macOS High Sierra 10.13 slow graphics after battery sleep

More or less every "point update" to OS X/macOS has included graphics driver updates, and it's yhe the same in this case.

You can find info about the drivers in System Report. I can show more in detail once I get home, on the move right now...

So it's not fixed. That's it, I'm going back to Sierra 10.12.6 which ran fantastic for me.
I guess I will reconsider High Sierra when it reaches update 10.13.6. But until then, HS goes into the trashcan.

Steps to reproduce on MacBook:

1. restart your mac

2. open any app/benchmark/game that uses 3D graphics and have a fps counter, take note of the fps value

3. close lid (it doesn't matter if you are on battery or external power)

4. wait 1 hour (the issue will happen after some time of sleep, maybe it's less, but waiting 1 hour will trigger the bug for sure)

5. open lid and login

6. reopen the same app as point 2, take note of the fps value and note that it dropped about 70%

I've reported this countless times to Apple since 10.13.0 was released.
I've also referenced several other gaming-related forums where a lot of people experience the same.

The issue is super-simple to re-produce: Put your computer to sleep for a couple of hours, and try to use it in a way that stresses the GPU: Game, Final Cut Pro X video rendering, etc. You will get about 70% LESS performance CONSISTENTLY ALL THE TIME until the computer is Rebooted.

I never had this issue in Sierra. I have had this issue in 10.13.0, 10.13.1 and now 10.13.2, on a MBP 2017 i7/2.9, AMD 560 Pro and 512GB SSD.

It's unacceptable to have to reboot the computer every time I want to edit pictures, video, game, and in other ways use the GPU. Most of my workloads revolves around GPU usage.

Do you people see Tim Cook using "Game, Final Cut Pro X video rendering" etc.?

I can bet whatever that Apple management does not have a clue about this.

- by "management" I am referring to the decision makers, not developers,admins or support stuff.

I use all kinds of software and OS'es and I did not notice this if it wasn't for VirtualBox with 3D

If you use 'regular' apps like office, web, viber/imessage, movies, music etc. - oh and emojis you won't notice so ...

To people recommending here to set the hibernatemode to 0 - do you folks read the manual?

(funny, one user said here "-do this" and then 3pages of users "-it isn't working" ...)

pmset --man

#1. hibernatemode supports values of 0, 3, or 25. Whether or not a hibernation image gets written is also dependent on the values of standby and autopoweroff.

#2. to disable hibernation images completely, ensure hibernatemode,standby and autopoweroff are all set to 0.

But, this is not a solution unless you use your macbook as a desktop machine!

"you just need to use a 4k external monitor"

- again, do you see a CEO/management boss that is always on-the-go and in meetings, using 4k external displays?

The majority*of people buying a mackbook don't use external displays and don't game.

developers,sysadmins,designers - I can bet is less than 1% (i'm one of them, but did not payed for my mac.)

(*from that 7% market-share that Apple has compared to 89% for windows)

Again, I am sorry to see that macOS has great potential but is being crippled, is not more open and the 'target users' are sooo small.

Keeping Mac running 3D application and closing the lid leads to fast battery drain in Sleep Mode and makes laptop noticeable warm. I think that this solution is not very good for our hardware.

PS: Any progress to AMD dGPU owners with .2 update? I had no chances to test it because of my timezone (Update wasn't available when I left home, MacBook Pro in current performance condition is cost nothing but 2 kg of aluminium with my work).

I reported it on the feedback page, both for 10.13.0 and 10.13.1.

Didn't know about the other page. And honestly I can't be bothered to spend more energy on this.

I just did a couple of PRAM and SMC/NVRAM resets, followed by clearing out ALL caches and everything with Onyx, followed by resetting PRAM and SMC/NVRAM again, then booting, firing up World of Warcraft where I got around 120fps with my settings. Then I put the computer to sleep for an hour, woke it up, started the game again and got about 27fps...

All this was on 10.13.2 release on a MBP 2017 i7 2.9, Radeon Pro 560 4GB, 512GB SSD.

I'm done with HS for now. Gonna wipe it off the HDD and reinstall 10.12.6 from scratch and stay on that for quite a while.

Using an older OS version is NOT and should NOT be an option!

There are major security issues fixed, and no one should give up privacy or security for "ease of use/features"

@ho_ax ...Steve was a true engineer, a man of vision and a lot more. Can't compare it 😟

Sierra received security updates together with El Capitan yesterday (6th of December).

It will still receive security updates for a quite a while.

Sierra was NEVER affected by the embarrasing "root" exploit that HS was.

And honestly, there is NO POINT in having a computer that is super secure that doesn't work properly. I'd rather take the minor risks with actually being able to do my work without major frustrations several times a day. That's why I purchased a Apple computer in the first place! I have never been this frustrated with Windows 10 or 8/8.1 for example.

For me it does not always fail, sometimes after a long sleep the graphics still functions correctly.

Today it slept for 3 hours and still ran quickly! Right when I was trying to capture the issue (blush).

Then it slept for about 45 minutes and did indeed fail (I was able to CaptureData and create a movie of it all so that was good).

I'd say mostly it'll fail following the sleep for an hour recipe but not every single time.

Yes, super-secure machine where:

- Integrated graphics outperformance dedicated $XXX GPU upgrade after system went sleep;

- You may just type 'root' and click few times on arrow if you forgot your password (OK, done with that);

- Where I have a number of issues with TouchID after installing HS;

- I spent few hours struggling with Spotlight to index something;
- I still have an issue with SMS via Messages. Just lost my hope to turn it on and forgot about this feature at all.

Hello,

I am currently experiencing this exact same issue. I'm also running 10.13.2. The issue is prominent when I come home from school and plug my external display, AC plug etc. in and try to play World of Warcraft. I'm getting really low fps and the problem goes away right after reboot. It's arduous to have to reboot the computer every time I come home.

Has anyone found a fix for the issue? Do I even have the possibility to revert to Sierra as the model I'm having problems with is the 2017 15" Macbook Pro?

Thanks.

Hello,

Try this: before closing the lid run up WoW and left it on the login screen.

Yes, computer will consume more energy and produce heat, but it will be ready to rock when you get back to it next time.

Do you have an external display connected? I just tried to reproduce it now, but wasn't able. I have updated macOS to 10.13.2 and I have a MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2013) so it has Nvidia graphics.

I ran some graphics intensive stuff (Starcraft 2 and the OpenGL tests in ”OpenGL Extensions Viewer.app” and it seems just as fast on a second try after at least 1 hour of computer sleep. Will continue testing, but maybe the problem shows itself more easily in AMD graphics?