Slow Graphics Performance MacOS High Sierra

Cleanmymac is notorious for all the trouble it causes.

Just search for it in this forum and you are likely to find hundreds of occurrences.

There is even a common phrase: "cleanmymac claims another victim".

My parallels version is just the previous version. Moreover, I rarely use it. There is nothing wrong about using AppCleaner 3.4. I never had a problem with Sierra 10.12.6. Your recommendation is extreme. Based on my research, the source of the problem is in the mac OS. Apple needs to get the latest drivers from nVidia that support 750M and incorporate them into 10.13.2. I have been waiting for over 4 weeks for Apple to get their act together.

I'm using a late 2012 iMac with an Nvidia GT 650M and I'm getting very close to downgrading it to Sierra, simply because the graphics performance has been nowhere near as good with High Sierra as it was before.

I was hoping 10.13.2 would resolve the performance issues, but it hasn't. Downgrading will be a HUGE pain in the *** as I will have to revert to an older version of my Library folder, losing changes I've made in apps since then, and may even have to have Photos.app redownload my entire library from iCloud as the Sierra version of Photos can't open the High Sierra version of the library.

I may hold out and see if 10.13.3 ends up fixing the issue. I have little hope, though; there has been little communication from Apple on this problem.

EDIT: I wonder if they'll even fix this, as only older Macs have the Nvidia GT650 and 750 series. Apple benefits if we upgrade, after all. 😝

I would recommend anyone with this issue (particularly MacBookPros from 2013/2014 with NVidia GT 650/750M) to file official support requests and bug reports (if you have a developer account).

When I contacted Apple about this several months ago they had not recognised it as an issue. The more people they have reporting it, the more likely it is to be actioned.

FYI: The bug I filed in the bug reporter has recently been marked as "Closed" (it was first marked as a duplicate, but the report that my bug duplicated has been closed too, which should mean that it has been fixed. Will believe it when I see it).

Apple senior advisor told me that the drivers are built into the OS. Is this not true?

I already mentioned this problem in previous posts on this thread. It is much more complex than Apple is telling you.

Apple and its vendors of built-in graphics are supposed to be working together to produce appropriate drivers for new graphics chips and new versions of MacOS.

With AMD chips, AMD releases specifications that are detailed enough that Apple can modify their existing drivers for most MacOS changes. AMD then commits some resources to help Apple get Apple Drivers working if they run into trouble.

With NVIDIA chips, NVIDIA considers some very intricate details of its specs proprietary, and will not tell Vendors how the chips work at a minute enough level to produce trouble-free Drivers.

What is supposed to happen, is NVIDIA is supposed to produce a new driver, ready for Apple testing, far enough ahead so that Apple can make sure it all works. In this case, (and many others) they have not done so in a timely fashion, so the TESTED Driver included in MacOS is OLD, and that is what you get when you listen to Apple say, "the Drivers are included in MacOS".

Readers here have seem this happen so many time before, that they check the NVIDIA web site to see if there are more recent Drivers that NVIDIA has released on its own. This is NOT the way Apple intends this process to work, and these Drivers have not been through Apple's rigorous testing. But in some cases, these drivers may work better.

Last Nvidia driver installed, it's a a little bit better, have tried to downgrade but such a mess and a lost of time. I will wait , oh yeah i will, last time i think, lot of friends start to migrate to windows pcs I'm considering this option more and more seriously now... 😟

Despite the fact that my graphic card was change y apple with a special program ( early 2012 to late 2013 mbp 15" concerned if you have not try that)

Good luck everybody.

No one can really answer that question for you.

The most prudent thing to do would be to return to the previous version that was rock solid and worked for you. But that is complex, and requires a Trusted backup, or two, as an older version of MacOS will not install over a newer version unless you completely erase the drive, which deletes all your files.

The most expedient thing would be to try the downloaded Drivers available from NVIDIA, and see if they allow you to get your work done is a reasonable fashion. That may be little risky, as they have not been hammered on by Apple.

A compromise between the two would be to muddle along, doing whatever you can, and wait for the "official" drivers to be issued by Apple.

Each path has its risks and benefits.

This has been the case for a long time, too.

As early as 2006-2007, I found ATI/AMD GPUs far outperformed Nvidia ones on my Mac Pro. Nvidia GPUs always had glitches and slowdowns when running GPU-intensive software (Second Life was a doozy) whereas Radeon was mostly trouble-free.

It led to my mantra: Always buy Macs with Radeon GPUs. I wasn't able to follow that mantra because no Macs with Radeon GPUs were available when that Mac Pro died, so I ended up getting this iMac. It has worked mostly well until High Sierra. Bah.

Nope, definitely not the only one, High Sierra is truly a nightmare, various GPU bugs

They resulted in this for me: hardware - Mid 2014 Macbook Swollen after High Sierra / What should I do? - Ask Different

Wow, I can't believe how much this mantra still holds true.

I've been using a Mac with an AMD chipset (Radeon R9 M395 2 GB) and the performance difference has been *MIND BLOWING*. It doesn't choke all the time like the Nvidia chipset, no freezes or any other issues. This is how MacOS is supposed to feel like!

I am never, ever going to buy a Mac with an Nvidia chipset again. I hope Apple wises up and never includes Nvidia chipsets again until the company releases all the specs necessary to develop proper drivers for them.

It looks like there's no Nvidia in Apple's current lineup so they're definitely spurning them at the moment.

This is driving me insane.

i installed high sierra a few weeks ago - it totally grinded my CPU to a halt and then completely scrambled the display on boot up so I couldn’t see anything but layers of coloured frantic ‘static like’ distortion.

I painfully reverted back to Sierra again and it went better but only only for 2 weeks. It’s now completely screwed on boot up, doing the same distortion screen every time.

However, I can boot up in safe mode. I’ve done everything I’ve read online to troubleshoot. I’ve Reset all the NVRM , SRC etc. I even did a hardware check to see if the Mac picked up on that....everything was reported fine. I’ve even tried to reduce the ‘windowserver’ tasks and it’s still screwed.

Ps I’m on an early 2015 MacBook Pro 13” retina with intel iris 6100

Hi Jimmyshortarms,

Check out my Apple Stack Exchange link I shared earlier, basically, after installing High Sierra, my battery was swollen and it damaged my Macbook hardware, including the screen

I suspect your issue could be from the same cause, but instead of a destroyed battery, the stress might've damaged your CPU/internal-GPU etc.

Sadly I couldn't get my issue recognized yet

Jimmyshortarms

if you are seeing these same issues back in Sierra, it is not a High Sierra problem, but a hardware problem in your Mac.

To cut the problem in half, do a screenshot of the screen when the problem is occurring. If the artifacts show in the screenshot, they are in the Display Buffer RAM. If they are NOT in the screenshot, they are in the rasterization and screen-display Hardware.

On your model Mac, main RAM is used as the display buffer, so problems in the display buffer are problems with main RAM.

an integrated Intel Iris Graphics 6100 graphics processor that shares memory with the system.

from:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook-pro-core-i5-2.9-13- early-2015-retina-display-specs.html

Unfortunately this RAM is not replaceable, but is soldered to the mainboard.