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

May 17, 2014 12:26 AM in response to iam2012

Going full screen improved A LITTLE. But try resizing Safari or Chrome with a website open. Stutters like ****. Never seen anything like that before on any other OS platform! This is madness full screen goes ok but resizing stutters what the **** is wrong with you apple ?

May 17, 2014 8:45 AM in response to JovZun

I swear this is a hit/miss issue. Why doesn't every MacBook Pro Retina product have lag issues? I went through **** with my first generation 15" rMBP 2.6Ghz Quad i7. I just purchased a 13" rMBP 2.8 Duo i7 with Iris and it runs effortlessly. Complete glide, butter smooth graphics in every app (except Adobe Acrobat). OR, getting back to my original theory (messages waaay back) is that after my bro-in-law bought my 15" rMBP and had Apple replace the screen, EVERYTHING was fixed. I mean EVERYTHING. No lag, no lego blocks. It was a 100% fix, I can truly attest to that.

May 17, 2014 9:28 AM in response to Wayne Chin

I completely agree. Whereas you're completely free of the problem, and others despise it, I'm actually in the middle! Most of the time, there are absolutely no problems, but there are still some really annoying things such as resizing Safari in non fullscreen mode! And some apps such as iTunes still have bad scrolling all the time. This all means that it is DEFINITELY not a hardware problem as some have suggested! Anyone new to this thread can read back to the beginning and will find some people have this problem worse than others, and some have no problems at all. So rest assured, this can definitely be fixed with a software update.

May 17, 2014 9:31 AM in response to ntomallen

It would be nice if anyone with major lag would put a video on youtube to show. I might upload the resizing lag. Because it would be nice to see to what extent it is lagging in otherc rMBP. But Wayne Chin is your resizing (e.g. Safari) is smooth ? By the way I'm on rMBP13 i5 2.4 8GB

May 17, 2014 10:20 AM in response to delphinas

Here is the video guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm0o1x_UJ0s🙂

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

37,151 points

May 17, 2014 10:41 AM in response to pullman

Actually, it is against the Terms of Use to discuss any unreleased Apple Software here, as it's both speculation on a future product (prohibited) and if you have access to a beta a violation of the NDA you agreed to in order to receive access to it.

May 17, 2014 10:45 AM in response to Dogcow-Moof

Yeah but that is not relevant now as 10.9.3 is released and nothing is fixed related to UI lag. But then again no one is sure where the problem stems out HW or software so just discussion.

Dogcow-Moof

Level 8

37,151 points

May 17, 2014 10:46 AM in response to delphinas

Yes, so discussion of 10.9.3 is fine now.

May 17, 2014 10:50 AM in response to JovZun

Can someone actually try and get a screen replacement? I'm almost certain that there's a correlation between hardware and using LG or Samsung screens. My bro-in-law started with an LG, swapped it out for a Samsung and now everything is running perfectly, and I mean PERFECT, on it. This is coming from a certified Apple Tech.

May 18, 2014 1:07 AM in response to Wayne Chin

mine is Samsung on MBP PRO 15 late 2013 but I have the scroll lag as usual after 10.9.3 update.

LucasGE

Level 1

4 points

May 18, 2014 11:22 AM in response to JovZun

Recently bought an MBP Retina 13" Late 2013 in Orlando, FL and this lag is happening when on Retina, pretty annoying, would like to see the smooth experienced I used to when I had an MBP before.

pullman

Level 4

1,220 points

May 18, 2014 12:18 PM in response to delphinas

I can't see that Youtube video, it says it's private.

In other fora I've seen discussions that lag could be related to the screen in question, LG vs Samsung. I checked my settings fwiw (Sys Prefs - Display - Color tab - Open Profile - scroll down to "mmod"):

Manufacturer 610

Model A018

May 18, 2014 8:51 PM in response to pullman

Model A018 is LG

mine is A022 it's Samsung but i have the scroll lag too.

So i don't think that the problem is Samsung or lg screens.

jffluis

Level 1

4 points

May 19, 2014 4:15 PM in response to Wayne Chin

I think that your speculation about the screen manufacturer it's just ridiculous. Think a bit. If you connect you MBP to a Samsung monitor you'll have more perfomance in UI compared to a LG monitor? No..

I have my 15" rMBP (MId 2012) since September and I have the LAG explained in this post since day one. When I got my MBP and I had ML the lag was worse than it is now in Mavericks. I've seen improvements over the time althoug they are minor and not sufficient. Still, my computer is almost reaching 2 YEARS OLD and the problem is not fixed yet. It's just bad..

Resizing some windows (not all) have lag, tremendous lag in iTunes Covers, Scrolling in some websites (it had been improved over the time) but I paid over 3000$ for this computer and it's just not acepptable. A 500$ Windows PC can beat my rMBP UI performance. It is just very bad move from Apple.

My last shot is that new OSX fixes this issues, if not it's my last computer from Apple and I have to move to the competition.

May 20, 2014 3:41 PM in response to jffluis

Here is a screen recording of the preformance on my 13" from late 2012. It is actually better now than it was when I bought it refurbished a few months ago (it had ML then). As you can see, this doesn't affect all computers.. Very strange. The only time it seems to lag a timy bit is when scrolling in iTunes or when resizing Safari (under extreme conditions) when the website wasn't fully loaded. Scrolling in iTunes was much improved when I went to System Prefrences>Accesibility>Trackpad Options>Scrolling Speed>Fast. (Which was suggested earlier in the thread)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amhZdUC3SE0

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