I have a question about how well Intel-based Macs handle macOS 26 Tahoe. I already know that this version is more optimized for Apple Silicon and is the last version for Intel Macs, but I’m curious if older Intel Macs can still run it smoothly. Does Tahoe perform decently on those machines such as the MacBook Pro 13-inch, 2020 4ports or the MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019, or does it feel heavier compared to macOS Sonoma and Ventura? I’m especially wondering if animations, app launches, and general responsiveness are noticeably slower. Does Intel UHD Graphics 630 or Intel Iris Plus Graphics G7 struggle with Liquid Glass?
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macOS Tahoe performance on Intel?
- Thread starter Red29359
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It definitely feels sluggish/heavier in regards to animations on my 2019 16" 64GB RAM 5500M 8GB VRAM. I can see why they chose not to include my 2019 15" with Vega 20 4GB VRAM as a compatible version. Pretty sure the Vega and Intel UHD Graphics will perform worse. Things like Mission Control (with more than two apps open), even the Restart/Reboot message animation exhibits a bit of a stutter rather than a nice "bounce" open. It is not as fluid as Sequoia on my 15". I also run in clamshell mode as well most of the time, with a 4K monitor at 120Hz and everything is silky smooth with Sequoia, the Notifications swoop in and out very smoothly, and to be fair, that looks good on both Sequoia and Tahoe at 120Hz. Besides some of the animations not being the smoothest on Tahoe, apps, menus and various visual elements sometimes exhibit a stutter and apps tend to open a tad slower. Even the screen redraw coming out of screen saver isn't as smooth on Tahoe. And the genie effect minimizing apps to Dock is not as smooth and vice versa restoring an app from the Dock back to window/full screen. Now I have noticed at times that sometimes Tahoe does become smooth/responsive with some of these things. I wonder if some of the GUI elements are cached or something and they render more smoothly after I've already opened an app, menu, a few times. But in general, things "feel" a bit slower than Sequoia. It is especially noticeable on the built-in 16" inch display running at 60Hz. I'll try to capture some video of things like opening Text Edit or Mail, scrolling the Apps in Finder, pulling down some menus, selecting Shutdown/Restart so you can see how the dialog box sort of stutters open rather than a smooth open and bounce.
I don't turn off animations, etc, with Tahoe, although turning off transparency and reducing motion settings turns the menu and dock gray, looking like the Catalina and earlier days, so has a bit of a nostalgic look. But it didn't appear to do anything to improve the overall "feel" for me anyway.
Having said that, it is still very much useable. I'm in the camp that dislikes the changes to Music and especially Contacts. Other than that, I'm fine with most updates Tahoe brings. But if you have OCD the occasional glitches will likely make you downgrade to Sequoia or consider just getting an Apple Silicon system that can handle the workload (although I have seen some AS folks say they see stuttering/glitches with their systems as well). My plan all along was to ride out the final OS on my 16" and I'm hopeful over the next six months that Tahoe will improve (or I just get used to it). But Apple has no incentive to optimize for Intel. I feel like we're getting the "good riddance" effort rather than the "thank you for being part of the Apple family, it was a great run" farewell effort. And that's fine with me. Even if I get fed up with Tahoe, I get two more years of support/fixes out of the two 2019 systems I have by keeping them on Sequoia, and I'll just jump to the M7 or whatever is out in 2027.
I don't turn off animations, etc, with Tahoe, although turning off transparency and reducing motion settings turns the menu and dock gray, looking like the Catalina and earlier days, so has a bit of a nostalgic look. But it didn't appear to do anything to improve the overall "feel" for me anyway.
Having said that, it is still very much useable. I'm in the camp that dislikes the changes to Music and especially Contacts. Other than that, I'm fine with most updates Tahoe brings. But if you have OCD the occasional glitches will likely make you downgrade to Sequoia or consider just getting an Apple Silicon system that can handle the workload (although I have seen some AS folks say they see stuttering/glitches with their systems as well). My plan all along was to ride out the final OS on my 16" and I'm hopeful over the next six months that Tahoe will improve (or I just get used to it). But Apple has no incentive to optimize for Intel. I feel like we're getting the "good riddance" effort rather than the "thank you for being part of the Apple family, it was a great run" farewell effort. And that's fine with me. Even if I get fed up with Tahoe, I get two more years of support/fixes out of the two 2019 systems I have by keeping them on Sequoia, and I'll just jump to the M7 or whatever is out in 2027.
My take on older hardware is run the oldest version of macos that has the minimum features you must have. Every newer version seemingly runs slower on old hardware, doesn't matter if we're talking macs or pcs.