Laggy iTunes animation on 16 MBP

[jobush]

Hey all, I got my MacBook Pro (2016, 15 inch) few days back.

I've been good with it thus far, but when I use iTunes, the choppy animations annoy me / slow me down.

To be specific, the swiping up/down animation when you select an Album or a movie in the grid view, the animation is super laggy and slows stuff down during its duration. Is anyone else experiencing a similar situation with the recent build of iTunes?

Current iTunes version on my computer is 12.5.4.42, and I am on MacOS 10.12.2

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

It's a new OS, new GPU, new driver. It takes time to optimise drivers for Quartz. Until then disable transparency to speed up performance.

Accessibility>Display>Reduce transparency

 

[MTShipp]

It's a new OS, new GPU, new driver. It takes time to optimise drivers for Quartz. Until then disable transparency to speed up performance.

Accessibility>Display>Reduce transparency

Did not fix it for me. iTunes still laggy as hell. But thanks for the suggestion!

 

[stooovie]

Disabling transparency makes no difference. Why Apple uses these expensive animations when even the absolutely top of the line machines can't play it smoothly is beyond me.

 

[yellowscreen]

Every single mac lags in itunes. Why they cant solve it is beyond me. Finder scrolling also

 

[Eithanius]

Disabling transparency makes no difference. Why Apple uses these expensive animations when even the absolutely top of the line machines can't play it smoothly is beyond me.

I thought these animations came from the flat iOS 7 which in turn copied from Android...?

I would say what is on Jony Idiot's brain is beyond us.

 

[stooovie]

I thought these animations came from the flat iOS 7 which in turn copied from Android...?

I would say what is on Jony Idiot's brain is beyond us.

Yeah but even iOS 7 on iPhone 4 didn't stutter like this. It's ridiculous on a $3-4k machine. And there's NO Mac that doesn't stutter like this.

 

[Naaaaak]

iTunes is a special kind of stupid. It's a legacy app that supports everything and the kitchen sink, built to be cross-platform first and a Mac app last.

Scrolling in the stores lags on my top-end iMac, scrolling in playlists was jerky line-by-line garbage (like Carbon-style list scrolling) for the longest time (still might be, I don't use iTunes to play music any more), and the interface is full of peculiarities that don't make sense.

There's no optimization or setting that will fix iTunes other than a complete rewrite with a focus on making it Mac-first.

 

[PowerBook-G5]

Yeah but even iOS 7 on iPhone 4 didn't stutter like this. It's ridiculous on a $3-4k machine. And there's NO Mac that doesn't stutter like this.

My 2012 13" (2.5 i5, 16/512 SSD) doesn't lag in iTunes, while my brand new 2015 15" (2.2 i7, 16/512) lags like hell in iTunes.

Same thing with opening Mission Control.

 

[garethjs]

my 4.0ghz iMac 5k 1tb SSD iTunes album view lags so bad I can't even scroll from top to bottom without it stopping a few times.

Same library on my MacBook 13" entry level touchbar and the iTunes library flys like everything is so smooth.

I can't understand that.

 

[stooovie]

Retina resolutions combined with expensive effects like blurs and ineffective coding wreaking havoc on those mid-sized or low-range GPUs.

 

[mjfutures]

my 4.0ghz iMac 5k 1tb SSD iTunes album view lags so bad I can't even scroll from top to bottom without it stopping a few times.

Same library on my MacBook 13" entry level touchbar and the iTunes library flys like everything is so smooth.

I can't understand that.

The 10.12.2 update KILLS ITUNES!!

I have 2 Macbook Pro's one a 2016 touch bar .. on a fresh install iTunes is FAST ..... blazing fast... as soon as you do the waiting 10.12.2 update it KILLS itunes performance!! I also did same test on a 2014 Macbook Pro Retina.. new install of Sierra iTunes is blazing fast ... once you install 10.12.2 it dies!!

What in the world is going on? I've never had an issue with Macs in 6 yrs but something so silly like this has me ready to try out a Surface Book Pro 4 2016 model and return this 4k Macbook Pro.

 

[DanielDD]

It appears that lag in album view has something to do with the downscaling of the retina display. I have the same problem in all resolutions available in System Preferences. However, when using a 3rd party tool to get 2560 x 1600 resolution, the animation lag disappears. It is not 60 FPS smooth, but a good 30ish FPS.

 

[FranktheTank_98]

It appears that lag in album view has something to do with the downscaling of the retina display. I have the same problem in all resolutions available in System Preferences. However, when using a 3rd party tool to get 2560 x 1600 resolution, the animation lag disappears. It is not 60 FPS smooth, but a good 30ish FPS.

Is there any fix for this laggy album view issue yet? My 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar lags like hell when it comes to the animation. I have no mood to use my itunes now because of this distraught imperfection.

 

[mjfutures]

Is there any fix for this laggy album view issue yet? My 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar lags like hell when it comes to the animation. I have no mood to use my itunes now because of this distraught imperfection.

I did an internet recovery reinstall and it fixed my iTunes issue. I did reinstall before but using a Sierra USB key... for some reason the internet recovery solved my issues.

 

[DanielDD]

I did an internet recovery reinstall and it fixed my iTunes issue. I did reinstall before but using a Sierra USB key... for some reason the internet recovery solved my issues.

Reinstalling everything just to get an animation playing right? Might as well wait for 11.13. Here's hoping they kill off iTunes for a dedicated music app

 

[stooovie]

I'm hesitant to believe that it's smooth after clean install. It's definitely not after clean install on top of the line 2015 5k iMac. In fact, it's much smoother on 2012 MBA and 2008 (!) MP.

 

[1050792]

Change the color profile to sRGB. I have been using it for two weeks and it fixes all the UI lags.

 

[DanielDD]

Change the color profile to sRGB. I have been using it for two weeks and it fixes all the UI lags.

Not 60FPS smooth, but a lot better to the point it's usable. Thank you!

 

[cswifx]

Here's one tip that made my Pro apps and iTunes a lot smoother:

Select iTunes.app > Get Info > Check 'Open in low resolution'.

It's a compromise, but it works.

 

[stooovie]

Here's one tip that made my Pro apps and iTunes a lot smoother:

Select iTunes.app > Get Info > Check 'Open in low resolution'.

It's a compromise, but it works.

Huh, I tried it and it was actually even worse :-o that's really weird but who knows how the actual drawing and compositing works in macos.

 

[DanielDD]

Huh, I tried it and it was actually even worse :-o that's really weird but who knows how the actual drawing and compositing works in macos.

Try using the workaround in apppen1's comment, above. It fixed it for me and you get no weird resolutions.

 

[Ritsuka]

And your monitor will get back to be a crappy sRGB monitor and display less colors…

 

[DanielDD]

And your monitor will get back to be a crappy sRGB monitor and display less colors…

The difference is so minor that most people won't even notice. Personally, I only notice the difference when actively looking for it while switching between the profiles.
sRGB seems to make colors slightly warmer (to a very very small extent).

 

[mjfutures]

Here's one tip that made my Pro apps and iTunes a lot smoother:

Select iTunes.app > Get Info > Check 'Open in low resolution'.

It's a compromise, but it works.

$3500 mac to run itunes on low resolution mode