Over on the Mac mini forum, I shared my experience with running Yosemite on my Mac mini (Early 2009).
I ran benchmarks that proved the UI is drastically slower in Yosemite compared to previous versions of OS X. Well, at least on my machine anywayThe whole OS feels very unresponsive, most evident in the simple act of resizing a window. Something which we have been doing since the 80s.
Here's my experience. I have 4GB of RAM, SSD and a clean install. It's just a Finder window showing some folders. Nothing complex at all.
Resizing a window in Mavericks:
http://youtu.be/174ugKsj6z4
Resizing a window in Yosemite:
http://youtu.be/1TMh5Pjj4uk
Core Animation in Yosemite must have taken a fundamental change because something strange is afoot. Is everything vector now?
I would love to know if others have experienced such a hit in UI responsiveness or have any idea what Apple have done under the hood that has caused this?
I was curious myself about how well Yosemite 10.10.2 would run on my early 2009 Mac-Mini configure with 4GB RAM. Right now I have Mavericks 10.9.5 installed on it. I also have a clean install of Yosemite 10.10.2 installed on a external Toshiba 1TB 5400RPM hard drive. And when I say clean I mean it is a basic installed system. The only third party application I have installed on the external hard drive is Diskwarrior 5. The external hard drive is my rescue hard drive.
Anyhow, so I plugged the external hard drive into a USB port on the 2009 Mac-Mini and booted to 10.10.2. I repeated your finder test and my results are night and day different. I found zero lag in finder. I tried a screen recording of my test but it proved to end up looking choppy, much like your test showed. I suspect the speed of the hard drive affected the screen recording. So I pulled out my 8MP camera, a tripod and used the camera to record the test. Here is the video I shot: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9373055/2009 Mac-Mini.mov
Now you tell me do you see any lag in finder. Is this a case where vista980622 thinks "Sometimes it's really awesome that many people don't feel the obvious sluggishness". You tell me if I am seeing things and there is lag as you have reported. Now you never stated which version of Yosemite you installed. Maybe 10.10.0 and 10.10.1 had the issue. 10.10.2 is the first version of Yosemite I have installed and tried.
I also have Yosemite 10.10.2 installed on 2011 iMac and a 2009 MacBook Pro. Both show the same type of responsiveness as my 2009 Mac-Mini running 10.10.2. Here is a video I shot on my 2011 iMac showing its UI responsiveness: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9373055/Yosemite_10.10.2_Lag_Test.mov
I think I can understand my some people are seeing lag on the Mac with retina displays, it is due to the high resolution displays. If you have a higher resolution display showing lag, call up AppleCare (800-275-2273) and open a case. You do get free AppleCare support for Yosemite no matter if your Mac is out of warranty.
I disagree with vista980622 about Apple not fixing the UI lag in 10.10. I think Apple will address the issue before 10.11.
Now here is what I don't understand. Why are some people reporting lag on similar systems as others and those same people are experiencing different results. Why does my 2009 Mac-Mini (by the way which does not have an SSD) not show any finder lag but you do with your similar 2009 Mac-Mini. By the way my model is the dual core 2.0GHz model.
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