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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Don't upgrade to Mojave if you have NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

The Macbook Pros that have the NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M graphics card and an external 4k display are not really compatible with Macos Mojave. It will install, and it seems to work at first, but performance is TERRIBLE! Video plays very jerky, the fan spins almost constantly, and even text editors lag behind the keystrokes. Typing this now makes me feel like I'm on an old dial-up bulletin board.

The same was true with High Sierra.

I've tried all the Nvidia drivers, and every other recommendation I could find. Nothing worked.

Stay on Sierra. It just works and has great performance.


I'm very disillusioned with Apple right now. Maybe I'll just go with Microsoft next time. <gag>

Maybe just a good Linux distro.


What a shame. I bought the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, and now I have no OS upgrade path.

MacBook Pro, macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Oct 22, 2018 6:16 PM

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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Posted on Oct 22, 2018 6:18 PM

Oh, and make a backup of the MacOS Sierra Installation app. Once you upgrade to Mojave, you cannot download it from the app store anymore. If you don't have a backup of that installation, you'll have to find a friend that is still on High Sierra to be able to download it.

Stupid, but true.

<sigh>

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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Oct 22, 2018 6:18 PM in response to dustinfromriverton

Oh, and make a backup of the MacOS Sierra Installation app. Once you upgrade to Mojave, you cannot download it from the app store anymore. If you don't have a backup of that installation, you'll have to find a friend that is still on High Sierra to be able to download it.

Stupid, but true.

<sigh>

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User profile for user: Stuart423
Stuart423
User level: Level 6
9,258 points

Oct 22, 2018 6:22 PM in response to dustinfromriverton

It is certainly disheartening to hear that your top-of-the-line MacBook Pro is unable to run macOS Mojave. It must be concerning that out of hundreds of thousands of those computers, yours is the one that is not working correctly.


One can only wonder what would happen if you disconnected the external display. (Sometimes, it's not the computer...sometimes, it's the stuff folks plug into the computer.)

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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Oct 22, 2018 6:34 PM in response to Stuart423

Unplugging the external 4K display does solve the problem. Performance goes right to where it should be. That’s one of the ways that I know this is the problem. Other 4K displays exhibit the same problem.

So just don’t use an external 4K display, right?


Many, many other people have reported this same problem on the Apple support forums as well as other forums. Only silence from Apple.

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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Oct 23, 2018 10:05 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Yes, mistyped the year. It is:

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

2.8 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB

Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB


The monitor - Samsung U28D590 - is connected to the mac via a single thunderbolt to displayport cable. No other peripherals, USB, etc attached. Magsafe 2 power adapter is attached.


I did a clean install of macOS Mojave onto a freshly formatted APFS partition which uses the entire HD. Performance was awful - laggy video from youtube, netflix, and mp4 videos on hard drive, very poor response while editing documents in open office and even TextEdit. It is exactly what I experienced when I did this about a year ago trying to upgrade to High Sierra.


So, I did a clean install of MacOS Sierra, without changing anything in the hardware configuration. Now performance is back to normal.


It seems that attempting to do the same thing over and over (upgrading macOS) is a bad thing in my case. I guess I'm stuck with Sierra. This wouldn't concern me too much, except Apple makes it very difficult to stay on old versions of OS. I wish Apple provided better support for their legacy hardware. Its funny how small companies with small revenue HAVE TO provide excellent service to each and every customer to stay in business. Large companies like Apple with huge revenue can safely ignore many customers. C'est la vie.

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User profile for user: Grant Bennet-Alder
Grant Bennet-Alder
User level: Level 10
126,937 points

Oct 23, 2018 10:47 AM in response to dustinfromriverton

This is a very unusual case, but an Interesting one. Your Mac has Dual Graphics, but it appears the Discrete Graphic (which should normally be better) has poor Metal support. The external display is key in this case.


On that Dual Graphics MacBook Pro, without external display, you use the Intel Iris Pro Integrated grpahics, which has good Metal support.


When you activate an external display, the interface for that is wired to the Discrete Graphics chip, GeForce 750M, which, by your observation, appears to have poor Metal support and runs very slowly in comparison.


So if you install High Sierra and later, which rely heavily on Metal, performance on this Mac with an external display will be worse.

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User profile for user: dustinfromriverton
dustinfromriverton Author
User level: Level 1
15 points

Oct 23, 2018 1:18 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Based on your description that this is a Metal 2 capability issue, I found the following thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/any-news-about-the-macbook-pro-nvidia-gpu-l ag-yet.2088300/page-12


It has some people who seem to have found success with NVIDIA GeForce cards and external 4k monitors in High Sierra and Mojave. If I can find several spare hours, I just may try this upgrade again.

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Don't upgrade to Mojave if you have NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

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