Slow Graphics Performance MacOS High Sierra

I have 10.13.3 and now using the system nvidia driver. And finally I'm able to connect my external 4k display use ti without lagging!:-) However I'm still testing it since morning. Once it will work for a few days without problems, then I will be happy!:-)

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.

It is not true, because if there is a second graphics card, macOS is switching between then automatically not only based on the external monitor but e.g. if some page requires webGL, if the Photos app is run, if a java app is run, ... and this switch cost 2-5seconds and if the nvidia card was active, the performance was not great too.

But, second day and it still seems to be finally working!

Are you really sure? I'm on Sierra right now. I want to upgade, but I'm afraid, that I will be disapointed by performence.

And you are right, for me also many apps causes GeForce card to becomes active. Like Citrix Receiver that I use for work.

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 🙂

FCP X 10.4 works fine here with High Sierra (already did in 10.13.2, still does in 10.13.3).

I don't know which version you have; of older versions of FCP X, only 10.3.4 was even supported, and it had its issues. 10.4 has been pretty solid from the start.

Everything graphics related seems snappier with 10.13.3 (2014 15" rMBP, with NVIDIA graphics).

I never experienced the most severe symptoms described in this thread, but I did see slower graphics performance vis a vis Sierra. It seems fixed now...

Interesting...I have the latest version of FcpX and a "mid-2014" macbook pro and I experienced severe frame drops...usually after editing for a while. I always had to restart to get everything back to normal.

So you use the Nvidia driver instead of the built in one?

Winston Archibald Baxter VII wrote:

Interesting...I have the latest version of FcpX and a "mid-2014" macbook pro and I experienced severe frame drops...usually after editing for a while. I always had to restart to get everything back to normal.

So you use the Nvidia driver instead of the built in one?

No, never installed any driver. It has been working ok for me, maybe I did not push it as hard. My edits are relatively short, using mostly 4K iPhone recordings and 1080p from an AVCHD camera on 1080 timelines.

Not dramatically fast, but it would crash only rarely. On the short time with 10.13.3, the whole system *appears* to be more responsive, including FCP X.

Exact same situation here. Almost the exact same machine as yours, too 😐

I'm going to do a fresh install this weekend, and see if that fixes it (doubt it), then it may be back to Sierra for me as well.

My MB Pro mid 2014, High Sierra 10.13.2, NVidia GT 750M is simply lagging at whatever occasion. I made etrecheck and it showed me my computer's performance is below average. I tried to investigate what's the pitfall, no process/third party apps did that. I found out that few folks tried the nvidia's web driver. Things got litlle better with it, but for my daily dev life, Xcode & building takes probably 2-3x times more than it did on Sierra. And try to explain this fuckup to your managers that are awaiting delivered code by the end of the day.

+Web driver is not perfect driver for your graphic card, so watch out! Ive experienced couple of glitches and bad renderings for which even couple of restarts didnt work. Im starting to be worried about the nvidia graphic itself.

Apple pushed me to this update, so I blame them. Why they pushed us to update from Sierra, when they knew there are some compatibility issues with NVIDIA graphics vs Metal 2? I need to downgrade back to Sierra to live normal life.

Apple screwed it this time. Similar as they did it with iPad 3 and iOS 9. Thank you for wasting my time.

Would you care to share that Etrecheck report?

Like I said before, I have the exact same mac.

I never had Etrecheck report it as "below average" - including in High Sierra.

It can't just be the OS. Either there is a problem with the machine, or (much more likely) a software conflict.