16" 2019 MBP video stutters and lags on common tasks

I changed the setting for auto switching of graphics cards: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202043

This seems to have done the trick. Issue is battery life goes way down, but I do keep it plugged most of the time. I am interested in finding a graphics card controller. Hoping apple does some actual heavy coding of their own and figure out how to make this smoother. No reason to have 2 cards if you cant use one. This setting will leave Radeon on all the time, wonder if thats going to have a lifespan issue.

So I switched off scaling the screen to 2048x1280 and I haven't seen the problem anymore when I also turnd Automatic Graphics Switching back on.

I have the same issue. When I switch off 'Automatic Graphics Switching' the issue is no longer there. I hope they fix this issue with new versions of Mac OS, but I'm holding out on putting my faith in Apple.

I see.

From my research over the weekend, it seems that this is an issue prevalent in all the Macbooks Pro 15 to 16 inch with discrete and integrated graphics. The integrated GPU with H series processors (Intel UHD Graphics 630) is just not powerful enough to push the animations at these resolutions. I have seen posts that are years old where users are complaining about lag on iGPU, and once you select your discrete dGPU (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M), the problem goes away since discrete card is much more capable of pushing all these pixels.

My conclusion:

1. For now users must choose between iGPU and long battery life or dGPU and shorter battery life.
2. Hope that Apple updates drivers for the iGPU and optimises performance* in some meaningful way.

* I would not mind having sluggish animations, but lag while typing and scrolling is ridiculous. I would prefer them to push performance more on iGPU in place of some battery life, it still would be much better than switching to Radeon card. What I am asking for is pretty much them enabling a performance profile for iGPU.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202471

I went back to the default for display. But I'm experiencing other weird issues. So when on battery I can use the IGPU (Automatic switching on) and as long as I am on the default for display resolution I don't get too much slow down. But iGPU while the laptop is plugged into power I get all of the stuttering with the scaling for More Space.

Really frustrating for my 3000$ laptop to have these kind of issues. :(

I have the exact same issue and I’ve been contact with apple online help and they told me to reinstall the os, after 2 times full reinstalling and I decided to refund this MBP as this is a $3k machine which should perform better than my 5 years old MBP.

Anyone ever find some solution to this? I have had my 2019 16" base i9 model for 20 hours and frankly its incredible, but utterly disgusting that videos are lagging simply when I load a new web page, open a new app. I have tried VLC and IINA. This is almost 3 strike for apple machines for me over the past handful of years. I'm guessing its something to do with the handoff between the two graphics cards, and thus is hopefully solvable through a system update. I see there is one update available and will try tonight.

I don't want to speak too soon, but since implementing this in chrome I have noticed less of an issue on the igpu switching chrome tabs etc.

https://support.google.com/chrome/forum/AAAAP1KN0B0QwFmUCMLqho

You are absolutely right about the lag even with typing not showing up right away. I've noticed that on all of my Macbook Pros (13 and 15 and 16) going back to 2016 forward.

Could you elaborate on "switched off scaling the screen to 2048x1280". In setting for Display I only see "default for display" which is default and "Scaled", where you only see the options for UI scaling based off text, nothing about actual resolutions. What did you do exactly I am curious?

Hello CincyTriGuy,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities! Congratulations on your new MacBook Pro!

Let's work on this issue together.

Please test in a new user profile to help determine if the issue is system-wide:

How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac - Apple Support

Best Regards.

Hi!

I've tried with a new account but the issues persist.

I also have this issue. I'm considering returning the machine. I can't have these little micro stutters on a machine of this price tag.

Oh wow! Thank you. This *seems* to have solved the issue for me too! I was just about to return this thing! Any tips on the Apple Arcade not working issue ;)

Wonderful to hear!! It has been smooth sailing for me too since disabling that. :)