Mountain Lion UI Lag on rMBP !!! (Let's Make this thread serious and hope for a fix)

This issue is resolved IMO. Mavericks solved this on both Safari and Mission Control. I'm just waiting for PDF scrolling to be optimized, and I'm confident that they're working on it. Now if only Google would optimize Chrome..

I can say that since this thread starte my computer has been getting more ussuable every little update. I now consider it smooth enough. I don't know if i just got used to it or it's actually significantly better. Some PDF are impossible though (that's ridiculous for any computer and even worse for what i paid)

I haven't been back here for some time. But just to update, I went to visit my bro-in-law and took his 15" rMBP for a spin (the one I sold him 6 months ago) and I can clearly say that after he went back to Apple and got the screen replaced to a Samsung screen, there have been absolutely, positively NO screenlag whatsoever. I stand by my word, I was using it for more than an hour last weekend. Photoshop ran flawlessly. iPhoto, the biggest culprit of them all with all the thumbnail resizing lags, ran completely perfectly. Absolutely no lag. I even begged to buy back the Retina. Nope :'(

Now here's an interesting theory, one which I should bring up with the Apple Engineers. Is it possible that the video chipsets were designed to be used for a specific screen? Because I read all over these forums that many users still have lag issues AFTER they had their screens replaced, and others didn't. Some had LG replacements and others Samsung, again some having improvements with either screens, others the same. Is it possible that certain chipsets were written for a specific screen, and if so, is it possible that you must marry the proper chipset with the proper screen (LG chipset for LG screens, Samsung chipset for Samsung screens) I know it sounds out of this world and makes absolutely no sense, but how else can you explain why some users have had their problems resolved and others haven't??

I don't know... I waited for Mavericks and it didn't solve the problem - it got better, my there's still lag. I replaced the LG for a Samsung and didn't see any improvement.

Thought I'd come back and chime in with my experience. My rMBP came with a Samsung display and I had significant lag with the integrated card, but could reduce the lag significantly by using the discrete card. After upgrading to Mavericks (via a clean install), I have seen the lag reduced significantly with the integrated card. I now actually keep the automatic graphics switching checked all the time. I do still see lag, but it only happens when something like an application or webpage haven't been optimized for the high resolution.

Also, I get significant lag when I run Handbrake, so I uncheck automatic graphics switching when I am running Handbrake because that fixes the lag. Thats more of an application problem because Handbrake should automatically switch to the discrete card, but that comes down to the developer.

The display doesn't affect the lag, so LG or Samsung it doesn't matter. This is a software optimization problem. Just about every application needs to be optimized for a high DPI display individually. So if Handbrake is slow, it's up to them to optimize. Google is certainly losing points with me for neglecting to update Chrome. I'm just waiting for Apple to update Preview.

Hi all! Just wanted to share my story regarding the same problem.

Got my MBPR 15' refurb a couple months ago, packed with 16 gigs ram, 2.6 ghz processor, and a 1 gb 650M videocard. After a couple weeks i noticed that UI lag, which was just unacceptable for how much money i've bought it for. So I went to the Apple Store in downtown Toronto, a genius bar guy examined it, admitted the lag, and grabbed it for hardware test. As i came again a couple days after, he said the hardware is fine, but he cleaned the coolers and tightened up the screws holding the screen. So i went home and saw pretty much the same thing.

After a Christmas vacation, having reinstalled OS X, i came in again, and said bye-bye to my mac for another week. This time, they've replaced the logic board, which showed no result either. Then, having taken my laptop again for another week, they've replaced the screen, which, guess what, had no result as well. After that, i was visiting the Store so often that pretty much everyone there recognized my face. Every time the technicians were saying that according to tests, EVERYTHING worked fine, and they just refused to see ANY lags, whereas at the beginning they were admitting overall choppiness of the system.

Last time i've been there two days ago, and i completely рissеd off one of the genius bar fellows, and so he finally called out a manager for me. I had a nice long conversation with him, and he finally agreed to replace my MBPr.

This is how my first Mac experience went. It's pretty disappointing to save for a couple months, then pay $2200 for a laptop and work on your old 2009 Asus instead, while your brand new notebook just sits in service all the time. And i'm just not saying how much time i've spent coming to the Apple Store every week.. If this new Macbook does not perform well either, i'm going to sell it and forget about Apple laptops forever. Such a waste of money..

So im waiting for my new computer to arrive, and i'll keep you guys posted when i get it, and tell if i have bad GUI performance on that new machine as well.

Any update on your new laptop? How wide spread you think the UI lag issue is?

I was considering to get a rMBP in a couple of weeks,not sure if it'd a wise decision.

Based on the feedback I got from going over the reviews, I can consider this as a hardware issue. Otherwise Apple wouldn't have changed the logicboard/ screen as potentital solutions.

Hey!

Was just about to write a post, thanks for a reminder. So I finally got a new laptop, and ironically to my great surprise they gave me a late 2013 model with discrete graphics brand new right from the box. They said they don't normally do that for customers, but this was "a compensation for all that I've been thru with the previous laptop". This new computer has a Samsung screen btw.

There is obviously much much less lag on it, but still some elements is Safari, Word, MS Office, and Preview show stuttering performance. At this point I am pretty sure the issue is related to software, not hardware, and I hope that in the next update it'll be gone completely.

I've installed Windows through Boot Camp, and I see no lag whatsoever in it. So, again, now I'm convinced that the problem is inside of Mac OS, and I'll be waiting for an update.

Teh problem is clear for a long time. The calculation of the downscaled and smoothed HDPI mode is done by the graphic card and take time for the calculation. The calculation time was measured by the Interface Designers (for example 5ms) and the decided that the syncronisation times was under a human tollerable limit (look here for the technical details --> http://cs.uccs.edu/~cs525/synmm/synmm.htm) so the bring the retina model on the market. Newer Models will have faste Graphic cards and Moores's law will kick the problem for ever in the universe. The scientific field behind this theory is called "Human Factors" and the critical delay times for the synchronization of audio/Video/haptic devices are probed since a long time.

It makes no sense at all. If what you say is truth then all MPBr users would have experienced the same problem. It's false because I saw many computers that run smooth. This is probably software problem.

@Nokardon --> You say MBPr laptopsx with and without the problem with a visible difference ?

No idea what you mean. I only say I was comparing a few MBPr (the same model). Guess whose has a lag. Mine. Any others run perfectly smooth with no visible micro lags.

Ii doesn't make any sense.. I now have a top line Haswell model with 2 gigs of graphics memory.. And don't you think it's hilarious that this card can render crysis 3 at 60fps, but is not powerful enough to run smooth built in animations of the OS X? Again, after all I've read and after all my Apple Store trips I'm now sure that the UI lag is a Mavericks issue

You have not seen how bad it was before Mavericks...