Faidoca

Q: Macbook Pro with Retina, Mountain Lion graphic jitters

Lion wasn't the best performer on my Macbook Pro with Retina, however, the issues that were supposed to be resolved in Mountain Lion seem to have actually gotten worse. Switching spaces and going in and out of Mission Control is still just as laggy, but other problems have arrissen too. For example, scrolling over my dock, the magnification animation is choppy. Also, when I command to show the desktop the windows jitter for a second. Or when scrolling through web pages in safari or chrome, it jitters as I'm scrolling, or when I hit the top and bottom of a page and it snaps back. Overall, the entire expeirence just seems very unpolisshed, and after spending $2,500 on a new machine, I'm pretty dissapointed in the UI experience.

 

Anyone else experiencing these problem, or have solutions?

 

Thanks in advance!

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jul 30, 2012 8:34 AM

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Q: Macbook Pro with Retina, Mountain Lion graphic jitters

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  • by jtalky,

    jtalky jtalky Oct 29, 2012 5:35 AM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford
    Level 1 (0 points)
    iCloud
    Oct 29, 2012 5:35 AM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford

    Thanks -- I will give this a try.  The last update I did caused my usually stable Mac to shutdown overnight for unknown reasons and now I have flicker in the dock magnification.  I will give the tools a shot

  • by arminm,

    arminm arminm Nov 18, 2012 3:24 AM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 18, 2012 3:24 AM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford

    Your solution worked for me! This rMBP UI lag was driving me crazy! Thanks bud!

  • by grudgnor,

    grudgnor grudgnor Nov 21, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Faidoca
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 21, 2012 9:56 PM in response to Faidoca

    My retina MacBook Pro has had terrible graphics performance problems for a couple of weeks. I searched all over various forums and tried everything: resetting SCM, manually selecting discrete/integrated graphics card, deleting graphics kexts, etc. Nothing helped until I found this: https://discussions.apple.com/message/19880198#19880198

     

    Now my rMBP has silky smooth graphics again!

     

    The directions in that post are a little hard to understand so I cleaned them up here:

     

    Step 1: Delete system windowserver preferences

    1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
    2. Enter: /Library/Preferences/
    3. Delete the file called com.apple.windowserver.plist

     

    Step 2: Delete user windowserver preferences

    1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
    2. Enter: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/
    3. Delete all files that start with com.apple.windowserver   (On my rMBP, there was one file called com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F62-C1E4F2BE81BE)

     

    Step 3: Reset the PRAM

        (These instructions are from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379)

    1. Shut down your Mac.
    2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    3. Turn on the computer.
    4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
    5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    6. Release the keys.

     

    Hopefully this helps others with bad graphics performance on retina MacBook Pros.

     

    For anyone that wants to check out the problematic plists from my rMBP, here are the files:

    http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.plist

    http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F6 2-C1E4F2BE81BE.plist

     

    Jeremy Herrman

  • by sebo21,

    sebo21 sebo21 Dec 6, 2012 9:28 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 6, 2012 9:28 AM in response to grudgnor

    Did nothing in my case, UI still stutters a lot, no matter if it's Integrated Only, Discrete Only or Dynamic Switching.

  • by roberto_sc,

    roberto_sc roberto_sc Jan 14, 2013 5:01 AM in response to Faidoca
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2013 5:01 AM in response to Faidoca

    It's JANUARY and we still have this problem with OS X 10.8.2.

     

    This is my first Mac and I bought it because I thought Apple had respect for its consumers, that it would be different from other computers, that I wouldn't waste my time struggling in forums to find a solution.

     

    8 virtual cores, 8GB RAM, GeForce 650M and I can't read my gmail....  "best mac ever made"...

  • by poidet,

    poidet poidet Jan 14, 2013 5:15 AM in response to roberto_sc
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 14, 2013 5:15 AM in response to roberto_sc

    it is sadly, very very sadlly...

     

    and the most interesting that I gave promise to my self that if 10.8.3 won't solve my problems i will sell my macbook... and it might happen that 10.8.3 never will come out  .. what should I do ?? they stole our money, they stole most important our time, and they lost us as customers. Good luck Apple!

     

    P.S. another interesting point, why so small amount of people claim about that ? why "burn in display" topic has 200K views and our only ~8K ? come on guys, you don't have such problem ? or who bought so many rMBP ?

  • by Mateus109,

    Mateus109 Mateus109 Jan 14, 2013 5:29 AM in response to Faidoca
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 14, 2013 5:29 AM in response to Faidoca

    Many encountered a similar problem when Snow Leopard was released and Apple was doing nothing to fix it.  In the end I took a screencast of the problem, put it on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haaxsIiXSIU) and emailed the link to the late Steve Jobs (managed to find out his email address via another Apple forum).  The next day I got a call from an Apple Engineer who remotely connected to my Mac to investigate the problem.  He confirmed the problem was software related and a fix was issued as part of the Snow Leopard 10.6.4 update (and I received an Apple Store gift card).

     

    Everyone on this thread needs to take a quick screencast of this problem and put it on YouTube.

  • by Jimbobjoho,

    Jimbobjoho Jimbobjoho Feb 24, 2013 7:59 PM in response to poidet
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 24, 2013 7:59 PM in response to poidet

    Just want to share my experience and how I eradicated the choppy animations.

     

    Bought a brand new rMBP (2.7 ghz i7, 16GB ram, 512ssd) and wasn't happy with the choppy animations after spending a ridiculous amount on it.  So, after a lot of digging I found this (don't do it yet) - How to fix Intel HD and Nvidia's choppy graphic ... - YouTube.  That kinda of helped initially but I just didn't like doing something like that to my machine, so I just started again with a fresh install of ML.

     

    I booted in recovery mode (command-R), started disk utitily and PARITIONED - not erased - my drive with 1 partition using the GUID option which is in advanced options I think.  After it finished that (was super quick) I then reinstalled ML back in the recovery mode window.

     

    Something I noticed when I initially set up my computer is that when I tried to install the updates they did appear for a while, but then stopped halfway through, I then restarted the app store to try again but the updates dissapeared.  From some more digging I think, think it might be to do with apple keeping track of what updates I had previously installed (on my old mbp) so when I clean installed it this time I chose not to to log into iCloud in the installation and wait until I did all the updates the app store said I needed.

     

    After all that my machine is now how I wanted it to be, super smooth scrolling everywhere (apart from a few websites, Facebook is definitely the worse), desktop switching, and mission control.  I have disabled automatic graphics switching (I don't use it to it's full potential anyway, only running Logic, adobe suite etc) so I am using the big daddy graphics card, but everything is super smooth (espeically the option-tab application switch going to diff desktop, which really bugged me) and I'm finally happy with it. 

     

    I hope this will help some of you

  • by BigPines,

    BigPines BigPines Mar 11, 2013 2:03 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 11, 2013 2:03 PM in response to grudgnor

    Thanks grudgnor! Your solution of deleting the windowserver settings worked. I did not reset the PRAM. I just deleted the files and rebooted. It has been fine since then including several reboots. This is unbelieveable. Apple really is getting sloppy these days.

     

    Mike

  • by rlaperche,

    rlaperche rlaperche Apr 22, 2013 6:45 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 22, 2013 6:45 PM in response to grudgnor

    grudgnor wrote:

     

    My retina MacBook Pro has had terrible graphics performance problems for a couple of weeks. I searched all over various forums and tried everything: resetting SCM, manually selecting discrete/integrated graphics card, deleting graphics kexts, etc. Nothing helped until I found this: https://discussions.apple.com/message/19880198#19880198

     

    Now my rMBP has silky smooth graphics again!

     

    The directions in that post are a little hard to understand so I cleaned them up here:

     

    Step 1: Delete system windowserver preferences

    1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
    2. Enter: /Library/Preferences/
    3. Delete the file called com.apple.windowserver.plist

     

    Step 2: Delete user windowserver preferences

    1. In the Finder, from the menu bar, select "Go -> Go to Folder..."
    2. Enter: ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/
    3. Delete all files that start with com.apple.windowserver   (On my rMBP, there was one file called com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F62-C1E4F2BE81BE)

     

    Step 3: Reset the PRAM

        (These instructions are from http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379)

    1. Shut down your Mac.
    2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
    3. Turn on the computer.
    4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
    5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
    6. Release the keys.

     

    Hopefully this helps others with bad graphics performance on retina MacBook Pros.

     

    For anyone that wants to check out the problematic plists from my rMBP, here are the files:

    http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.plist

    http://jherrman.com/slow-rmbp-2012/com.apple.windowserver.12AFB147-95D6-5C70-8F6 2-C1E4F2BE81BE.plist

     

    Jeremy Herrman

     

    Thanks a lot!!!

    It really worked perfectly for me...

  • by vince603,

    vince603 vince603 Apr 23, 2013 8:46 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 23, 2013 8:46 AM in response to grudgnor

    have a macbook pro 8,2 with the jitters only when I was on dedicated GPU.

     

    https://discussions.apple.com/message/20357413#20357413

     

    this totally fixed it for me!

     

    Thanks !

     

    cmon apple get your sh-it together.

    still believe in you guys!

  • by z33k3r,

    z33k3r z33k3r May 3, 2013 2:23 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 3, 2013 2:23 PM in response to grudgnor

    Like others, grudgnor's solution fixed not only my stuttering Flash video on my MBPr with OSX 10.8, but also a number of other glitches due to clearing the memory. Thanks!

  • by Alfonso C,

    Alfonso C Alfonso C May 3, 2013 9:37 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 3, 2013 9:37 PM in response to grudgnor

    Hi,

     

    I found the same problems time ago and, after following the steps, the problem was solved but... unfortunadtely it appears again on expose!

     

    This time I tried to reset the PRAM but, after doing, jitters and bad transitions appears again at Dock and remains at Expose!

     

    Any idea? This is really, really, really upseting for a 2600 € machine.

     

    Macbook Pro Retina 15", 16Gb RAM, 2.3 GHz Core i7, OS X 10.8.3

     

    Thanks

  • by SpiderPig Sam,

    SpiderPig Sam SpiderPig Sam May 25, 2013 12:44 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 25, 2013 12:44 AM in response to grudgnor

    Just to really cement things here.

     

    I had this problem appear on my new iMac about 2 weeks ago as this was a replacement machine for my previous one apple collected it and sent it for repair. A new logic board and a new LCD was fitted and guess what. Still had the stuttering problem however your fix minus the PRAM reset fixed it completely. My stuttering only started after i updated to 10.8.3.

     

    27Inch - iMac - 3.4GHz - 8GB - 1TB - 10.8.3 (12D78)

  • by hjsz,

    hjsz hjsz Jul 1, 2013 6:34 PM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 1, 2013 6:34 PM in response to pierre-olivierfromshefford

    worked for me thank you so much!

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