Level 1

1 points

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 22, 2014 10:59 AM in response to pythogorian

I am guessing the lag went away?

Oct 22, 2014 11:00 AM in response to pythogorian

But if we take a look at how long this bug is present and they didn't do anything about it, I'm not even so optimistic that they will do something about it anytime soon. They are busy making the OS more transparent and flat, I guess that's a bigger priority than usability...

Oct 22, 2014 11:01 AM in response to ladiciuus

It didn't went away. It's just not as bad as in Yosemite since we don't have so much transparency in Mavericks.

Oct 22, 2014 11:03 AM in response to pythogorian

I have no idea. But the thing is, out of the millions of these machines out there, only several thousand have the problem.. :/ What's more an issue to me is wifi/bluetooth, but that's not for this thread. What beats me is how these issues have been here forever, and some are getting fixed for some people, some go away, sometimes they come back... Hum. Clearing the PRAM did the trick for me with lag. Not sure what else we can add to this discussion.

Oct 22, 2014 11:06 AM in response to ntomallen

Well, I've tried clearing the PRAM, resetting SMC, Clean install... It sticks...

I bet on the firmware.

Oct 22, 2014 11:15 AM in response to pythogorian

It came to my mind, what about Timing Controller? They introduced a new one for the iMAC 5K since nothing else has worked (or so they say). Could it be that rMBP also has trouble directing all these pixels? I'm just shooting it here before I have investigated anything about it...

Oct 22, 2014 12:31 PM in response to ladiciuus

Excuse me? Is my video post offensive to you? My point is that this lag issue is not consistent with every retina mac. I have the scar tissue to prove it. I spent the greater part of 2012 and 2013 talking to senior advisors and Apple Engineers on this matter. I even had my motherboard replaced 3 times and a whole new replacement laptop. Nothing. They came up with nothing. So if you think I'm just posting up some uneducated comment regarding my experience with lag, I suggest you go back and reread the hundreds of comments I made regarding this issue on this and other threads across the Discussions panel.

Oct 22, 2014 12:34 PM in response to pythogorian

I'm still content on believing that Apple uses two different types of retina monitors, one made by LG, the other by Samsung. Both SHOULD be exact in every respect, however, I firmly believe that the machine's firmware is optimized for one or the other screens. How else can I explain my brother-in-law's 15" rMBP (whom he bought from me) had ALL of its lag problems fixed once he did a screen swap?

Oct 22, 2014 1:24 PM in response to Wayne Chin

The things you show in your video don't make problems for me.

Please test this.

Turn on transparency.

1. Open Safari, play Youtube video and resize the Safari windows very fast. **** laggy for me. The windows has no chance to stick with the mousepointer.

2. Pull a folder into you Dock (Applications is a good example in my case). Open and close the folder. Does it work smooth? Is scrolling inside the opened folder smooth?

Thank you 🙂

Oct 22, 2014 2:00 PM in response to stunner2002

I've got a 27" iMac running a quad-core i7, and I can tell you that the window resizing lags on THAT machine when running YouTube. There's a little bit of lag with the folder in the dock as well, but nothing substantial for me. However for video I think the computer using a ton of resource, especially if the video is Flash based. Honestly, I wouldn't be resizing the YouTube window while watching a video in the first place.

Oct 22, 2014 2:13 PM in response to Wayne Chin

So Apple is actually pushing the limits of the HiDPI screens then. Majority of users are silent because they actually don't mind having a little lag. My old Ubuntu box is snappier than my Mac. All this have started with retina, radical changes in the philosophy, public betas... They are just moving a bit too fast. I have switched to Mac because I needed stability and reliable solutions, not to have a screen that can't play with the rest of the system just quite yet. It's not about whether we should or shouldn't resize a YouTube window while watching a video, it's about paying $2000 for a machine that can be graphically outperformed by an old ubuntu pc with Intel HD 3000.

Oct 22, 2014 3:00 PM in response to pythogorian

One other observation I made when I owned my 15" rMBP is that apps that were compiled with Universal Bineries (both PPC and Intel compatible) ran notably faster with HiDPI than apps without.

http://youtu.be/b8HeGK-qpfU?list=UUJqSC06uMFQMafm-u67g3QA

Oct 22, 2014 4:28 PM in response to Wayne Chin

Thanks for the video, it does looks snappy. 🙂 Is the performance different when you force the Intel GPU only? Since I have a 13" rMBP which has integrated card only. If it does not lag with Intel Iris, then I am definitely going to chase Apple until I get a fully working "specimen". I wanted to sell mine but if I see a video of 13" rMBP working without lag, I am gonna push it on Apple.

Oct 22, 2014 4:26 PM in response to pythogorian

I've got a refurbished MacBook Retina 13" from 2012 with the HD4000 and it's pretty snappy! I'll try to get a video up tonight or tomorrow for you. 🙂

heliora

Level 1

5 points

Oct 23, 2014 2:11 AM in response to JovZun

went to an Apple shop today just to test the rMBP 13-inch out, opened 15+ apps including GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote etc and 3 Safari windows with multiple tabs across, everything was snappy and smooth, Mission Control and swiping between Desktops were fine, even while playing a Vimeo video in Safari the UI animation was ok with all the apps and windows opened.

all these after i've scaled the resolution to 1440×900 (still Retina), and the OS is Yosemite.

which goes to show the rMBP seems powerful enough to handle the Retina display fine.

however on mine with so many windows opened things would get very choppy and laggy, the only difference would be maybe my machine has a few more background processes running like Dropbox, OneDrive, TweetDeck etc running, but I doubt that should affect the graphics performance so much.

so ya, i'm not sure if this UI lag problem is specific to a few machines or not, or maybe it's a software thing, where perhaps a clean install might help, but i'm not gonna spend time doing that.

i'm seriously considering swapping my rMBP for an MBA but man, after getting used to the retina screen, MBA's screen is just painful to look at lol.

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