Stutters across all Apple devices?

[WalsallSaddler]

An Apple user since 2020, and honestly, every my device since then has had this issue: Air 2018, iPhone 12, Air M1, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 17 and Apple TV 4K (2022).

There are constant micro-stutters here and there. It happens both in the system animations and inside various apps. This is completely ruining the user experience.

To give some examples on iOS:
— just scroll in apps like Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, X, Gemini or even the native Apple TV, Weather app, sometimes in the Notification Center, or try to use Lock Screen Switcher;
— it also triggers when closing apps, swiping through home screens, or scrolling through open tabs (tab grid) in Safari;
— these are just a few examples, it happen here and there. Both on iOS, MacOS and tvOS. Low power/adaptive modes are off.

It’s clear that many people simply don't notice these stutters. Some can’t tell the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz even, or haven't spent time with mid-range and flagship Android devices where this performance issue doesn't exist. But for those who do notice, it’s incredibly frustrating.

It sucks because Apple hardware is great otherwise, but these stutters ruin the whole experience for me. Since this has been going on for years, it feels like Apple has absolutely no plans to fix it. Not sure if other devices (Apple Watch, iPad, etc.) suffer from this issue.

 

[conmee]

In iOS, the only stutters I've really noticed are when scrolling through Notes on my iPhone. If I do a long/fast scroll I can easily see the scrolling is janky especially as it slows towards the end of the scroll. Interestingly, I didn't notice this on my old iPhone 12 Pro so I was thinking it might have something to do with ProMotion and variable refresh rate on my 14 Pro and now 17 Pro. Scrolling in Safari or Photos or Messages looks fine so it may just be the Notes app.

As for macOS, since Tahoe I notice more animation issues. Things like Mission Control sometimes aren't as fluid on my Apple Studio Display but it's a bit nicer on my MBP ProMotion display. Even just the bounce of the pop up confirmation when rebooting/shutting down doesn't always look very smooth. But the janky/stuttering animations aren't always consistent, as a lot of the time things look smooth (or I'm just filtering out the stutter). Animation stuttering was much more noticeable on my 2019 Intel MBP than on my M5 Max MBP so that gives me hope that maybe it's an optimization thing with animations and that Apple can fine tune things in Golden Gate.