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oldmacs

macrumors 601
Sep 14, 2010
4,941
7,182
Australia
Well I don't know what to say. Mavericks has been the best system on my 2007 iMac, 2009 Mac mini and 2012 MBA. I can't recall ANY bug, slowdown, crash or anything . Maybe because I have SSDs? Snow leopard was the last usable system on a Hdd for me. Lion was a PAIN. Mountain lion was, like, ok I guess, but still slow as hell. Then I put SSDs in all my computers and installed Mavericks. Never had any problem since.

This. I have HDD's because I can't afford SSDs for the sort of storage I need. Mountain Lion was the last fast system on a HDD.
 

deviant

macrumors 65816
Oct 27, 2007
1,187
275
This. I have HDD's because I can't afford SSDs for the sort of storage I need. Mountain Lion was the last fast system on a HDD.

SSDs are fairly cheap now. You don't need SSDs for storage, just for the system. Macbook can accommodate a caddy for hdd instead of dvdrom and so can the iMac or just attach a usb 3 external drive to it. It's night and day, really.
 

oldmacs

macrumors 601
Sep 14, 2010
4,941
7,182
Australia
SSDs are fairly cheap now. You don't need SSDs for storage, just for the system. Macbook can accommodate a caddy for hdd instead of dvdrom and so can the iMac or just attach a usb 3 external drive to it. It's night and day, really.

I know but I regularly use my Optical Drive and don't really have the money sitting around for external drives :/

Yosemite seems to be a big improvement anyway :)
 

BrettApple

macrumors 65816
Apr 3, 2010
1,145
488
Heart of the midwest
Plenty of choppiness here, and it's sad to see because I just got this machine in July (Late 2013 2.4/8/256 13" MBP).

Where the same OS on my Mid 2010 15" MBP with both Intel HD graphics and the Nvidia GeForce 330m runs perfectly smooth. Even my '08 and '08 MacBooks with the 9400m run about as good. And they're what I was upgrading from to begin with, haha.

It is mostly when the CPU/GPU have throttled down and are then put to use however. So it's more of a ramp up from idle issue than a full on performance issue. Once it's clocked back up subsequent animations are fluid.

More of a battery and energy saving measure for a bit of lag. Not that it should be there in the first place however. It's just pushing so many pixels. When it's on my 1080p external monitor it's perfectly smooth 100% of the time, and I can't say that about my '08/'09 or my mid 2010 model. Especially with Aperture and iMovie.
 

deviant

macrumors 65816
Oct 27, 2007
1,187
275
I know but I regularly use my Optical Drive and don't really have the money sitting around for external drives :/

Yosemite seems to be a big improvement anyway :)

Well, the point is using your current HDDs as external drives :) 120 SSD is a good start and it should be like, 50 bucks. Try it man. It's like steroids for your computer.
 

oldmacs

macrumors 601
Sep 14, 2010
4,941
7,182
Australia
Well, the point is using your current HDDs as external drives :) 120 SSD is a good start and it should be like, 50 bucks. Try it man. It's like steroids for your computer.

I know but I prefer to have all my stuff stored inside my Macbook, because its just the most simple way.. .
 

nontroppo

macrumors 6502
Mar 11, 2009
430
22
I use the "non-optimal" resolution of 1920x1200HiDPI and have done since getting my Retina MBP — I've had no problems with lag or choppiness, and for me the rMBP has been a real workhorse.

I use Spaces and Mission control a lot. I would say overall that Yosemite is significantly worse than Mavericks at 1920x1200HiDPI, I get more choppy animations than before. This is non-determinate, some transitions are fine and others judder.

I notice that switching spaces *in* mission control view is much smoother than out of it. I also notice switching spaces using a trackpad gesture is *worse* than using ctrl+arrows; I suspect because the ctrl+arrow animation is determinate, it will switch, whereas the gesture animation is "live"...

Things are much better at "native" HiDPI resolution.
 

Fzang

macrumors 65816
Jun 15, 2013
1,315
1,081
If I have a lot of windows open for a long time, it starts to slow down all UI animations on my 2013 rMBP. Only restarting will speed it up again.
 

Eithanius

macrumors 68000
Nov 19, 2005
1,556
419
That's because you fear each new release of os x more than the last... With the baseline being snow leopard.

You may be right, but each time I read of rMBP users saying how choppy Mavericks or Yosemite can be, I'm glad my baseline Snow Leopard on my old MBP is as smooth as butter... There's a reason why I hated new releases from Apple ever since Lion onwards, everything seems to go from bad to worse - not in terms of features but it terms of performance...
 

Skylitfly

macrumors 6502a
May 3, 2014
583
215
Haven't experienced any noticeable lag on Yosemite.

I'm not counting the occasional minor stuttering in some places that also existed under Mavericks and Mountain Lion.

So basically. Yosemite has been just as fluid and fast as Mavericks for me.
 

Fiestaman

macrumors regular
Feb 7, 2009
243
83
I notice that switching spaces *in* mission control view is much smoother than out of it. I also notice switching spaces using a trackpad gesture is *worse* than using ctrl+arrows; I suspect because the ctrl+arrow animation is determinate, it will switch, whereas the gesture animation is "live"...

You having any problem with it simply stopping in the middle of switching spaces? I use the three finger swipe gesture to change spaces a lot and at least 50% of the time, it will simply stop halfway. I will have half of one space and half of another space on the screen. I will have to do the gesture again and sometimes 2 or 3 more times just to get it to finish switching. Highly annoying.
 

Cardsnk

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
141
12
Prominent choppiness and lag observed in:
(Unit: Retina Macbook Pro 15' Early 2013)

1. About this mac (Try clicking/changing tabs)
2. System Preferences
3. Changing finder window size
4. Application folder on list view scrolling (Dock)
5. Adobe Photoshop cc 2014 and Lightroom 5.6 poor performance on built in lcd
 

hanswesterbeek

macrumors newbie
Dec 4, 2014
2
0
I think I solved it on my MacBook Air 11" (2011)

I have been astonished by the lag, choppiness and instability that I experienced after installing Yosemite on my 2011 MacBook Air (11"). I recognize most of the problems described in this thread, e.g., lag when entering mission control, lag when apps show save/open dialogs, lag in the system info, lag when scrolling in folders in the dock. Additionally, I have seen annoying lag when just moving over my (auto-zoom) dock icons, and unacceptable choppiness when swiping between desktops and full screen apps.

However, swiping between desktops on an external screen while keeping an eye on activity monitor on the other screen learned me this: It is all because of WindowSever. WindowServer peaks to 90% CPU usage when doing anything graphically "complicated" like swiping between desktops. And it virtually never went below 40%. For sure, it never left the top 3 of most CPU-heavy processes.

The problem seemed to gradually build up: after some hours/days of usage things got worse and worse. (Total Windows 98 ME style I would say when feeling naughty.)

But now I have turned off translucency effects, everything runs smoothly again. I am almost surprised but happy to see that WindowServer is sitting somewhere around 1-2% CPU all the time.

So, I think I have solved it, but I also think that this is unacceptable for Apple.
 
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