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Upgraded from 10.6.8 to 10.8.2 - choppy animations (mid 2010 MBP)

P

ProMod

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 29, 2005
566
51
The title says it all. I meticulously maintain my Mac, and I upgraded it from 10.6.8 to 10.8.2 last night (against my better judgement). Now the whole system seems sluggish and animations are choppy, especially the dock.

Will a clean install fix this, or am I wasting my time? Really wish I had stuck with 10.6.8 to be honest.
 
Did you check to see if your computer is still indexing?

If you have a lot of files, then it takes a long time for indexing to happen.
 
bill-p said:
Did you check to see if your computer is still indexing?

If you have a lot of files, then it takes a long time for indexing to happen.
Click to expand...

Definitely finished indexing. It did take a while, but I let it finish.

I just noticed that while it was preparing for a Time Machine backup, all of a sudden the animations became smooth. When the backup finished, choppy again. I initiated another backup; smooth again. I canceled it; choppy. What is going on here?
 
Do you need anything from Mountain Lion?

I would use your disks to do a clean Snow Leopard install and update it back up to 10.6.8. It sounds ridiculous but you said yourself that you regret even upgrading - it's worth the hassle in my opinion.
 
ProMod said:
Definitely finished indexing. It did take a while, but I let it finish.

I just noticed that while it was preparing for a Time Machine backup, all of a sudden the animations became smooth. When the backup finished, choppy again. I initiated another backup; smooth again. I canceled it; choppy. What is going on here?
Click to expand...

Sounds like something is seriously out of place on your hard drive.

Try using Disk Utility to repair the drive? You can repair the boot drive by using the Recovery Partition that's automatically installed by Mountain Lion.
 
Dark Void said:
Do you need anything from Mountain Lion?

I would use your disks to do a clean Snow Leopard install and update it back up to 10.6.8. It sounds ridiculous but you said yourself that you regret even upgrading - it's worth the hassle in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I upgraded mainly for iCloud, with the iPhone 5 coming tomorrow.

I have backups upon backups and could go back to 10.6.8 without too much hassle, but I think that will be my last resort. I want to try a clean install first.
 
ProMod said:
I upgraded mainly for iCloud, with the iPhone 5 coming tomorrow.

I have backups upon backups and could go back to 10.6.8 without too much hassle, but I think that will be my last resort. I want to try a clean install first.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, it's probably better to go for a clean install first in order to see if the issue is replicated.

There are many threads on Mountain Lion UI lag (mainly for but not limited to the rMBP) and I see a lot of talk of graphic switching causing the issue. I am not sure how accurate that is, but does your model have both an integrated and dedicated GPU?
 
Your 2010 should have a Nvidia 330M dedicated card in it. If you get ""gfxcardstatus" and switch it to discrete, maybe that will help... maybe not the right answer, but sluggishness from the UI usually means tax on the intergrated intel card.
 
It's actually solved by using Onyx or something similar to set the dock to the 2D style. Even without Onyx if you move the dock to the left or right sides, the problem goes away.

I ran into something similar to this many years ago when I first installed 10.6 on my 2007 MBP. The dock animation was just too much for the older hardware.

I also believe it has something to do with the way the system manages itself when it's in a low-power state. If something is running, like Time Machine, everything is smooth because it's "throttled up". If it's sitting idle with nothing going on, everything becomes choppy.

No wonder the Apple default is to have the dock stationary and unanimated. :rolleyes:
 
That's a weird fix, but if it works it works. What does the dock look like using that application to make it 2D - like how it does when it is placed on the left or right side of the screen?

If so, there is a terminal command that does that as well as ones that move it around.

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES (2D)
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO (3D)

and

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start (left or top)
defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string middle (center)
defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end (right or bottom)

... hit the return key after any of these commands and type "killall Dock" on the next line in order to reset the dock and apply the changes.

If your application does it without you having to enter the commands though, that works too.
 
I've also fixed the issue by keeping the dock as its standard 3D, but turning off the magnification effect.
 
ProMod said:
I've also fixed the issue by keeping the dock as its standard 3D, but turning off the magnification effect.
Click to expand...

That's interesting as well, but it isn't too far fetched to expect dock animations to cause lag.

I have never used the Magnification effect. I also use the "Scale" effect to minimize windows as opposed to the "Genie" effect. I also have them set to minimize into the icon of the application rather than expanding the dock with a new one.

I have never experienced UI lag in SL but these options just seem to flow a lot better and seem less involved.
 
Dark Void said:
That's interesting as well, but it isn't too far fetched to expect dock animations to cause lag.

I have never used the Magnification effect. I also use the "Scale" effect to minimize windows as opposed to the "Genie" effect. I also have them set to minimize into the icon of the application rather than expanding the dock with a new one.

I have never experienced UI lag in SL but these options just seem to flow a lot better and seem less involved.
Click to expand...

It's interesting to me that the default for the dock is now "no magnification". I've been using Mac OSX since 10.3, and it's always been magnified by default. That's why I've gotten so used to it being that way. But now that I use it without the magnification, I'm starting to see it as more of a streamlined solution as you said.

I also always use the scale effect, but I always have my windows minimize into their own area. I forget they're there if they go behind the app.
 
OP, I recommend a clean install.

I clean installed the 10.8.0 release of ML, it was a little choppy then, but now with 10.8.2 it is much smoother. Mission Control animations and switching desktops are excellent using the GT 330m.

2010 15" MBP 2.4GHz i5.
 
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