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iMac 5k Retina - Preview fullscreen looks horrible

I was about to buy the iMac 5k retina and was just checking online for the problems that affect it. After reading a few problems regarding the Mission Control Lag, Bluetooth devices not working after wake up etc. I decided to do a test run in the shop before I pull the trigger. I could not do a sleep/wake test but I did the Mission Control lag test by opening about 10 applications and using Mission control. It indeed does feel a little laggy but not to a point that it is unusable. However, I did another simple test - Opening a large JPG file in Preview and making it fullscreen (no other applications were open just Preview and Finder). And this made me not buy it.


While the animation for fullscreen was going on, there were some random colors (purple and blue) on the image. The transition from Preview window to fullscreen felt really choppy and every time I did it, during the process, it looked like the JPG was corrupt with purple/blue blocks and lines on the image. Once it was fullscreen the image displayed fine but during the process it looked horrible.


I did the same test in my Macbook Pro - Mid 2010 with only Intel HD Graphics enabled (NVIDIA GeForce GT330M was disabled) and it does a similar thing but it is not as bad as the iMac 5k. Here is a video of my Macbook Pro Preview Fullscreen test - https://vid.me/QtnE

I am sorry, I did not record a video of the iMac 5k in the shop. Both machines are running OS X was Yosemite 10.10.3


I understand the 5K display itself takes quite a bit of power from the AMD Radeon M290X GPU but going fullscreen should not consume too much GPU power. Can anybody with the iMac 5K retina repeat the same test and share the experience please.


I am just wondering if the iMac 5k is just a beauty only without the brains type of product. Looks good but doing even a simple task that requires a bit of GPU power will overload it. I want to buy it but this kind of thing is holding me back. I have chatted with Apple Support and they said the technical team is notified of this. I hope Apple fixes this in the next software update (or maybe El Capitan).


Looking for answers.

iMac with Retina 5K display, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Jun 12, 2015 2:08 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jun 15, 2015 3:10 PM

Hi there,

iMac 5k is great.

I use it for multitasking, video editing, music creation, work etc..

Just made a special screen cast for you.

Mine works FAST with only 8GB ram and Fusion drive (needed more space than ssd) but i didn't save $250 for the best graphics card and you shouldn't.

Whatever you do on 5K display, will work much better with better graphics card.

See the video, Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/jWRN4Qvawcg

And btw, the new apple OSX El Capitan will make the iMac even more responsive as they're implementing "Metal", so basically the graphic processing speed/lag will be much faster.

Hope that helped.

7 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jun 15, 2015 3:10 PM in response to CylisBKK

Hi there,

iMac 5k is great.

I use it for multitasking, video editing, music creation, work etc..

Just made a special screen cast for you.

Mine works FAST with only 8GB ram and Fusion drive (needed more space than ssd) but i didn't save $250 for the best graphics card and you shouldn't.

Whatever you do on 5K display, will work much better with better graphics card.

See the video, Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/jWRN4Qvawcg

And btw, the new apple OSX El Capitan will make the iMac even more responsive as they're implementing "Metal", so basically the graphic processing speed/lag will be much faster.

Hope that helped.

Jun 17, 2015 1:09 PM in response to itosaf

Hi itosaf,


Thank you for your time and the video. It seems your is running super smoothly. I understand your point about getting the R9 M295X (4GB) for better performance. I will definitely consider this.


Can you please do a final test for me on your iMac? Download this image (quite large 39,676 pixels wide) to your desktop - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Untersberg_panoramic_view_wi nter.jpg


And open it in the Preview application (double-click), not Quick Look and then full screen and exit please. The purple and blue lines were on top of the image when I did this on the R9 M290X (2GB) at the apple shop.


I really appreciate you making the first video and I hope this is not too much bother for you.


Yes, I am looking forward to OS X El Capitan. I thought Metal was beneficial for games running on OS only. Maybe I missed something?


Thanks,


Cylis

Jun 18, 2015 4:36 PM in response to CylisBKK

Ok,

As far as i understand, Metal will be implemented in the OSX and will replace Open CL, so if you have good graphics card, all of your mac will work much snappier because all the GUI elements will use Metal (much better than Open CL implementation). Once the apps will be updated, they will work snappier and faster as well.

Back to your question:

So i downloaded the file and when i double click on it, i also get the "Preview" lines issue.

Couldn't test it on my macbook as i don't have it with me.

I believe that it's a "Preview" bug, as it's not a professional software that designed to work with huge files.

When i open it with an editing software, there are no issues, but i definitely need more than 8GB ram (i can feel the lag), as i didn't close all the running apps in the background and plus was video recording the screen for you..

Again, here is the screen cast:

https://youtu.be/aGtmu_B3ANA

Enjoy.

Jun 18, 2015 6:58 PM in response to itosaf

Thank you once again for testing and screen casting it. Yes, I think it is Preview bug for large files. This has definitely lifted a huge part of skepticism from me. I will wait for some time before the purchase though as I can still work on my old Macbook mostly for web design and development.


I look forward to El Capitan even more now.. Snappier apps bring it on...


We all have been aware of the good things about this amazing Retina machine. I was wondering if you have had any issues (major/minor) during your use of it.


I really appreciate you putting in time for this. Thanks a lot.


Cheers.

Jul 16, 2015 5:02 PM in response to CylisBKK

Just installed El Capitan public beta.

Would like to report that - my iMac 5K MUCH faster now and the issue with a big image you sent went away.

I know that it's still beta, but WOW! Everything flys!

Super responsive.

Metal definitely does the trick to the UI.

Also the new Safari 9.0 opens the web pages much faster than before!

I feel like i just got a brand new computer.

For being a Beta, the OS is super steady and i had no crushes yet ( only once my keyboard disconnected for a second and reconnected again and the other time it happened to my mouse - probably some bluetooth bug).

Hope that helped.

Jul 31, 2015 4:45 AM in response to itosaf

Wow. I am glad to hear that the Preview issue is gone now. Even though I haven't tried El Capitan yet, I am already a fan of Metal (always was). Good to hear that new Safari opens websites faster. I am a web developer by trade and have dumped Chrome in favor of Safari for a good year. Only thing about Safari is very few extensions are available compared to what Chrome has to offer.


I am still pushing my purchase of iMac Retina as far as I can but I am really confident in Apple's software fixes. You will be the second person (after my wife) to know when I purchase the iMac Retina.


Thanks once again for your time and effort in replying.


Cheers,


Cylis

iMac 5k Retina - Preview fullscreen looks horrible

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