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Macbook Pro Retina 13" late 2013 (Haswell) UI Lag

My config: 2.6/16/256, 10.9 (Mavericks)

NOTE: Outside of the issues mentioned, this computer has been great. Awesome build quality, perfect size and weight, Retina screen is outstanding, CPU is snappy, boot and wake from sleep is blazing, it makes ZERO noise, even under heavy usage it only gets mildy warm and it gets great battery life.

Here's my problem: While the machine is wonderful in many aspects, it is far from the smooth experience we have come to expect from Apple products. As mentioned in the title, the UI is a step behind and the smooth transitions of non-retina models are stuttery a jerky on the retina.

Some examples of UI issues that I've replicated on floor models at the Apple store are:

1. Putting certain stock apps in fullscreen show choppy animation (Finder, Safari, Chrome, Maps) while others are buttery smooth (iPhoto).

2. Mission control stutters occasionally (usually when one of the above offenders are open).

3. Preview of any large .jpg or RAW image will cause significant lag when putting it into fullscreen. It literally trips the entire way.

4. Swiping between full screen apps will cause light animation stutter.

To troubleshoot it, I've done a few things.

1. Brought it to the genius bar. They checked all of the harware and ran a number of other diagnostics (including resetting the PRAM). While they confirmed the issues I have mentioned, they told me to wait for a software update that will resolve them.

2. Tried things that others have reportedly worked for them: Deleting windowservers in Library, etc.

3. Downloaded "Display Menu" from the App Store so that I can manipulate resolution settings. Interestingly enough, Display Menu hasn't optimized all of their settings for Retina and choosing any stock settings (including best for retina 1280x800) lowers the overall image quality. When in Display Menu's version of 1280x800, all of the problems (outide of the preview issue) dissapeared. Animations were back to being buttery smooth. This leads me to belive that Iris isn't quite up the the task of Retina.

I'm hoping that Apple didn't purposely release these Pro's without considering the GPU's ability to offer a "smooth ride". Has anyone else experienced this? If it is indeed a driver issue, I hope that Apple addresses this sooner than later. Based off of forums from early 2013 rMBP owners, it doesn't look like that will be the case.

Are you experiencing this also and have you found any true solutions?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9), 13-inch 2.6/16/256

Posted on Nov 10, 2013 9:30 PM

355 replies

Oct 17, 2014 9:52 AM in response to pythogorian

@pythogorian - How far have you taken your situation? When I had my 15" rMBP I spoke to two Apple Senior Advisors and an Engineer. At the time they couldn't come up with any solution. Frustrated I sold my rMBP. I understand how frustrating it is for a $2600 laptop to perform like s**t. But what's equally frustrating is that not everybody is having the same problems. I can truly attest that my computer is lag free. Since my machine is only running on Iris Pro graphics, I naturally understand that the gaming experience will never be as good as a dedicated card. But that said, the scrolling, iPhoto scrolling, Photoshop etc is running as best as I would expect it.

Oct 17, 2014 9:53 AM in response to Wayne Chin

It's not the machine, it's clearly the OS. Anyway, can someone tell me where can i see how much or if my spotlight finished indexing? The progress bar is gone. Thanks

Oct 17, 2014 9:55 AM in response to Community User

@ Darkkz - You have to accept that the Iris Pro is not meant for heavy duty graphics. Even "simple" animation may be difficult as your entire game is loaded in and taking up a lot of resource already.

Oct 17, 2014 9:58 AM in response to Wayne Chin

You guys got me all wrong. First of all, animations used to run smooth even with WoW running on background, but that wasn't the point. I was doing a sort of comparison. If i run World of Warcraft with such ease, how can i have difficulties dealing with some animations (not running both of them at the same time).

Oct 17, 2014 10:00 AM in response to Community User

@Darkkz - How can you be so sure that it's the OS? Can you understand your log files? Have you spoke to an Apple Engineer? You simply can not make conclusions like that until you've spoken to someone at Apple about this.

Oct 17, 2014 10:02 AM in response to Community User

@ Darkkz - Flash animations are bad on any machine, mac or pc. They're memory hogs and they ramp up the CPU performance due to their bad software. If you're on YouTube, try switching to HTML5 format. You'll notice a huge difference right away.

Oct 17, 2014 10:04 AM in response to Wayne Chin

Because it used to work perfectly on Mavericks, beside, i work as a programmer..Web, but still i can understand most of the logs. Beside, i am not the only one, there are complains here, also i've found a lot of similar problems on macrumor. Apparently Mavericks had some sort of similar glitch in the beginning. And how can you explain that if you disable the retina resolution everything works fine?

LE: My girlfriend's 13 early 2014, same OS, same problems. In the end, if i am idle on the desktop, a simple animation should be easily performed by the Iris.

Oct 17, 2014 10:03 AM in response to Wayne Chin

Gentlemen, the reason it's a software problem is because not everyone experiences it. I had it at first in Mavericks on my first generation Macbook Retina 13". This is the model with the HD4000. You know what? Yosemite on my machine has the least amount of lag I've ever experienced on retina. Therefore, it's obviously different from machine to machine, and I've seen this time and time again on this thread: not everyone has the problem. I agree, it's annoying as crap. I had it; it shouldn't be there. Windows runs like a breeze. Some people are having some problems with some graphics. My machine has the least powerful graphics option available for a retina display!! So I refuse to believe it's a hardware problem.

Oct 17, 2014 10:05 AM in response to ntomallen

Finally someone ! I really hope that Apple can push a fix this week, maybe Monday as they are also releasing 8.1.

Oct 17, 2014 10:07 AM in response to Wayne Chin

Right now i am talking strictly about the OS animations. Genie effects. Those should not lag. And i doubt the OS animations are made in Flash!

Oct 17, 2014 10:08 AM in response to Community User

It's been really strange across the board.. I mean more people had horrible lag at the beginning but it got smoother as time went on. That's what happened to me anyways. Yosemite works fine with no lag for me, and it's super stable, so I'm very happy, but you obviously still have the problem.. It's hard to figure out what the problem is. :/

Oct 17, 2014 10:12 AM in response to ntomallen

Well, this is the first time i am installing Yosemite. And i keep asking around how can i see if my **** laptop is still indexing around (because Apple decided that we do not need a progress bar, i mean, screw that).

Oct 17, 2014 10:13 AM in response to ntomallen

I can't wrap my head around this either. My 13" rMBP is running super smooth under Yosemite. Though mine has the i7 processor, I highly doubt that THAT has anything to do with it. I agree that this is not a hardware issue, but I keep getting back to the idea that there is an issue with the firmware, perhaps some machines were optimized for a different display. Otherwise I can't explain how my brother in law's rMBP lag problem was fixed after a simple screen swap.

Oct 17, 2014 10:15 AM in response to Wayne Chin

Should i backup my laptop and then do a clean install, just to see if this is the problem?

Oct 17, 2014 10:15 AM in response to Wayne Chin

Yeah, I've got the dual core 2.5GHz i5, which is also one of the least powerful processors available for retina! 😕

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Macbook Pro Retina 13" late 2013 (Haswell) UI Lag