Slow performance from new macbook pro m1 ?

Yep, me too. Really laggy in Motion and FCPX. Having real issues. Never had this with my 2012 i7 Mac mini.

M1 Mac Mini - 16GB Ram - 512 storage.

I really hope its a Big Sur issue and that fixes are just around the corner!

I'm having the same issue even on the new 11.1 version. The UI just seems to be laggy and not smooth at all. I can't say I have performance issues but the graphic UI feeling is pretty off. Even more off when I'm using the Magic Mouse.

Same here with my MBP. Expectations were high. But the machine is lagging all the time.

It does not feel smooth. No big difference if Software runs via rosetta or not.

Main Job: Coding and Compiling.

I am highly disappointed.

Specs: 16GB/512GB

I have the 13 inch Macbook Pro M1. To be quite honest, I've been disappointed too. I realize it's a new OS, it's a new chip, but this is not the "lighting fast" performance I expected. I'm not sure if I should hold out for updates or just return it. Even doing simple things - web browsing, etc. - seems slow. When I plug into HDMI with 2 different adapters, I get beachball and laggy performance. Not what I was expecting.

I will stay with the machine. I found a good solution with a DisplayLink adapter for external displays.

It is not that fast as I expected but the battery is very good and most of my applications are working OK.

I think if more apps are available as universal binary - things will get better...

Can I ask what OS you restored to?

I'm sitting at a M1 MacBook Air here. Got a custom (intel-only) video app that I saw about 70% cpu usage on. OK, I thought, not terrible, considering how unoptimised it is. Performance was smooth.

Due to some glitch in my signup that seemed to have stopped iCloud keychain from syncing, I did a complete Erase and reinstall using latest OS (Install via network) and Time Machine as source of user account.

Now I see same app use <100% CPU in Activity monitor, and drop pretty much all video frames. It makes me think there was a change or bug that has affected Rosetta performance in a major way.

macOS 11.2.1

Hi, Its been 15 days since my M1 MacBook air with 16GB and 256 SSD. And I am also facing the same issues from this morning. I did update all the software update available.

Any actions to be done to solve this? Kindly help.

My main issues are still with Bluetooth connectivity, but I've also heard about problems using a usb-c hub causing unresponsivness.

I've switched to a wired mouse, which has helped, but I'm hoping that the new update 11.2.2 will speed things up a bit. My main issues are now with Apple Motion.

Same story here.

I´ve got the MBA with 16GB RAM, 8 core GPU and 512 GB SSD. While performance on Lightroom and Resolve was very good, overall speed was just OK (same or a little bit slower than my i7 8700k with Samsung M2 SSD). I was a little bit disappointed because all the reviewers called it super snappy even against the Mac Pro and I thought this would also be true in my case.

But I had some serious issues with network and the finder. Finder performance was very bad an every folder took some time to open up the first time. No matter if stored local on the mac´s SSD or on my Synology NAS. Yesterday I had the issue, that I couldn´t create a PDF out of a Microsoft Word File and store it on my NAS. Finder and Word had some kind of freeze for about 5 minutes and then it finished. Local on my SSD it had no issue at all. I also had issues with wired LAN connection using a USB-C Adapter (slow connection, no IP, always using WIFI instead even with changed ranking). The Adapter worked perfectly on my Windows-Machine and I´ve got a pretty decent home network with a Synology DS1817 and an Unfi Ecosystem with the Dreammachine Pro and some switches as well as the new Unfi 6 Lite access points. So I decided to erase the disk of my MBA and give it another try (I really liked the machine so far but this issues were driving me nuts and I really thought about returning it and forget about Apple once an for all - this is my first mac and I´ve always been a die-hard windows user but the m1 seems to be just the machine I´ve been waiting forever).

Long story short: After deleting the hard drive and reinstalling Big Sur 11.2.3 the macbook air is just flying. Super snappy performance. Finder works like a breeze with local files and on my NAS with wifi and cable connection. PDF creation works as it should and the LAN connection gets priority and maxes out GB-speed. Installed my apps slowely after and after just in case the weird behavior would coma back so I know where to search for the issue.

No problems at all. One thing I didn´t do was to enable FileVault. Should make no difference since it only affects boot time and the CPU is capable enough to manage decryption but you never know. Despite the soldered SSD it´s not possible to remove it and plug it into another computer like in the old days. Maybe I´ll acitvate it later but for now I´ll keep it off and watch the machines behavior when doing some real world usage again.

So I have no idea if the previous version of my MBA´s OS had some issues or the first software update caused some troubles (updated the machine just after turning it on). Maybe I did something wrong when setting it up an installing all the apps (remember apple newby and trying a lot of things) or it´s really FileVault.

I´m glad that my machine is working fine now and all of my hopes came true.

Maybe I can help someone with the same issues and bringing back the fun with this great machines.

Cheers,

Tom

Update:

I wrote in my last post that I´ve directly installed Big Sur 11.2.3 after formatting my SSD. It´s been 11.2.2.

I´ve checked the version when writing and didn´t recognize that 11.2.3 was the available update waiting for installation.

So I just did that and guess what - it´s beachball time again and the issues with the self signed IP using wired network is also back.

New thing is a problem with my card reader so it won´t start to copy my photos from the SD card directly onto the SDD.

After a restart the IP adress works again and changing the card reader got rid of the problem importing my pics.

PDF creating with word is still working. But very strange things going on with this machine.

Cheers, Tom

Cheers Tom

In my case the problems occure with every OS update. First with 11.2.2. and then with 11.2.3.

After a complete reinstall with the latest OS version beeing downloaded the machine works fine. But I disabled the automatic update and won´t install a new version for the next few weeks or months..

Cheers,

Tom

Hey Tom!

Thank you for sharing your experiences with the Macbook M1.

I have recently bought the MBA M1 base model, 8gb/256gb. Im currently on the latest macOS Big Sur 11.2.3. The machine itself is super snappy. Finder, apps, power it on/off and using programs works perfectly fine. My issue is the scrolling expierence in safari, especially with lots of animations. It feels laggy and choppy - like frame dropping. When i use Chrome or Edge (!!) the scrolling feels more smoother, not 100% perfect, probably 95%.

Ive tried all of the "regular" things to solve the safari performance issues. Ive also been in contact with Apple support several times, no solution yet.

So my question is, do you experience the same lag when scrolling safari? IE pinterest and facebook.

Thank you,

Jonas

Hi Jonas,

your´re welcome! :)

I´ve never used Safari since I´m an WIndows and Android user and Chrome worked out pretty well for me in the M1.

But I just tried scrolling trough the thumbnails on Pinterest and it´s just as you described. Buttery smooth on Chrome (CPU usage about 45%), but very laggy using Pinterest (CPU usage between 25-35%).

I´ve heard that Chrome needs a lot of ressources and Safari is very good when ist comes to battery usage.

I´ve already noticed that some things aren´t very smooth on the M1 that haven´t been any issues with my windows machine. Otherwise things that my beefy PC always struggled with are perfectly fine with the M1. On Lightroom for instance zooming in at 100% and moving the picture around in the library module is a little bit choppy on the M1, but moving the sliders (brightness, contrast, ...) the real time preview is absolutely smooth and in real time. On my windows machine (8700k @ 4,9Ghz, 64GB RAM, GTX1080) it always had a different performance from extremely laggy to really smooth. But never ever nearly as smooth as with the M1.

Also zooming in using Google Earth is really smooth with the M1. I´ve only experienced that performance in Google Earth with my Phones but never on a PC.

It´s a new architecture and a new OS. It´s really impressive but I think there´s still a lot of work to do. For me, the MBA is the perfect combination of tablet and computer and I´m very happy with it. But the issues with the OS updates are indeed a bummer. And the poor performance in Safari seems to be to. Wouldn´t be surprised seeing this behavior in Chrome. But Safari is Apple land. I would have expected them to get at least their own software running perfectly.

But, things aren´t alway that easy und may come other than expected. I´m pretty sure there will be a fix in the near future.

At least you´re not the only one with that problem and it has nothing to do with 8GB RAM.. ;)

Cheers,

Tom