign back in. Also, check the Photos section of iCloud. I found that, at some unknown point, even though I have iCloud turned off for Photos on all my devices, here was a - check, so I went into "Options" and found 2 of the 3 items were checked, My Photo Stream and iCloud Photo Sharing. I unchecked these and it made a difference, but, I also have not opened iPhotos/Photos app on my Mac for some time.
 
I am not sure why some many get fixated on "lag" in this forum. People need to just use the computer for what it is made for instead of finding things to nitpick. Clearly doing a screen will increase this by a considerable amount. Please, use the computer and enjoy it. You have one of the best computers on the market. Make use of it.

Yes, one of the best computers on the market and it does not run it's own software the way it should. I made use of it by turning off the transparency (that feature of Yosemite that Apple was gloating so much about) and have noticed a considerable difference in performance. Beside that, great computer.
 
No UI lag here! Works like a dream! :D

Screen_Shot_2015_04_07_at_10_59_35_AM.png
 
I really don't think we should be pointing fingers at the GPU. Any basic GPU should be able to handle 5 megapixels with ease at this point, even the HD 4000. We really need to remember that we're talking about desktop compositing here, which are mostly 2D rendering, rather than 3D graphics. Obviously a more powerful GPU will reduce these problems, but I believe the root of the problem is poor coding and optimisation that is causing the UI lag.
 
Driver issue. HD3000 in my MBA 2011 with external 24 inch display runs pretty smooth and only lags a little sometimes when i watch videos on both screens and interact with finder windows at the same time.
 
I am still trying to understand why the lag is happening to some people with retina displays while others are reporting no such problem with their retina displays. How could this be a driver issue if not everyone is experiencing the lag issue.

I have been reading that this same difference on older hardware as well.
 
I am still trying to understand why the lag is happening to some people with retina displays while others are reporting no such problem with their retina displays. How could this be a driver issue if not everyone is experiencing the lag issue.

I have been reading that this same difference on older hardware as well.

Different usage? Like scrolling on some website might aggravate the issue, or not doing some actions that cause it to appear such as resizing windows (or so I've heard).
 
And now millions of Mac users can experience the UI lag present for so many on iOS especially under iOS 8. Yay! As if a retina display pushing 4x the pixels isn't enough, Apple decides to crank up the same effects that are crippling 1-2 year old iOS devices.
 
I'm having the same issue with a maxed out upgraded 2015 retina macbook pro. 16GB ram, 3.1 ghz CPU.

I did migration from a Time Machine backup but its using the Yosemite install it came with.

Something seems to happen over time or from running an app that puts it in a MAJOR stuttering mode. First time it happened I tried to play Starcraft. That did not go well.

After a reboot is seemed fine. For a while. Not sure what happened but it became very stuttery again.

Can't even play a 1080p video that plays fine in my 4yr old Mini. Practically unwatchable with lots of stutter. Stutter can be seen in all animations including:
- scrolling in Safari or in any app like Xcode
- dock show/hide
- switching between full screen windows
- playing video, even 1080
- Animation effects in iOS simulator. Makes developing on this machine questionable.

I tried rebooting and reseting the PRAM. That seemed to fix it. Seems perfectly smooth. Playing 4k video relatively smoothly. But I'm wondering if it will come back.

I had given up on this laptop and was moving back to my 3yr old Macbook Air which does not have this problem.

BTW: I tried reducing transparency. That fixed it for Safari but didn't seem to improve many other places I see the UI lag.

More notes:
When it was lagging really bad, there was no process using lots of CPU, no runaway process. CPU utilization was very low.
I'm also experiencing USB 3 problems. I've had two different USB 3 drives disconnect. These drives have been rock solid and NEVER disconnected using my Macbook Air. It is possible that its a related problem causing a timing issue with USB. As if the machine is frequently locking up, causing the stutter and USB issue. Or it could be totally unrelated.
 
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This is good advice. I'm using Reduce Transparency (and increased contrast ftm) and it makes a huge difference in responsiveness (and I'm writing this from a mid 2014 13" rmbp). Makes you wonder if the frosted glass effect is really worth the CPU time.
I'd be very surprised if that's not rendered on the GPU.

I am not sure why some many get fixated on "lag" in this forum. People need to just use the computer for what it is made for instead of finding things to nitpick. Clearly doing a screen will increase this by a considerable amount. Please, use the computer and enjoy it. You have one of the best computers on the market. Make use of it.
Plus you can't really expect the latest Pro-machine to handle its operating system. At that price, you just have to make some compromises.
 
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