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

Close

Q: Macbook Pro with Retina, Mountain Lion graphic jitters

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

first Previous Page 4 of 5 last Next
  • by one_andy,

    one_andy one_andy Jul 23, 2013 9:20 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Jul 23, 2013 9:20 AM in response to grudgnor

    Woho! This solved my problem to. I skipped part 2) because I did not have that file. Did this under 10.8.4. The file in step 1) was created on June 28. Strange... No UI lag so far!

     

    Original solution was found here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22548555#22548555

  • by Jotuns,

    Jotuns Jotuns Aug 24, 2013 8:47 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2013 8:47 AM in response to grudgnor

    Thank you Jeremy for this Solution. It worked for me on my 2013 2.7Ghz 16GB Ram 512SSD 15" Macbook Pro Retina.

    I had also installed ML from a back up from my Prev Gen Macbook Pro and was wondering if this was the cause of the problem.

     

    I was beginning to get a little disheartened with this issue and I am now a very happy Bunny.


    Thanks again.

  • by ironsights,

    ironsights ironsights Sep 20, 2013 8:58 AM in response to Faidoca
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 20, 2013 8:58 AM in response to Faidoca

    27" Imac 2013 here with same problem, did step 1 , step 2 wasnt available, but it worked for me, scrolling goes smooth again.

     

    Thank you very much

     

     

  • by emarino,

    emarino emarino Sep 24, 2013 2:00 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 24, 2013 2:00 PM in response to grudgnor

    grudgnor's solution worked for me also, however, all I had to do was delete the User and System windowserver files. Thanks for the post.

  • by Biker72,

    Biker72 Biker72 Oct 29, 2013 5:17 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 29, 2013 5:17 PM in response to grudgnor

    Removing the files effectively returns the display resolution setting to "Best for Retina display" instead of user selected "Scaled". And reducing resolution will of course significantly speed up the graphics.

     

    Reactivating "Scaled" and selecting for example resolution of 1680 x 1050 will again result in slow graphics and stuttering. Hence this "fix" actually fixes nothing.

     

    Also it seems a bit silly to delete system files and reboot in order to set lower display resolution. Lower resolution can be activated much faster by going to Systems Preferences --> Displays and clicking "Best for Retina display" option.

     

    Fact remains that Apple messed up the Retina MacBook's hardware design - it seems that 2012 and early 2013 rMBPs will never work properly with higher display resolutions. Very disappointing mistake - I really thought Apple engineers and management would know better. It's also very sad to see their cover up strategy - they have opted to play deaf and dumb for over a year now. Just long enough to launch new hardware designs which might actually work with Retina displays. Customers who bought 2012 and early 2013 models were basically scammed of their money and will have to use stuttering slow machines or spend yet another >2000$ on a new MBP.

  • by illis,

    illis illis Oct 31, 2013 10:55 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 10:55 AM in response to grudgnor

    Thank you, this solution worked for me, too.

    Running a Retina MacBook Pro 13.3 and OSX 10.9 Mavericks. I migrated via Time Machine copy from latest Snow Leopard and MBA.

  • by illis,

    illis illis Oct 31, 2013 10:58 AM in response to Biker72
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 31, 2013 10:58 AM in response to Biker72

    I'm running my retina display scaled up a bit from "Best for display". Switching this setting back and forth had no effect, even after reboots. But as said above, grudgnor's solution took care of the problem, even on Mavericks.

  • by jon293,

    jon293 jon293 Nov 11, 2013 8:31 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 11, 2013 8:31 PM in response to grudgnor

    Thank You!!  I had the jittery scrolling and jittery dockbar problem too.  Was driving me crazy -- no solution to be found anywhere.  Yours worked!

     

    - Jon

  • by Programmasters,

    Programmasters Programmasters Dec 11, 2013 4:43 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 11, 2013 4:43 AM in response to grudgnor

    I love you man grudgnor. I had this problem serveral times, each time doing a fresh reinstall of everything, This is awesome. I cannot thank you enough. I wish I knew some way to thank you even more but I hope the apple gods may give you everything you wish for.

     

    Ps apple step up your support. Wanting to replace my logic board when it was clearly software. Think about it, If I reintsall my os and it works again, THEN IT IS SOFTWARE. Worse it's just preferences.

     

    grudgnor I wish you the best in life and I thank you again

  • by Daniil_xXx,

    Daniil_xXx Daniil_xXx Feb 10, 2014 11:53 AM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 10, 2014 11:53 AM 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

    This solution have solved my problem with jittering dock as well. I did not perform PRAM reset. After restart problem did not return.

     

    Hope this will not bring any problems for Windows installed under BOOTCAMP.

    If this is a OS X bug, hope Apple Support team will escalate it to developers and release a propoer patch.

     

    Thank you!

    Daniil

    _________________________

    Hardware Overview:

     

      Model Name:          MacBook Pro

      Model Identifier:          MacBookPro10,1

      Processor Name:          Intel Core i7

      Processor Speed:          2,7 GHz

      Number of Processors:          1

      Total Number of Cores:          4

      L2 Cache (per Core):          256 KB

      L3 Cache:          8 MB

      Memory:          16 GB

      Boot ROM Version:          MBP101.00EE.B02

      SMC Version (system):          2.3f36

     

    Message was edited by: Daniil_xXx, added MacBook configuration.

  • by tomtomberry,

    tomtomberry tomtomberry Mar 10, 2014 1:05 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 10, 2014 1:05 PM in response to grudgnor

    Thanks for this! 

     

    Cleared up the scroll induced jitter / tearing with my late 2013 rMBP on Mavericks 10.9.1 experiencing the same issue.

  • by George Sid,

    George Sid George Sid Mar 15, 2014 4:26 AM in response to Faidoca
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 15, 2014 4:26 AM in response to Faidoca

    Guys I have the mbpr (2.6ghz,8gb,gt650m) and while the machine was sharp and healthy one day it started having the lags...Mission control, safari even the little pop on when you place the mouse above an app...I'm posting this because I believe I found the solution while searching on another forum...I downloaded xbench and run solely a gpu test and an interface test. The lag is vanished really...Try it!

     

    Hope I helped!!

  • by joeykan88,

    joeykan88 joeykan88 Apr 27, 2014 3:51 PM in response to grudgnor
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 27, 2014 3:51 PM in response to grudgnor

    This worked for me too! Thanks!

  • by sebtastik,

    sebtastik sebtastik May 9, 2014 5:57 AM in response to George Sid
    Level 1 (4 points)
    May 9, 2014 5:57 AM in response to George Sid

    This was super easy, I was kind of sceptical but it only took me 5 seconds to google it, 1 second to download it, and 1 second to run it. After that I SMOOTHLY swiped over to my other desktops!
    The tool can be found at http://xbench.com and can be run straight from it's mounted .dmg
    I hopefully won't need to do this ever again
    Cheers

  • by jamdalu,

    jamdalu jamdalu Jun 10, 2014 4:57 PM in response to George Sid
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 10, 2014 4:57 PM in response to George Sid

    The xbench trick fixed this most annoying problem on my 2014 Mac Pro.  Thanks so much for the post as nothing else worked. 

first Previous Page 4 of 5 last Next