Slow Graphics Performance MacOS High Sierra

650m here, issue seems to be fixed on 10.13.4 with latest Nvidia web drivers.

I'm experiencing very similar problems. Video performance is very very poor since I updated to High Sierra. Using an external monitor is virtually impossible as the system freezes up very quickly.

The update to 10.13.1 seemed to fix a memory leak in the WindowServer process in 10.13 (which was hogging more and more RAM) - I was hoping this would be the main culprit, but apparently not. In spite of that fix I'm *still* having significant graphics performance issues - and I don't even use any graphics-intensive apps (Photoshop, FCP etc).

Simple things like resizing windows is very laggy, watching videos on Youtube or similar periodically freeze/jump. Typing on this forum page is lagging too...!

I have filed a bug report with Apple hoping that they will see enough complaints to be able to do something about it, but haven't received any acknowledgement from them (4 days and counting). I encourage you to do so too, though I believe you may need a developer account: Bug Report - Apple

Posting here so that others might find this and add their specs if they are experiencing similar issues (or report on improvements in upcoming betas of 10.13.x etc...).

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2 GB

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB

Sorry to hear the resolution switch trick doesn't work for everybody. Thanks for the nVidia Web Drivers tip. I installed the drivers yesterday but today I got the massive slowdown again when using Photoshop :-/ (New version of PS didn't help either.) Resolution switch did the trick for me again.

I sent a proper bug report to bugreport.apple.com with included system analysis logs (I have a developer account), so hopefully that eventually helps...

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. 😝

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.

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.

Yeah I see what you are saying. It’s logical.

To put plainly. MacBook Pro was fine before high Sierra upgrade. MacBook Pro wasn’t fine after upgrade.

That’s pretty straight odds.

Then wiping and reverting to Sierra, whilst viewing a distorted screen - as the installation completion bar filled....the static / gpu distortion suddenly disappeared like it had been over ridden. Over the course of 2 weeks it worked perfect in Sierra. I did apply some Sierra updates in that time though.

Something has happened since the original install of high sierra. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that £1250 MacBook Pro has suddenly decided to malfunction in 2 years.

Since i haven't seen alot of non nVid people chiming up:

I thought I'd throw out my symptoms:

10.13.2

MBP - 17in, Early 2011

2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

8GB Memory

Intel HD Graphics 3000 512Mb

AMD Radeon HD 6750M

All my owes happen with plugging in any external monitor.

When I let it boot, - it's fine.

Sleep and wake up - it's fine

Hook it up to a TV or 24' External Monitor - ....not fine.

it take about 2-3 mins for a noticeable slow down, but the Computer Fan starts "taking off" pretty close to the actual plugin moment.

While running Activity Monitor, I can see the kernel_task sky rocket.

- idle becomes 600%

- But when I start trying to acomplish anything, I've see the Kernel sit at 2000. (Doesn't this defeat the purpose of Percents?? How can one actually achieve 2000%?? *SMH* I digress... )

- if you then unplug the external, then the process will come back down, but the fan never stops over rev'ing. The only way I've found to shut the fan up is to reboot. (And sometimes that didn't help. I do suspect that this was because of the computer was actually running hot. I was trying to run all different scenarios, (attempting to be systematic). It was likely actually running hot when I was done testing. - I attempted a few other tests later, after it had been shut off a while, and the fan didn't kick back on immediately.

Hope this ends up helping someone:

I CAN live without a external for a while, it's just not very convenient.

One may indeed and hopefully at last. Meanwhile, through NVIDIA logs, i achieved an acceptable performance (workaround: install Cuda drivers / https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/1028939/?comment=5248524). At the same time, the workaround created another problem, which lead to a complete reinstall of High Sierra and an intervention of second level support at Apple last Sunday. So since 48 hours, i was working at a normal speed.

Honestly, I hope going forward there will be no issues. I'm going to give that iMac to somebody else.

Out of desperation, i have now an iMac 2017 with i7, which has fortunately no NVIDA. My MacBook fortunately was never affected by this episode.

Meanwhile, at least the agents have knowledge and can offer fixes to this issue. That was not the case when the drama started Mid November, ie two months ago.

I also use FcpX and had to revert back to Sierra, after years of immediately upgrading to the next OS (which is not very professional and finally I paid the price).

I would appreciate if any other FcpX user can confirm it finally works with High Sierra. I doubt 10.13.3 does the trick as it is nowhere listed in the release notes.

Until then: Sierra is pretty solid 🙂