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

I just bought the same model and it lags since day one! Plus when I plug it to my Sony TV via HDMI it lags even more. The cursor jumps every 0,5 second! I used to have MBP 2010 and it ran smooth as a butter. I went to the APR store and tried other computers. Only Air and non retina iMac were ok. Others had problem with energy saving every 4 seconds even the non retina MBP. What is worse...mine started flickering till the whole screen went black and I had to use forced turn off button. I'm returning this flashy piece of crap and I don't want to hear about Apple anymore :/

Guys,

I am sure, especially considering the change log doesn't mention anything in this regard, that Yosemite 10.10.1 that has been just released would not solve the UI lag issue, but reports from users is welcome.

Also, Apple seeded a new beta of Safari 8.0.1 for Yosemite users and 7.1.1 for Maverick users, where it is said that one of the areas of interest is "include WebGL graphics on Retina displays". This seems to be indirectly related and a solution exclusive to one app, i.e. Safari, but who knows it may solve the UI problem across the OS.

If possible please try these solutions and reply to this thread.

I went from Mavericks, to Yosemite, back to Mavericks.......and now back to Yosemite as of today, and it seems that Yosemite is working just ok. But that is fools gold to me. It seems that, after a clean install of Yosemite......it takes a week for 2 for it to become noticeably choppy and laggy.

Thanks. That's something confirmed by many people perhaps 20 times-- reinstalling the OS is at most a temporary solution.

The question is whether 10.10.1 or the new Safari beta (because it has a specific reference to Retina screens) provides a solution. Hence we need comments from uses who have installed either or both of these on whether there is some improvement.

But How would the new Safari beta provide a solution if a lot of the lag and choppiness comes from the operating system itself. For example, like the lag from the Dock appearing from hidden mode , applications, mission control,and photo booth to name a few. Or would the new Safari Beta fix lag from these areas as well?

Sufianbear1985 wrote:

But How would the new Safari beta provide a solution if a lot of the lag and choppiness comes from the operating system itself. For example, like the lag from the Dock appearing from hidden mode , applications, mission control,and photo booth to name a few. Or would the new Safari Beta fix lag from these areas as well?

I've just checked the changelogs of Safari 7 versions and none of them directly or indirectly addresses UI lag issue. To my recollection, so far only Safari 6.0.3 tried to address it, and it did indirectly, where it improved "scrolling on facebook.com", "scrolling while zoomed in on a webpage" and "performance on webpages with plug-in content". As far as I see this beta is going to be the very first update that mentions an improvement on "Retina" displays.

Because of this, even though I completely agree with you, I thought this potential fix may apply to the entire OS, hence I said in my previous post "Also, Apple seeded a new beta of Safari 8.0.1 for Yosemite users and 7.1.1 for Maverick users, where it is said that one of the areas of interest is "include WebGL graphics on Retina displays". This seems to be indirectly related and a solution exclusive to one app, i.e. Safari, but who knows it may solve the UI problem across the OS".

Guys, i have a macbook pro retina 13'' late 2013 with 8gb of ram, and yosemite 10.10.1 solved nothing!! i mean, compared to mavericks, it is extremely laggy. Something that no one ever mentioned: have you ever tried to open a pdf file, and at the same time watch the activity monitor?? or do the same with safari while scrolling through a webpage?? i have created a dual boot machine with both mavericks and yosemite and the measurements were crazy!! in yosemite cpu usage while scrolling the pdf with preview app is 75-90% whereas on mavericks for the same pdf is only 25-30%!!!!!!!!! trying the same test on yosemite with an other pdf viewer (e.g., clearview) showed the cpu usage approximately 40%. Imagine the impact to battery life just working in the office, browsing the internet or reading pdf files! Decreasing the dpi of the display solves all these issues, and that's why owners of non retina models think that yosemite is apple's next big thing!! what about us, retina users, that payed a lot of money to buy your state of the art hardware????!!! it is unacceptable that they didn't touch this in the newest update....shame...

I am not too computer savvy, so you lost me a bit with your troubleshooting of the CPU usage:) But I CERTAINLY have noticed the dreadful lag that PDF files has on this 2014 mbpR. Its heartbreaking to say the least. I've read that the extreme LAG on PDF files might be, in part, because of Adobe's problems. I read the older versions of Adobe seem to work fine, or at least better on the Retina Displays. Not 100% though. But I agree, this is completely unacceptable for a $1400 + computer. I am thinking of just selling this Macbook retina, and buying a different Macbook. I might also go to the Apple store to check out the Retina display MacBooks for myself and see how they respond.

I know it sounds implausible, but guys would you mind installing the new Safari beta which may address the UI lag not only for Safari, but also across the OS? Since this issue is so weird, I won't be surprised if it is solved in an odd way.

While scrolling a pdf you can run at the same time the activity monitor app, and watch carefully the cpu usage of the preview app. Anyway.. if you sell the mbproR-13'', you are gonna buy probably a macbook air with lower specs BUT with no retina display, and of course everything will be fine if you can bare with the lower resolution. Instead of that, we can keep the mbproR-13'', forget about retina resolutions, accept that we have played in apple;s fool's game, AND install Display Menu app from app store, drop the dpi-s to the normal 1400x900 resolution (the same resolution with macbook-air 13''). if you do this you have a macbook pro more powerful than the air, super smooth as butter, and with a battery life augmented 60% at least. Right now having done these steps, i am a fool working on mbproRetina, with no retina res, with 35% battery left and 7h and 56 min left go (fully office, internet, display brightness 70% etc...)!!!! Choose your destiny my friend. Shame on you Apple.....! i miss Steve a lot more...

have you talked to the apple staff in genius bar. I think they can help to solve this.

I find it hard to believe that all Retina display MacBooks are having this problems. I would like to think its maybe about 5% of them. I am going to go to the Apple store first and checkout all the MacBooks to see which one of the Run smoothly. Once I figure that out, I will sell this one. I really just want to upgrade to a bigger 15INh retina macbook. Hopefully that one won't have the same lag problem. But changing the display with the " display mode" app doesn't seem to do much of a difference for me. I am not convinced that you can really "switch off" the Retina display. Is that even possible?

Yes absolutely! In fact you are not using HDPI but simple dpi. It is still e.g. 1400x900 or whatever you like but with no so much clarity. and it is a huge difference to performance..

Found any fix for this? I'm having the same issue on Mid 2014

I am pretty sure that these problems are related to the underpowered GPU in the 13" rMBP (and 15" with Iris graphics).

The increased load when using HiDPI resolutions is easily seen with something like istats Menu. Goto youtube and watch a video with their new 60fps feature like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEZRJoZdM84

Now switch between HiDPI resolutions and see your GPU/CPU load go up. If you are running HiDPI 1680x1050 the video will actually choke in some places because the load is too high, especially in fullscreen. This is because for 1680x1050 HiDPI, the image is rendered at 3360x2100 and then scaled down to 2560x1600 which requires quite a bit of GPU power. This will also result in reduced battery live.

Using something like Display Menu to run the display at native 1680x1050 results in a less sharp image, however the mentioned 60fps youtube video runs buttery smooth and produces only a fraction of the load compared to the HiDPI resolution. You also get better battery life and less heat overall, with the drawback of a minimally more blurry image.