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UI Lag Performance/Recommendation

mattkidd

mattkidd

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 6, 2008
196
13
United Kingdom England Northants
I was about to create a thread complaining about UI performance on the new Macbook (1.3 BTO). :(

When switching screens, launching safari and general usage there was without doubt noticeable lag... Especially in comparison to my 2014 Macbook Air.

Now.... A small recommendation to those who may also have the same experience.

I have just enrolled this macbook into the BETA for 10.10.4 and installed the update. Whilst I don't know the ins and outs of this upgrade I can confirm the UI performance appears to have significantly improved. There's no longer any lag switching between screens and launching applications. Whilst its not butter smooth, its vastly improved and almost on par with the i7 Air.

I don't know if this update included any performance fixes, none the less it has improved my experience. Id recommend you do the same.
 
mattkidd said:
I was about to create a thread complaining about UI performance on the new Macbook (1.3 BTO). :(

When switching screens, launching safari and general usage there was without doubt noticeable lag... Especially in comparison to my 2014 Macbook Air.

Now.... A small recommendation to those who may also have the same experience.

I have just enrolled this macbook into the BETA for 10.10.4 and installed the update. Whilst I don't know the ins and outs of this upgrade I can confirm the UI performance appears to have significantly improved. There's no longer any lag switching between screens and launching applications. Whilst its not butter smooth, its vastly improved and almost on par with the i7 Air.

I don't know if this update included any performance fixes, none the less it has improved my experience. Id recommend you do the same.
Click to expand...

i just remembered I took the beta on my 1.3 last week. the 1.3 flies, no question. Parallels and a lot of open windows docs photoshop still flies! almost as fast as my 2015 rMBP with i7!!
 
UI Lag Performance/Recommendation

mattkidd said:
I was about to create a thread complaining about UI performance on the new Macbook (1.3 BTO). :(

When switching screens, launching safari and general usage there was without doubt noticeable lag... Especially in comparison to my 2014 Macbook Air.

Now.... A small recommendation to those who may also have the same experience.

I have just enrolled this macbook into the BETA for 10.10.4 and installed the update. Whilst I don't know the ins and outs of this upgrade I can confirm the UI performance appears to have significantly improved. There's no longer any lag switching between screens and launching applications. Whilst its not butter smooth, its vastly improved and almost on par with the i7 Air.

I don't know if this update included any performance fixes, none the less it has improved my experience. Id recommend you do the same.
Click to expand...


Although you stated that you don't have a thorough grasp of the details of the 10.10.4, is there any generally noticeable differences in terms of the OS? (not necessarily lag related). Also, how do you enroll in the beta program, and what is required of someone that opts in?
 
tecnho said:
Although you stated that you don't have a thorough grasp of the details of the 10.10.4, is there any generally noticeable differences in terms of the OS? (not necessarily lag related). Also, how do you enroll in the beta program, and what is required of someone that opts in?
Click to expand...

https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

I personally haven't signed up for the beta program, although I'm curious to hear others post their results.
 
I found turning on 'reduce transparency' in Accessibility System Preferences significantly improved the smoothness of the UI..
 
Good news about 10.10.4. Thanks for the tip!

I think I'll wait for it to be out of beta, though, since this is my primary work machine.

In general, how long after the first public beta does an official version release?
 
Theophil1971 said:
Good news about 10.10.4. Thanks for the tip!

I think I'll wait for it to be out of beta, though, since this is my primary work machine.

In general, how long after the first public beta does an official version release?
Click to expand...

This should be pushed out shortly. There were not dramatic changes. Mostly Safari improvements. Although, there was other tweaks involved obviously because its showing improvements on my rMB.
 
While we're on the topic of betas and such, for those who are fans of Google Chrome, I strongly recommend that you install Chrome Canary (https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/canary.html) instead of using regular Chrome. The caveat is that it's beta and may be prone to crashing, but I've been using it for a week and a half now and it's pretty smooth (no crashes, zero issues). Plus they've fixed the battery/CPU utilization issues and UI rendering issues for the new rMB.

I use multiple browsers on my rMB on a daily basis (as a web developer, I have to), and I've found that so far, Chrome Canary's latest build is a vast improvement over the current (older) stable version, and I've found that it's on par or better than Safari in terms of energy utilization. Of course, YMMV, so don't take my word for it. It works well for me, but may or may not work for you.
 
Brookzy said:
I installed the 10.10.4 beta earlier today and my rMB is still lagging like mad.

Screen capture here of lag while maximising an iMessage window.

I know it's a serious first-world problem, but I waited a long time and paid a lot of cash for this thing, and the lag is really pissing me off!
Click to expand...

Interesting. I just tried to reproduce this on my 1.2/512, and it's not nearly as laggy as your video.
What model are you using there? 1.1?
Are there other processes running in the background?
Do you have lots of open Spaces running?
 
Brookzy said:
I installed the 10.10.4 beta earlier today and my rMB is still lagging like mad.

Screen capture here of lag while maximising an iMessage window.

I know it's a serious first-world problem, but I waited a long time and paid a lot of cash for this thing, and the lag is really pissing me off!
Click to expand...

Serious? This is what people are moaning about? Holy cow. If this is your definition of lag, then yes I can see some maybe less. This is what people are calling unusable? Wow, just wow.
 
Yes, it isn't buttery smooth.

The good news is that it's a bit laggy even on my Early-2013 15" rMBP with discrete graphics enable. The bad news is, heck, it reminds me the times of Windows 95 when we had to tweak the registry to disable window animations.

I have translucency disable on Yosemite, but can still note these glitches.
 
legioxi said:
My thoughts exactly after watching that.
Click to expand...

I can agree with you, but I'd expect a buttery smooth experience. It seems that the OSX UI needs some kind of buffering techniques, like the Project Butter on Android phones. Another approach would be giving up those fancy effects (or at least allow us to disable them).
 
Theophil1971 said:
Interesting. I just tried to reproduce this on my 1.2/512, and it's not nearly as laggy as your video.
What model are you using there? 1.1?
Are there other processes running in the background?
Do you have lots of open Spaces running?
Click to expand...

1.2

No other applications or spaces open (aside from the Quicktime screen recorder, which did not impact the lag).

bcaslis said:
Serious? This is what people are moaning about? Holy cow. If this is your definition of lag, then yes I can see some maybe less. This is what people are calling unusable? Wow, just wow.
Click to expand...

It's certainly not unusable! I didn't say that. And people who did may have worse lag.

brdeveloper said:
Yes, it isn't buttery smooth.

The good news is that it's a bit laggy even on my Early-2013 15" rMBP with discrete graphics enable. The bad news is, heck, it reminds me the times of Windows 95 when we had to tweak the registry to disable window animations.

I have translucency disable on Yosemite, but can still note these glitches.
Click to expand...

Yeah I tried disabling translucency, no difference.

legioxi said:
My thoughts exactly after watching that.
Click to expand...

If my 5K is silky-smooth, and my rMB jitters to the extent that I noticed it, then it's worth a mention.
 
People are getting way too bent out of shape over lag issues. Most of the videos I see have very minimal lag. So it stutters a bit when it goes from minimized to full screen. Are people spending all their time looking for lag instead of actually using their MacBook?

The MacBook is designed for portability. It's not meant to run high-end graphics programs or fast games.

Future buyers: if lag concerns you, then this is probably not the laptop for you. You are probably best served with a MacBook Pro. If lag doesn't concern you and you're looking for a light travel laptop, then this is perfect.
 
southerndoc said:
People are getting way too bent out of shape over lag issues. Most of the videos I see have very minimal lag. So it stutters a bit when it goes from minimized to full screen. Are people spending all their time looking for lag instead of actually using their MacBook?

The MacBook is designed for portability. It's not meant to run high-end graphics programs or fast games.

Future buyers: if lag concerns you, then this is probably not the laptop for you. You are probably best served with a MacBook Pro. If lag doesn't concern you and you're looking for a light travel laptop, then this is perfect.
Click to expand...

2015 rMBPs have lagging issues too.

This isn't about performance; the UI isn't lagging because of a lack of resources. This is about software.

Being able to maximise a window at more than 5fps shouldn't (and doesn't) require high-end graphics.
 
MarkW19 said:
I found turning on 'reduce transparency' in Accessibility System Preferences significantly improved the smoothness of the UI..
Click to expand...

This instatnly fixed any sort of lag I was experiencing. Sure, it doesn't look as pretty but hopefully 10.10.4 will fix that and I can enable transparency. Love this little beauty!
 
Brookzy said:
If my 5K is silky-smooth, and my rMB jitters to the extent that I noticed it, then it's worth a mention.
Click to expand...

Well, I just tried the same on my 4,0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 Retina iMac. It looks absolutely the same. Seems not to be a hardware problem!
 
It's really strange.

Just an update on this form my side: Seems the BETA was a short-term fix. Performance is once again becoming a struggle.

Just switching between screens can be really painful at times. It's strange to see that some people have no issues at all whilst others are painfully slow.
 
mattkidd said:
It's really strange.

Just an update on this form my side: Seems the BETA was a short-term fix. Performance is once again becoming a struggle.

Just switching between screens can be really painful at times. It's strange to see that some people have no issues at all whilst others are painfully slow.
Click to expand...

Damn. I was hoping that 10.10.4 was the solution. There is a lag on my 1.2, and I'm holding out to see if my BTO 1.3 is any better.
 
Brookzy said:
2015 rMBPs have lagging issues too.

This isn't about performance; the UI isn't lagging because of a lack of resources. This is about software.

Being able to maximise a window at more than 5fps shouldn't (and doesn't) require high-end graphics.
Click to expand...

If an Android phone can, a Mac should also do. But I don't care with UI animations. It would be nice if we could turn all them off.
 
MarkW19 said:
I found turning on 'reduce transparency' in Accessibility System Preferences significantly improved the smoothness of the UI..
Click to expand...

This.

Also, check Activity Monitor to see if there's anything chewing up time and resources (especially CPU, and Network)

I did a bit of that with my 1.2ghz, and it's running sweet and smooth
 
southerndoc said:
People are getting way too bent out of shape over lag issues. Most of the videos I see have very minimal lag. So it stutters a bit when it goes from minimized to full screen. Are people spending all their time looking for lag instead of actually using their MacBook?

The MacBook is designed for portability. It's not meant to run high-end graphics programs or fast games.

Future buyers: if lag concerns you, then this is probably not the laptop for you. You are probably best served with a MacBook Pro. If lag doesn't concern you and you're looking for a light travel laptop, then this is perfect.
Click to expand...

i'd say that is hardy software.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ia3l0oWbY
 
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