16" MacBook Pro stuttering issue

[rowbradley]

Hey all,

I've got a weird issue happening on my MBP 16" with little bouts of lagginess that should not be happening on a machine of this spec.

There's sometimes a delay between typing where you type and it takes a second for the text to appear, upon scrolling where the page has to catch up, and in video where there's a second of delay before the video catches up.

Once or twice wouldn't bother me since it is so brief but this is happening consistently. Just happened twice while typing this.

It does seem to be related to the Intel Graphics as it does not appear when using discrete graphics. That's not an acceptable answer for me however, as the intel graphics are necessary for running on battery power for longer periods.

Seems to happen more with Chrome open but does occur with just safari as well.

 

[Dhock_Holiday]

Are you connected to an external display or using a graphically intensive application? Could be the AMD GPU turning off and on causing the program to stutter and lag out

 

[sdp77]

If you're within the 14 days, send it back for a refund (do not accept a replacement since, with the replacement, you won't have another 14 day return period) and, when you get your money back, order a new one.

 

[rowbradley]

Thanks for the replies.

A few more details:

• Not connected to an external display. When I am, it doesn't occur since it only seems to happen with the iGPU
• Not seen in graphics intensive tasks, mostly seen in safari and chrome
• Not within 14 day return policy

 

[b.kind]

Start with Activity Monitor.
Is something eating all your CPU cycles or using too memory?

I believe both Safari and Chrome somehow invoke the dGPU for rendering, even when no external monitor is in use. Try a different browser, like Firefox.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

It's not a hardware problem, so don't bother to return it. This is a Intel driver issue for the iGPU, triggered from time to time. Try to disable font smoothing and see if that works. For me, running Postbox is one of the issues, the longer it runs, the more likely it shows up. When I quit and restart the app, it's gone. Sometimes it happens on Word as well, same for Chrome.

Bug has been around for some time. Can also be caused by drivers you have installed or software you start automatically. It's annoying, but since it's driver related, there's always hope for the next update.

 

[rowbradley]

Well thanks for the reply Grumpy Coder. Not sure if that makes me more or less concerned. It makes an otherwise incredible machine feel pokey, potentially to the point of needing something else. I work in audio/video production, so things hitching in that area is incredibly frustrating. I don't have AppleCare, any ideas on the best way to report this in hopes for a fix?

 

[Camarillo Brillo]

One thing I've learned since I got my 16", is Apple loves to put reps on the phone to hear you out about the problems you're having, collect data, screenshots, screen recordings of the problem in action, then tell you they're going to run it up the ladder because they want to get it fixed....then nothing happens.

 

[bill-p]

One thing I've learned since I got my 16", is Apple loves to put reps on the phone to hear you out about the problems you're having, collect data, screenshots, screen recordings of the problem in action, then tell you they're going to run it up the ladder because they want to get it fixed....then nothing happens.

I work in a corporate environment as well. Not Apple but nearby. And I can tell you... that's exactly how it is.

Us software engineers get told about issues from customer service. These issues that they pass over to us are typically... about a year or so old. Sometimes more. Let's just say the issues go through layers of filtration and decision-making before it even gets to SWE.

Then we scramble to reproduce the problem, and... sometimes we can't. So the problem gets deferred until somebody, someday, sitting somewhere near a software dev, just happens to be able to reproduce the issue and gives the proper report log. Then it'll get fixed. Yes, "future tense" is intentional there.

Among these bugs, the worst ones are "the software stutters on me every few seconds". That's not something that generates a log or any meaningful "footprint" that us devs can trace. It's invisible and might as well be "non-existent" to us.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

It's not like Apple is alone. Dell XPS users have also reported stutter, which Dell didn't fix, but it could be fixed by downloading Intel drivers directly from the source. Of course this is something that can't be easily done on macOS.

 

[sekoitus]

@rowbradley does this still occur for you? If not, what fixed it?

 

[rowbradley]

Still happening! I'm really hoping there's a fix, it seriously hinders my experience of this machine, and has me looking at other less capable ones.

 

[UBS28]

Active the dGPU. You can do this by disabling automatic GPU switching. The 16" MBP has a got a super weak iGPU (unlike the 2020 13" MBP).

 

[rowbradley]

To anyone struggling with this issue, *knock on wood* it seems to be resolved with a complete reinstall of the operating system after updating to 10.15.5. I will update if I have more issues.

 

[ratex]

It's fully resolved for me after 10.15.5.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

It's fully resolved for me after 10.15.5.

Fresh install or update? I found a fresh install (<10.15.5) resets it until it's triggered again. I'm not on 10.15.5 yet, maybe that finally fixed it for good.

 

[ratex]

Update. A while ago I disabled font smoothing and it helped a bit for me, not sure whether it was placebo or not. I'll try enabling it again to test.

 

[Hjupter Cerrud]

I never had (or noticed) this problem but I upgraded from 10.15.3 to 10.15.5 and its been working like a charm

 

[rowbradley]

It would seem that this issue is back in 10.15.6 using external Magic KB and trackpad. Anyone else experiencing this?

 

[ratex]

It's the opossite for me. The issue is totally gone on 10.15.6.

 

[scottmizo]

I had this problem with my external Magic KB. Bad typing lag. Fixed it by resetting the Magic KB. Holding the Shift + Option (Alt) keys on your Mac's keyboard, click the Bluetooth symbol in the top-right corner. Scroll down to the keyboard and click "Factory Reset".

 

[rowbradley]

I had this problem with my external Magic KB. Bad typing lag. Fixed it by resetting the Magic KB. Holding the Shift + Option (Alt) keys on your Mac's keyboard, click the Bluetooth symbol in the top-right corner. Scroll down to the keyboard and click "Factory Reset".

This is super helpful and at this point appears to have resolved the issue. Thank you!!

 

[PeanutButterJellyTime]

Issue still exists for me on 10.15.6 with trackpad.
Did fresh reinstall without and with erasing. Didn't help much.

It's like once in around 3-5 minutes there is small stuttering when navigating some menu or scrolling.

 

[zoomp]

I'm still having this issue as well in 10.15.6, anyone have any tips on solving this?

 

[ght56]

It is presumably intentional to achieve the long battery runtimes and it persists in 10.5.7 as well, or it is a limit of the integrated graphics. All 16-inch systems have this, so it's not a defect on individual systems. I don't think we're going to see it fixed as it is probably not thought to be an issue in need of fixing by Apple and most owners likely do not notice it. I am generally using the discrete GPU, where the issue does not occur-if you run a moving image in the background, you can vastly reduce the frequency of the stutter. Being logged into two user accounts simultaneously also seems to eliminate it, but also has a pretty significant tax on battery.

(edit - keeping the cursor size at its smallest size also seems to reduce it and also make it harder to see when the cursor stutters.)